TRAIL BLAZER; ROBINSON CHRONICLES LOCAL PATHS AND STORIES BEHIND THEM.

Byline: Rich Martin Special to the Daily News

Hikers look forward to the new and unanticipated beyond the next bend. For John W. Robinson, that has included a writing trail that started with youthful jaunts and matured with a role as unofficial interpreter of Southern California's mountains.

Robinson, 70, of Fullerton has written 12 books, a few of them local classics, including ``Trails of the Angeles,'' now in its 18th printing with 80,000 sold, and a history of its rugged high country called ``San Gabriels.'' Other histories revolve around the San Jacinto and San Bernardino mountains.

``There are a lot of people who don't know about these mountains,'' Robinson said, describing the San Gabriels, in particular, as overused yet underappreciated. ``Many people don't know the treasure they have.''

To those who do, it is Wilderness Press' ``Trails of the Angeles: 100 Hikes in the San Gabriels'' that peak-baggers consider their bible; they all but hold its author up on a pedestal.

It all began ordinarily enough for the man who would be king of the mountains.

As a youth, he hiked in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, went on YMCA treks and attended summer camp. His first local trip was to the top of San Gabriel Peak; adult guides ``told kids there were watermelons on top,'' he said. Yeah, right, like there are strawberries atop Strawberry Peak.

He graduated from USC in 1951 with a major in social studies and a minor in history, long before the other John Robinson had any association with the university. Following a two-year stint in the Army he began what would become a 33-year teaching career. He started a routine that lasted until his retirement in 1988: teaching during the week, hiking once a weekend.

A few of the sojourns spurred Robinson's early interest in history. Walking among the Mount Lowe ruins - a railway to its zenith past broken-down resorts - and near-abandoned mines piqued his curiosity. Soon he was devoting one day a weekend to research and the other to hiking.

Robinson first intended to write a book only about Mount Lowe, but his interest expanded. The result - his third book after a couple of what he termed minor efforts - was ``Trails of the Angeles,'' a mix of generous portions of the past and detailed trail descriptions. The winning combination is endearing to wafflestompers.

Hikers scrambling through boulders on the 6-mile Mount Hillyer Trail near Chilao learn it was a hideout of late 19th century bandit Tiburcio Vasquez (who also took to holing up in an area farther to the west that would later be known as Vasquez Rocks). The 230-page ``Trails of the Angeles'' also reveals to those on a couple of trails from Vincent Gap that Charles Tom Vincent was a fugitive who discovered a gold lode in 1894.

Although Robinson is most associated with the San Gabriels, he has hiked many of the prime backcountry in North America. Regionally, the San Jacintos west of Palm Springs are his favorite mountains. He backpacks in the Sierra every summer and has visited Alaska a half-dozen times. Among the high points of his hiking experience was seeing five grizzly bears in Montana.

Visiting Alaska, he said, allows ``a feeling of true primeval wilderness. It's a feeling you don't get in the Lower 48, like you've gone back 1,000 years in time.''

Robinson's latest book project, tentatively titled ``Gateways to Southern California,'' is a history of the travel routes into the state's lower end - horse trails, wagon roads and early highways. Like many of his projects, it started as something else - a history of mountain passes - and has kept evolving.

And like all his books, this one involves extended periods in the library. He has spent hundreds of hours reading Southern California papers printed from 1851 to 1890. But he enjoys research and meeting people, especially old-timers with choice stories and anecdotes.

Robinson's travels have taken him to trails both well-trod and not taken, but their point of departure is familiar: a love of the outdoors and a natural curiosity about the past.

``I just feel good being in the mountains,'' he said. ``Even though you're exhausted, you're spiritually refreshed. I need this experience to keep me a whole person.''

That zeal is duplicated in the completeness of his writing. For example, ``Trails of the Angeles'' functions as a trailhead for ``San Gabriels,'' which, with his titles chronicling the San Bernardinos and San Jacintos, is part of his trilogy of ``urban mountain ranges.''

``San Gabriels'' shows that the need for watershed protection was a major impetus to the development of Angeles National Forest as a protected area. Robinson follows each slow step in the building of Angeles Crest Highway from 1929 to 1957, starting with pressure from the automobile and gas lobbies and a series of disastrous blazes in the 1920s that kept burning because they could not be reached by firefighters.

He considers the trilogy most important among his books because of the importance of explaining the wilderness experience and the need for preservation.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

PHOTO (1 -- color) John W. Robinson surveys the scenery on one of the many hiking trails he's chronicled in a dozen books since discovering Southern California mountains. A graduate of USC in 1951, Robinson has hiked one day a week for more than 30 years.

(2 -- color) John Robinson

(3 -- color) no caption (cover of Trails of the Angeles)

John McCoy/Staff Photographer