Looking for backpackers in or near Los Angeles county

…

"There are many of us in the area, though we are nice people, we might come across as loner anti-social jerks, because we like solitude, and as mentioned in previous threads we don't trust sharing our semi-secret destination spots with others."

Yeah, cuz there's already too many folks who know about them!

More seriously, there are a number of books that detail most of the local trails, etc. That would be a good place to start getting a feel for the area. Be aware that forest/brush fires occur frequently, ruin large areas quickly, and take years to get edited into the trail guides – not to mention decades to recover!

Curious: Why are you looking for someone to hike with? Are you a noobie to hiking/backpacking? Or just a couple of gregarious souls looking for someone to guide you through the wilderness? Also, what part of Los Angeles area do you folks live? That could make it easy of difficult to connect….

Shoot me an email mangus7175 at gmail

I know of a group of regulars that backpack at least twice a month locally.

Stephen – we're relatively new to backpacking, but we do have some experience. This past weekend we hiked from Crystal Lake to Little Jimmy campground and stayed overnight to try camping in snow. It was cold but it wasn't too bad.

I mostly wanna connect with other backpackers in the area as we would like to backpack more often and learn from more experienced people. Plus learning about new spots would be nice. I am looking to get some guide books though, saw a few but havent gotten around to buying any yet.

We live in the San Gabriel Valley.

Great thread! I'm looking for a group to do some light & fast weekend trips with as well. It seems most of my buddies either only have a couple trips in them per year, or they are only willing to day hike. There are Meetup groups out there, but it seems to be all geared toward 2-3 mile trips with 10 people and their 60 lb packs, haha.

I just joined the forums after a week of buying sweet gear from the swap page. I have been wanting to get into backpacking for awhile but have never been able to afford it. Now I live in LA and do a lot of day hiking and some camping, but I'm ready to try backpacking. I plan on spending the next few weeks testing out my new gear. I'm down for some beginner hikes/trips and don't mind the company of a small group. :) I'm not generally a very fast hiker–I like to stop and stare, take photos, wander off trail, etc, but I'd definitely like to get faster. I'd love to eventually have regular adventures with cool, like-minded folks! I really like the Little Jimmy campground, that's the first place I want to go with my new stuff. As far as guides, I have an older and a new version of Tom Stienstra's California Camping, he's my favorite. I feel like his ratings are very accurate.

Everybody has a different definition of what constitutes a good backpacking trip. Some people want to cover 25 miles per day of open trail, and the actual overnight stopping to camp and sleep is incidental. Others want to cover 10 miles per day and still have the time to cook good food in camp. Still others want to stop and take photos every mile or two. My point is that everybody is different, and you probably want to make sure that your backpacking intentions are aligned with others going.

–B.G.–

Okay, if y'all wanting to meet other lightweight hikers in Southern California haven't connected with the SoCal GGG, you should do so now. Here's the link:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=86779

And here's the link to the sign-up page:

http://tinyurl.com/GGGSOCAL

It's an easy 2 1/2 mile walk-in, two nights, good folk (and a few weirdos, like me!), and you're sure to meet others who are likewise interested in hiking here in sun-scorched southern California.

Listen to Stephen and come to the GGGSOCAL event. You'll meet a number of people there who do frequent backpacking trips locally. You'll connect. As for David's comment about meetup groups doing 2-3 mile trips with 60lb. packs, true but we're working on converting them to the dark side of UL. Actually I do 2-3 mile trips with a local meetup group in the "off season" when I'm not out doing long treks. I like a quick in and out trip, 15 minute drive to a trail head, spend the night with some fellow backpackers and be back home before noon the next day.