EISPIRATEN

Indeed. Great scenery and not crowded. Great fam hike too.

I wonder how big the post-fire closure zone is going to be. I imagine it might be quite big considering how much wilderness land is within the perimeter.

This is heart breaking. I have so many great memories in this area. If it was a naturally caused fire I wouldn't feel so bad. But at this rate we're going to burn our whole damn range down within 5 years. I wouldn't be surprised if some knucklehead started this one down by the river. They already ca...

Sean wrote: ↑Tue Jun 25, 2024 11:37 am I don't know about the water level, but are you entering via the West Fork? The San Gabriel Trailbuilders crew did some work starting from the Smith TH, but I don't think they reached the creek yet.

Yes, I'd be entering from West fork

Has anyone been to Bear Creek in the San Gabriel Wilderness recently? I'm thinking of going there soon but not sure what the creek level is like.

To be clear, I wasn't calling this young lady "stupid". I used the example of a young person in tennis shoes traveling in 2 feet of snow to point out that there are people ( and their parents) who do stupid things and DON'T learn. I'm sure I'm still not expressing my ideas clearly. Sorry....

Plenty of the hikers that get lost or need to be rescued are experienced hikers. No one is talking about the three experienced hikers that had to be rescued off the Bear Canyon Trail who went hiking in this same storm. Quite often the opposite is the issue, experienced hikers who think they can dea...

This was a 22 year old girl, possibly not experienced with hiking. Although it obviously a poor decision, I'm not prepared to throw up my hands and call her stupid. Parents are supposed to teach their kids outdoors common sense, but if the parents aren't outdoors people like we are, then it should p...

It's always heartbreaking to hear news like this. I wonder if she was hiking up Baldy Bowl and slipped down the canyon. The problem with SoCal is that many people underestimate the dangers of winter hiking. I'm from the NW and people there are just more cautious and prepared, probably because it sno...

AW~ wrote: ↑To be fair..its to be done is 4-4.5 hours up. You'll have to do it again

I'll definitely do it again -- and definitely on a cooler day!

dima wrote: ↑Did you see any people after leaving the river? This peak became oddly popular during the pandemic. Did it calm back down by now?

Very few. We only saw 7 other people during the 12 hour trip.

Question to the Gabes experts around here. (of which I know there are a few) Is Iron Mt worthy of its reputation as the most difficult peak to summit in the Gabes that has an actual trail of some kind up it? Anyone think there is a more challenging summit? Of course anyone could MAKE a peak a bigge...

I'm turning 40 this month so I decided to bag Iron Mountain as part of the celebration (my first time doing it). I knew I had to train, so I hiked the Old Baldy Trail the week before. The strategy served me well because I was more tired after Baldy than Iron. My buddy and I got to the East Fork park...

Update: I woke up this morn nearly a week after Allison Gulch and my ankle was still killing me. The pain was intense and I could barely walk on it without painkillers. I went back to urgent care and the doc said I most likely had something stuck in my ankle. She started digging, and after about 10 ...

Allison Gulch is a tough walk. The last time I did a hike to those falls a rock fell off the top just as I stepped back, it landed where I was standing. It was my last solo hike. I thought about that happening. The section where the falls are is one of the most narrow sections of a gulch I've ever ...

I saw a few of the fat claw ones the other night near Windy Gap. I'm used to the skinny ones, I dunno if they're the same and maybe the chicks have big grabbers and the dudes are skinny and go fast or some shit I'm not a scientist for fuck's sake stop asking me. Sexual dimorphism, yet another inequ...

We def have scorpions! Thanks for the report. I've never been to the falls, but I've taken the trail around them several times. Each time I'm shocked it's still there. How far past the trail are the falls? They're about .5 mi past the junction, which in that terrain, feels more like double that. Th...

Thanks for taking one for the team. I think I'll stay out of that gulch. Maybe that's what a black widow bite does? Yeah, I'm glad I did it for the sake of crossing it off the list, but the falls don't justify the effort. Devil's Falls offers much better bang for the buck. Allison is terribly overg...

My buddy and I hiked to Allison Gulch Falls on Saturday. It was a relatively cool day for this time of year (low to mid 80s) and the water levels were still fairly high, thanks to the wet winter. After driving through the garbage dump on East Fork Road, which seems to get worse by the year, we found...

I also very strongly disagree with limiting access to land. For one thing, I disagree with keeping experienced individuals such as myself from being on my lands as a free human being because others have either died, made mistakes, been rescued, injured, etc. That is my absolute and final answer, an...

Rescues cost thousands of dollars per rescue, right? If that's true, then most hikers aren't able to pay in full for their rescue, at least not immediately. Someone has to foot the bill in the short term at least. As for Baldy not being a problem in the past, well that makes sense. Social media has ...

I like this idea

But also, the feds should pay for rescues!

Some SAR teams are police officers. Other SAR teams are volunteers affiliated with police. If the sheriff stops rescuing people, the search effort will be reduced by that many people and resources. But if a helicopter rescue is needed, maybe the USFS specially contracts for such service from the sh...

"Unsafe" is not an objective standard for closing the area. Who will decide when conditions are "unsafe"? Unsafe to one person is safe to another. It depends on many factors like skill level, fitness and gear. The mountain should only be closed during official winter storm warni...

Closures during winter storms make sense, but they seem like overkill for the season. Perhaps a permitting system and increased awareness program (better signage etc.) would suffice. Something needs to be done though. Loss of life aside, it's a waste of resources to constantly be searching for and r...

Damn, looks like that trail's in the closure zone? It didn't occur to me that the closures were in part due to unstable ground. I always assumed it had to do with not disturbing the vegetation.

So what's the usual route to Clamshell/Rankin/Monrovia from the south? Lower Clamshell Motorway to fire break then to Upper Clamshell Rd? I always assumed the fire road went all the way to the peaks.

I don't believe I ever met Colin but we might've crossed paths before. He seemed like a great guy and my heart goes out to his family and friends. Hopefully we can get more info about what happened. RIP.

I'm sure this has already been covered, but did he have a beacon?

Imagine suffering a serious ankle injury or getting bit by a rattler in an obscure canyon with no way to call for help.

Hoping for the best.

Damn. This is the second person to go missing in that general area.