Angeles Crest Highway

Assuming the intelligence that has reached our ears is true, Caltrans will at last reopen Angeles Crest Highway between our city and Angeles Forest Highway this week, but not before the agency finishes holding a dignitary-filled press conference set for 10 a.m. Friday. That’s all as it should be. Those workers who have been chipping away at the extensive project since the heavy rains of January 2010 are probably proud the work has finally seen completion. They deserve some thanks for their efforts, and what better way to do that than to stage an official ribbon cutting?

The body found on Angeles Crest Highway Thursday morning has been identified as 35-year-old Noe Vasquez, a Los Angeles County coroner's official said today. Coroners officials have not yet completed an autopsy on Vasquez to determine his cause of death, although authorities on Thursday said he may have died of a gunshot wound. Larry Dietz, a spokesman for the cororner's office, said officials have not yet determined Vasquez' city of residence. Vasquez' body was discovered near the Mile 27 marker on Angeles Crest Highway above La Cañada Flintridge early Thursday morning, prompting authorities to close the road in both directions.

While a portion of Angeles Crest Highway is expected to reopen today, loose rocks and other hillside debris could keep traffic off the stretch of roadway between La Cañada Flintridge and Angeles Forest Highway for as long as a month, Caltrans officials announced Monday. Caltrans plans to reopen the portion of Angeles Crest Highway that runs above Angeles Forest Highway to the Islip Saddle intersection with State Route 39, an area about 40 miles from the 210 Freeway in La Cañada Flintridge.

Angeles Crest Highway was the site of a fatal motorcycle accident Saturday afternoon involving two members of the Montrose Search and Rescue Team. According to Officer Todd Workman of the California Highway Patrol, Lucas Binford, 35, from Chatsworth was traveling westbound on the Angeles Crest Highway when his motorcycle crossed the center yellow line and crashed into a Montrose Search and Rescue vehicle traveling eastbound. The team?s vehicle, occupied by a driver and a single passenger, both members of the rescue organization, were entering a curve when the accident happened, according to Montrose Search and Rescue Capt.

A man found dead in a vehicle parked at a turnout on Angeles Crest Highway this week was a 43-year-old from Pasadena, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Dept. of Coroner said Tuesday. There has not yet been an official ruling as to the cause of death, according to coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey. The man was found at 2:57 p.m. Monday seated in a vehicle parked in a turnout at mile marker 27.2 on the highway. Capt. John Kades of the coroner's office said Monday that it appeared the man had suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Los Angeles County Fire, Crescenta Valley Sheriff's Station and California Highway Patrol responded to an accident involving two semi trucks at 9 a.m. on Monday at mile marker 27 on Angeles Crest Highway, between the La Cañada Flintridge Country Club and Clear Creek Ranger Station. A metal grate on the southbound side of the highway was bent and damaged by one of the trucks. Metal debris could still be seen on the side of the road after the highway was cleared. "There appeared to be no injuries," said a CHP spokesperson.

Malia Mailes, the local girl scout who made headlines last spring for her work highlighting the dangers of commercial truck traffic on Angeles Crest Highway, has been named a 2009 National Young Woman of Distinction by Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. Malia is one of ten scouts across the country to receive the award and will be honored at the girl scouts? national meeting in St. Louis in February. Now a junior at La Cañada High School, Malia has been involved in scouting since kindergarten.

The body found on Angeles Crest Highway Thursday morning has been identified as 35-year-old Noe Vasquez, a Los Angeles County coroner's official said today. Coroners officials have not yet completed an autopsy on Vasquez to determine his cause of death, although authorities on Thursday said he may have died of a gunshot wound. Larry Dietz, a spokesman for the cororner's office, said officials have not yet determined Vasquez' city of residence. Vasquez' body was discovered near the Mile 27 marker on Angeles Crest Highway above La Cañada Flintridge early Thursday morning, prompting authorities to close the road in both directions.

This post has been updated. See below. A man found dead early Thursday morning along Angeles Crest Highway just above La Cañada Flintridge suffered a possible gunshot wound, said Los Angeles County Coroner spokesman Craig Harvey. California Highway Patrol officers have closed the Crest to traffic as Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept. detectives investigate the scene. The body was discovered near the first turnout above the Angeles National Forest snow gate, about 2.7 miles north of the Foothill (210)

Two motorcyclists suffered serious injuries after driving off the side of Angeles Crest Highway on Sunday. At 10:52 a.m. volunteers with Montrose Search and Rescue helped a motorcyclist who had driven over the side of the road at Angeles Crest near Upper Big Tujunga Road, at mile marker 42. At 12:32 p.m. crews rescued another motorcyclist who went over the side of the road in the same area, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department....

A man found dead in a vehicle parked at a turnout on Angeles Crest Highway this week was a 43-year-old from Pasadena, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Dept. of Coroner said Tuesday. There has not yet been an official ruling as to the cause of death, according to coroner's spokesman Craig Harvey. The man was found at 2:57 p.m. Monday seated in a vehicle parked in a turnout at mile marker 27.2 on the highway. Capt. John Kades of the coroner's office said Monday that it appeared the man had suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.

Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department investigators are responded to an apparent suicide Monday on Angeles Crest Highway above La Cañada Flintridge. An unidentified man was found seated in a vehicle with what appears to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, said Capt. John Kades of the Los Angeles County Department of Coroner. The body was found near mile marker 26, above the Angeles National Forest snow gate. Kades characterized his information as a “preliminary report” from the sheriff's office.

After two years of sore eyes and empty tanks, the 76 gas station on the corner of Angeles Crest Highway and Foothill Boulevard is on the path to reopening at the start of next year. The station sat unused after the previous owner's lease from Conoco-Phillips expired in 2009, and was finally acquired in June 2010 in a group purchase of Conoco-Phillips stations by Platinum Energy, based out of Agoura Hills. Platinum Energy, 76's largest fuel distributor on the West Coast, owns and directly operates several stations in Southern California, a model that will be implemented in La Cañada as well, said Brian Whalen, general manager of Platinum Energy.

Ten Years Ago Reflective, permanent stencils were placed on storm drain catch basins along Foothill Boulevard in September 2001 to advise people not to allow trash to wash down the drains. It was a public education outreach in an effort to reduce pollution in the Pacific Ocean.   Twenty Years Ago The City Council voted to purchase for $1 million the building at 1327 Foothill Boulevard that housed City Hall offices. The city had been renting the building for some years and, due to annual rent increases, had budgeted $88,800 for rent in fiscal year 1991-92.

Despite another fatal crash on Angeles Crest Highway over the weekend - the fourth since the lower part of the highway reopened in June of this year - the California Highway Patrol says that it's drivers who are dangerous, not the road. On Saturday, Bellflower resident Edgar Martinez, 18, was driving on the highway at 45 to 50 miles per hour when he entered a curve but failed to turn, hitting a mountainside and flipping his car, according to Officer Ming Hsu of the CHP. Martinez died in the crash, Hsu said.

Leading family and friends up a two-mile trail into Angeles National Forest on Saturday, Sheree Reed had only one goal in mind: to see Switzer Falls. Of the 28 waterfall hikes in the Los Angeles area, Reed said Switzer Falls is the most family-friendly and, unlike the seasonal waterfalls in Malibu, Switzer flows all year. “I knew [the forest] had been burned, but this area hasn't really been affected that much,” Reed said. “This one is intact.” With just a 10-mile drive from La Cañada up the recently reopened Angeles Crest Highway and a right turn at Angeles Forest Highway, picnickers and hikers can find the newly paved Switzer Falls Picnic Area parking lot off to the right.