Colby & Colby-Dalton Trail

Was a bit scared to try this a while back on a dark moonless night after I read the sign that said beware of mountain lions :-/​Came this time just before sunset and felt fine lol. Short trail with lots of charred trees. Sad to see :-(Time to the top about 10−15min. Horse spotted along the way :-)
Parking, residential cul da sac.

This trail is more suited for the newbie, beginner hikers and locals who live near by and want a quick workout. The trail is short and not very strenuous. I ran from the beginning to the top of the trail and was extremely disappointed by the distance and lack of challenge it presented. The trail does split off to a few smaller ones, which can extended your hike, but not worth the drive to get here, you are better off hitting Garcia Trail for a challenge or Claremont Wilderness Trail. The trail does offer great scenery long the path of the trees, surrounding hills and mountains as you make your way to the top. But for immediate or advanced hikers and trail runners, I would pass.

A quick trail with a few switchbacks and a steady incline… Good for a morning quickie or beginners :)

Short for a hike, but perfect for a trail run. Especially the few little steep parts. They are short, but long enough to make your thighs and calves scream as you are running.
Nice, because it doesn’t usually get too crowded; mostly us locals running it.

Fun/​Cost: (2.5÷5) The Colby Trail is short ~1.5 mile (roundtrip) hike that ends abruptly at Glendora Mountain Road. There were a couple good views of the valley below, but for the most part the trail wasn’t too interesting. For a longer hike, we opted to finish via the Colby-​Dalton trail that splits from the Colby trail after 0.66 miles, just 260 feet short of the end at Glendora Mountain Road. The Colby-​Dalton trail leads you down a winding shaded path down to the Little Dalton Wash, where you can then take the path west to finish back at the starting point. This’ll bump up your roundtrip distance to ~2.5 miles. During my pre-​hike research of this trail, I found that many described the trail as moderate or strenuous — I’d classify it more on the moderate side. Though there are a few short areas with a steep incline, these distances were extremely short and didn’t really work up a sweat. We were done in 1.5 hours and that was at a pretty leisurely pace. Good thing there’s no need for an Adventure Pass or any other sort of pass for this hike; it wouldn’t have been worth the trouble.
Location: (⁴⁄₅) Getting and finding the trail is quite simple. It’s very close to the 210 Fwy and you don’t need to navigate any winding mountain roads. Once you arrive at the Sierra Madre and Loraine intersection, continue north on Loraine until you see the adorable trailhead labeled with a wood beam that says «Colby.» You can park for free on the neighboring residential streets; I’d try to keep it quiet as this is generally a very peaceful area.
Ambiance: (2.5÷5) I last came yesterday, a Tuesday, around 9:45am and the trail was deserted other than 1 other hiker and 1 biker. The residential streets where we parked were also empty. I haven’t been here on weekends, but I’ve heard that it’s not super crowded. It’s a bit more popular during the the brief blooming period of the thread-​leaved brodiaea in May and June, but other than that the crowd usually consists of local hikers.
Overall: (2.5÷5) Unless you live a very close by or if you want to see the endangered thread-​leaved brodiaea in May and June, I don’t see any real reason to choose this trail. If you do come, just bring a bottle of water and maybe sunscreen. Serious hiking gear is definitely not needed; I wore my low top Merrells and my friend wore regular tennis shoes and we did fine.