Hawkins to Heaton and back(via Hwy39) in 48 hours

[AW~]

could be epic, depending on the definition.

Took a fireroad to the PCT since I forgot the mile marker for the Little Jimmy shortcut...not bad at all, just adds one mile or so. PCT in excellent condition ,thanks to all the volunteers. Wildflowers in sections and very few flies(perhaps due to the early morning hours).

Summited Hawkins and down the Copter ridge I went. Took a left towards peak 7296 and then this time went south down the big drainage below.
Elevation 6800 it was a spring based enviorn, but easy to contour around the spiraling drainage. It then broke out into a rock filled valley of sorts...alas, I was still several hundred feet short of Iron Fork. Water returned and it canyoned up....no big drops..thankfully. At least I was in the Iron Fork and in a place I had been before.

Except the Iron Fork still had a lot of water moving through..deja vu as in too much....and there was a lot of spring season growth. Wearing a heavy backpack(at least to me), I was facing decisions to be made. I decided to go for the San Gabriel river, camping overnight still well into the Iron Fork. I reached the SG river by 9am and should I go up to Vincent Gap or down to Heaton? I thought the waterflow was too high to go towards Vincent Gap and decided to go for Heaton...everything went fine until my feet started to really hurt.

I kept on walking, eventually reaching the Williams cafe phone booth, agonizing whether to place a call to get picked up and go through the whole back and forth to get my car.....kept on walking. A canyoneer would end up driving the road and let me hitch a ride to Hwy39 which was a tad out of their way. Hiking up Hwy39 it would be a twist that those same canyoneers turned the wrong way and found me again. They gave me a ride to the end of Hwy39 at Valley of the Moon and it was about 3:30 pm...still hot and sunny.

My pace was going down and down and down to less than 1 mile per hour. My cell phone at one point read "emergency use only". There sure was a lot of water sources though, all the way throughout, and I kept on it, reaching Hwy2 at 5:30am the next day. Cortelyou Spring I would give the award to for an overall score...piped and cold. A short nap at my car and return to home.

[Hikin_Jim]

Gnarly! Good stuff! Very few people get back there in the upper reaches of Iron Fork.

So, it sounds like you went southish from peak 7296 into the drainage between 7296 and Copter Ridge, yes? Was there a reason that you wanted that drainage rather than heading NW into Iron Fork? Just curious.

HJ

[HikeUp]

And now my feet hurt. What was the origianl plan, or did you have one?

Nice NHPS Hawkins Fail too!

[Ze Hiker]

damn you crazy! you walk on pavement all the way up the 39 to 2?

notice on the topo there's a falls at the base of ross gulch, have you seen that?

[AW~]

Little did I know I would later be seeing Twin Peaks for many hours


big bad pk 6327 South Hawkins not looking so bad from this vantage


Baden-Powell


descending


descending, Ross Mtn in the background


downclimbing as the drainage is coming to and end


creek


overnight stay


humans....specifically "miners"...marked up some rocks for unknown reasons to me. This appeared to be the same one(s) that setup camp here 2 years ago and was back recently...to leave behind more trash.


A landslide covered the canyon perhaps creating the potential for a flash flood sometime in the future

Previous to the landslide:


East Fork Narrows crux


Up Hwy39, South Hawkins


Hwy2 at Islip Saddle


Big Tujunga dam

[AW~]

Gnarly! Good stuff! Very few people get back there in the upper reaches of Iron Fork.

So, it sounds like you went southish from peak 7296 into the drainage between 7296 and Copter Ridge, yes? Was there a reason that you wanted that drainage rather than heading NW into Iron Fork? Just curious.

HJ

Correct on the location. The problem is the narrows dont start until around elevation 4600. I had entered previously at approx elevation 6300 which was a lucky long walk. Anyways, I'll leave the area to the bears, Im finished on the upper reaches and narrows.

[AW~]

And now my feet hurt. What was the origianl plan, or did you have one?

Nice NHPS Hawkins Fail too!

Original plan was to return via South Fork Iron Fork. I think I thought about 10 secs on going up it when I got there.

Hawkins is an exempt peal for NHPS
It may look like rolling hills around, but those hills start descending in a big way.

[AW~]

damn you crazy! you walk on pavement all the way up the 39 to 2?

notice on the topo there's a falls at the base of ross gulch, have you seen that?

I only walked uphill from Valley of the Moon to Hwy2...its like 8 miles or something.....did seem like 25 miles though...at least it worked out. I would have been in trouble any other way. I had a nice wide highway and colder weather.

Ross Gulch Falls-yes I have been to the falls 17 times. Been above them once.

Right now is the worst time to see it since the vegetation obscures the view of the falls. Last year I had chopped the trees down and they were removed and gone during winter. Now they are back like nothing happened.

[AW~]

few more pics and couple of videos
http://www.flickr.com/photos/13833920@N03

[Mike P]

Great pics, AW!

You mentioned the miners and trash. I know some guys that pack horses for the FS. They have gone up the East Fork this year once or twice to clean up after the miners. They leave a ton of trash. Some of those miners are essentially squatters up there.