Rubio Canyon to (near) Muir Peak: 01-09-2010

[HikeUp]

Hiked up to near Muir Peak with AW today. Started at the Rubio Canyon trail head and headed up canyon to Leontine Falls overlook. From there we bushwhacked and/or followed as best we could a use trail up to point 3681 on Muir's southwest ridge. Nice views. Then we headed up to near Muir Peak, skirting it to the east on the road that heads to Inspiration Point. At Muir's recently cleared east ridge (Station Fire), AW headed down into Eaton Canyon. I headed to Inspiration Point then descended via Castle Cyn and Lower Sam Merrill trail. Hooked up with the Altadena Crest Trail to get back to my car at Rubio.

Pics.

It was great to meet you AW, the canyon man! Thanks for showing me around Rubio Cyn - a real gem of a place. Also, for doing the bloody work on the route finding/bushwhacking up to 3681. Our loppers came in handy!

Saw no one until near Muir Peak when we saw a few runners, one with a measuring wheel. Once I got to Inspiration Point and below there were several million people on the trails.

Thalehaha Falls (don't ask either of us how to pronounce it)...


Muir's southwest ridge must be the happening place for bears. Literally tons of bear scat. Ouch...


It must be said that AW did not summit Muir Peak, a proud member of NHPS. And in mock honor of the NHPS , I've started the NLPS (near lower peaks section) nearly bagging Muir Peak and Echo Mtn.

[Ze Hiker]

coincidence, or stalking?

[cougarmagic]

Nice!

Where was this:



and what do you suppose it was for??

[HikeUp]

Nice!

Where was this:



and what do you suppose it was for??

It was along the 'trail' somewhere between Thalehaha Overlook and below Leontine Falls overlook. AW thought maybe it was there for practice since there was no reason to be anchoring at this point. He may remember more precisely where it was.

[mattmaxon]

Nice!

Where was this:



and what do you suppose it was for??

It was along the 'trail' somewhere between Thalehaha Overlook and below Leontine Falls overlook.

Sounds (looks) like it was for pulling root balls (maybe)

[HikeUp]

coincidence, or stalking?

Ha. If they were stalking us they took the wrong route up to point 3681 and were several hours too late .

Crude image of our route...

[AW~]

Im pretty sure the anchor stuff was for educational purposes of ATS...
it was just south of the dropin at that point to East Rubio creek below Leontine Falls.

Ze, LOL, what a coincendance...no way I would bring a large group this way, it would destroy what route is there.

I left down the new path, which is very similar to south ridge of Muir....steep then kinda flat then steep , but not too crazy...just following the telephone poles and their new wiring...I think there was current flow in them as one of them was making a racket of a noise.

I was planning to follow the telephone poles down the firebreak from the 1930 topo, but continued on down the new path...and was left cliff high and dry several hundred feet off of Eaton creek. A tricky descent to stay ropeless, but landed in the canyon north of me. A series of drops down this creek to meet with Eaton, but still ropeless. Challenging enough to be a class 3 canyon though...after that I had enough 'adventure' for the day and just head out Idlehour trail back to Eaton canyon nature center.

San Gabriel Peak


Trying to take a picture hooking up the path with the path on the other side of Eaton(which is also not 'walking' complete near the end)


pk 3513(Mt Markham), near Idlehour trail


I suppose this is to be called Markham canyon?


canyon travel.....


main drop(est 100+ft from lip into swim) encountered....


main drop again, followed by nifty pothole


another waterfall...

[AW~]

It was great to meet you AW, the canyon man! Thanks for showing me around Rubio Cyn - a real gem of a place. Also, for doing the bloody work on the route finding/bushwhacking up to 3681. Our loppers came in handy!

Likewise!....although your loopers clearly outperformed mine...both were chomping away about 100ft before bear hangout...then the bear did not have the decenency to clear a path all the way to pt3681! 8)

[HikeUp]

Great pictures AW. I'm soooo glad I didn't go with you down that ridge! I hope things cooled off down there. It got kind of warm for me on the way down from Inspiration Point.

[HikeUp]

Hiked up the Incline from Rubio Cyn. to Echo Mnt. today. AW and I saw several hikers on this trail as we were ascending the other side of the canyon last week, so I decided to check it out. The trail is in really really good condition considering it is a "use" trail - in fact someone has done some maintenance on it recently it seems. Anyway, it's a fun alternative to hiking up the Sam Merrill Trail to Echo Mtn. Good views of Leontine Falls too.

Pics.

Leontine Falls...

[socalhikes hiker]

Hey Hikeup

Here's the route we took up last week. Obviously, our route is in blue. It's mostly bushwhacking up until you get to the high voltage towers. Then it's not so bad. btw, the falls looks like a really nice path up. Will have to give that a shot.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/nC ... directlink

Link to the images from that day:
http://picasaweb.google.com/JohnDQuan/1 ... directlink

[HikeUp]

Thanks for posting your route and pics! Nice job getting through that brush up to point 3681. It's a worthy destination with great views.