EISPIRATEN

Is "finders keepers" a valid legal principle?

What? Seriously? Is that real? On ach?

Regarding the trout: are they still there? Old newspapers have countless articles about people going to the upper areas of the East Fork and "catching the limit" within a few minutes. This thread says that humans fucked this up.

Was out at Mt-Lowe-ish today. The sun mid-day makes the barges near the port stand out:
And the following day you could clearly see Santa Barbara island and San Nicolas island, behind and to the right 105 miles away!

Thanks for the link! One of the photo's captions says "1997". Have you really been running that group for that long? I had no idea.

HikeUp wrote: Tue Jan 06, 2026 10:28 pm

dima wrote: Tue Jan 06, 2026 10:03 pm The new map shows Mt Lowe rd as the border. What does that mean about Mt Lowe Rd?

I would interpret it as the road is open. Same as mt. Wilson trail is open.

Is that what you're asking?

That's what I was asking. Thanks.

The new map shows Mt Lowe rd as the border. What does that mean about Mt Lowe Rd?

I'm looking on ANF alerts page. The original closure order expired. Are we good now? Anybody hear anything?

Found the lead-up to the hunters' paradise article above. It has a great old map!

Speaking of rock quarries and dam face rubble removal, there is an abandoned dam site closer to the east/west fork. The site is visible on the far side of the canyon from the highway. Supposedly some county supervisors went to jail over corruption involving contracts to build the dam at the site ...

Here're some interesting articles I've found that don't belong in any obvious existing thread.

Apparently they had some unexpected problem sourcing rock for the San Gabriel dam. There was a lot of talk to getting rock from Bichota Canyon or Devil's Canyon (I'm not sure which one) instead of ...

Found a few more relevant articles. This one (Morning tribune 1912/03/23 page 8) says that the power plant thing was approved in 1910 and financing was secured in 1912:

Morning_Tribune_1912_03_23_8.jpg

In 1937/08/22 on page 72 the LA Times recommends driving your car up and over GMR, then up to ...

When the road exits the first tunnel, it immediately takes a left to follow the drainage until the crossing at the hairpin: https://caltopo.com/map.html#ll=34.25581,-117.76654&z=18&b=f16a. The map shows an imagined road that goes straight out of the tunnel and another imagined road bypassing the ...

This was cool. My photos are here . The lesser tunnel is at the end of an old road, half-way down on the canyon wall. So it was never a water tunnel: the water isn't in the middle of the wall. It isn't big-enough to drive through either. At the other side is a tiny spot in the middle of a really ...

I continued past where I left off the last time . The trail above the second tunnel had washouts I didn't like, so I teleported past them to walk the next chunk of trail. I walked through both of the Shoemaker tunnels to the route up the back ridge to Rattlesnake Peak. After a bit of climbing, the ...

The 5th shot is out-of-focus, I think? The rest look sorta like what I get. You probably want more sensitivity and/or a longer exposure, but then the stars move more. These experiments require patience. Send results if you go again!

Cool stuff. What did you conclude about camera settings? Open aperture, high iso, long, but not looooooong exposure? I play with it sometimes, but don't have the patience to spend the time to do it right.

Is the canyon far deeper than it was?

Should we do another logo? Send some snow photos next time one of yall goes up there

That first map is confusing. I THINK it's just drawn very sloppily. What's going on with the bottom of Rubio Canyon? Where's the incline railway and the PE rail connecting to it supposed to be?

The Grand Canyon of socal is here as well: viewtopic.php?p=63159. Seems legit.

David R wrote: Sat Nov 15, 2025 7:01 pm There is a shortcut up the ridge that allows for easy passage versus following the road from the 39

Yep. The one time I did this I tried to take the road, but eventually gave up and jumped onto the ridge. Never went past the ridge. Taco: do you still never have free weekends?

I did the same years ago: 39 to silver peak ridge. It sucked. Let's do it. Blaise: you should join us!

Ooh, that's cool. I've thought about checking this out many times, but never did it. You went a bit past the Fish Canyon crossing, and it stayed passable?

do you remember any parts where you could slip and die?


There wasn't anything hairy required, but if you get off route or if conditions change, then you could certainly encouter exciting terrain. The first time I was over there (circa 2012) we came from Heaton Saddle, and were trying to find ...

Cool trip. That photo doesn't look all that surprising given that it's an abandoned, burned area. It's possible that you were slightly off where the old trail was. Or maybe that's what the best route looks like now. In any case, you'll feel all the more accomplished when you finally get there!

Hello. Once you're at the top of the switchbacks, you're level with the mine, as you say. From there it was a short, easy, level trail. But the fire might have changed it a lot, and I haven't been seen what it looks like now. You were really close. Did it feel too risky to continue?

Here's an aerial photo of the area from 1938 from the UCSB historial aerials archive

axj-1938_66-20.jpg

Shoemaker rd isn't there, obviously. The PL&P trail alread looks shit where I just went. And below Devil's Gulch, where the LIDAR maps can't see it today either. There's a trail from roughly ...

Did more of the PL&P trail today. Biked up the Shoemaker Canyon rd to just before the second tunnel to continue where I left off the last time .

I stashed the bike in the drainage tunnel of Shoemaker Canyon and climbed the slope straight up to pick up the PL&P trail. The view looking back towards ...

Welcome! This is a good town for trail running and bike packing and whatnot. Mikeywally: I like your running loops.