Big Santa Anita Canyon East Fork

shreddy · Post by **shreddy** » Mon Jan 17, 2011 11:30 pm

How cool to stumble across this discussion forum! Been running, biking and hiking a lot of these trails since I was a kid.

Question - I read on the Adam's Pack Station site that East Fork of Big Santa Anita (above Adams falls) that ganja growers defend their crops with booby traps and guns.

I'd like to explore this area, but do not want to die or be maimed. Can any advise on the current situation. Don't intend to head up above the falls. Safe below the falls?

Thanks!

Post by **Taco** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 1:10 am

Hey, welcome! Are you dirt diva?

shreddy · Post by **shreddy** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 9:46 am

Taco wrote: ↑Hey, welcome! Are you dirt diva?

Thanks for the welcome Taco. No, I'm not Dirt Diva, but I know who you are referring to.

AW~ · Post by **AW~** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 11:00 am

Should be safe and about a good time to go is now. Hard part is knowing where to turn off the trail to get into the canyon since there are private homes in the area. A lot of poison oak in that area as well.

shreddy · Post by **shreddy** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:04 pm

AW wrote: ↑Should be safe and about a good time to go is now. Hard part is knowing where to turn off the trail to get into the canyon since there are private homes in the area. A lot of poison oak in that area as well.

Thanks for the tip!

PackerGreg · Post by **PackerGreg** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 3:51 pm

I wrote that when I first built the Adams' Pack Station website. The FS and the DEA have removed farms from above the falls at Manzanita Flat, but it's been years. However, that is not to say that similar activity could not be happening there now; which is why I put in that word of warning. The rangers told me about the last bust (which required helicopters to remove the crop in big nets) and they said when they moved into the gardeners' camp they found CB radios, automatic weapons, and soup still simmering on the propane stove. But I wouldn't worry about any of that if you just want to visit the falls. And about the cabins, they are private property, but the land on which they sit is not. I have always encouraged people to respect the cabin boundaries and although the East Fork trail does run very close to several cabins, it is a historical easement and you have every right to access the canyon. The piece of advice I would give you is to let someone know EXACTLY where you are going. If something happens to you along the way, it is unlikely that you will be found by another hiker any time soon.

shreddy · Post by **shreddy** » Tue Jan 18, 2011 4:03 pm

Thank you Packer Greg. I appreciate your advice. I'll think about doing this one and will most likely bring a hiking buddy!

My interest in BSA and all the little haunts has peeked these last few weeks

Here's another BSA question: From First Water heading down canyon how close can one get to the reservoir? I was on that trail the other day that ends just past the last cabin. Trail just ends into the moutainside. I turned back because it was getting dark. Wanted to go further and see if I could locate the remains of the Hermit's old cabin.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 3:57 pm

shreddy wrote: ↑Here's another BSA question: From First Water heading down canyon how close can one get to the reservoir? I was on that trail the other day that ends just past the last cabin. Trail just ends into the moutainside. I turned back because it was getting dark. Wanted to go further and see if I could locate the remains of the Hermit's old cabin.

I've never gone further downstream than Hermit Falls, which is a cool spot.

I guess I should try it some time.

Did you ever get up the East Fork? I see a trail on the map. Is there even a semblance of a trail anymore?

HJ

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 3:59 pm

Anyone been up the East Fork of Big Santa Anita Canyon lately? I see a trail on the map. Is there even a semblance of a trail anymore?

I'm kind of interested in checking out Adams Falls which I don't believe I've ever been to.

If you're going by Hoegee's tomorrow morning around 10:30, stop and say "hi".

HJ

shreddy · Post by **shreddy** » Fri Jan 21, 2011 4:31 pm

Hikin_Jim wrote: ↑ Hermit Falls, which is a cool spot. I guess I should try it some time.

Did you ever get up the East Fork? I see a trail on the map. Is there even a semblance of a trail anymore?

HJ

Haven't made it up there yet. Please post if you do.

Terry Morse · Post by **Terry Morse** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 3:46 pm

So, did either of you make it to Adam's Falls? Coincidentally, a friend of mine went there last Friday. He said there weren't any signs of humans back there and he had to climb over a lot of big boulders and fallen trees. Took him from 10:30 AM-3:30 PM (parking lot & back). He also said the falls were spectacular.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 3:50 pm

I was carrying a pretty heavy pack because I was going to demo some stoves so I just did the Zion loop. Adams falls will have to wait until another time.

Did your friend say anything on route finding? I'd like to avoid cutting through front yards and that sort of thing.

HJ

Terry Morse · Post by **Terry Morse** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 4:00 pm

He did mention that he had to walk close by several cabins. I'm not sure this can be avoided. The thing he emphasized the most was how remote the area is and that there were no signs that anyone had ever been back there before. But, he said it was definitely worth the scramble.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 4:19 pm

Years ago there was a trail. More recently there were pot farms. I guess that just goes to show how well nature does restore things.

HJ

PackerGreg · Post by **PackerGreg** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 4:28 pm

PackerGreg wrote: ↑I have always encouraged people to respect the cabin boundaries and although the East Fork trail does run very close to several cabins, it is a historical easement and you have every right to access the canyon.

The cabins one has to pass to cross the check dam at the mouth of the East Fork are owned by a gay [former] couple (one in LA and one now in Vegas), a Chinese dentist (his ethnicity being Chinese, not the dentistry), a judge (retired), a friendly old man who will sell you his cabin (for a rediculous 75k), and a geology professor (who specializes in the San Gabriels). None of them are scary shotgun-totin' hillbillies. And if you go on a Tuesday afternoon, you'll likely run into Glen Owens, author of Heritage of the Big Santa Anita

There is no trail up the East Fork. There hasn't been since skinny dipping at the swimming hole waned in the late 1970's, followed by the El Niño of 1983.

Shreddy, you will not find remnants of The Hermit's cabin (down First Water). They remained intact after the completion of the dam in 1927, but were buried under debris from the big 1938 flood.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 4:43 pm

Greg,

Is there still a trail in the area where the cabins are?

HJ

PackerGreg · Post by **PackerGreg** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:09 pm

Yes, same one the donkeys and cabin owners use, but it's only about 150 yards or so from where you cross the creek at the main trail to the check dam beyond the last cabin. It's easy to spot - there's a Woodsy Owl "Pack it In, Pack it Out" sign to the left (north) of the cabins.

Once you cross the check dam, you might spot the foundation of former cabin #55 across the creek to your right. It was behind that cabin that the old East Fork Trail climbed the south wall of the canyon to Manzanita Flat and on to Spring Camp. Do not go that way! The trail was mostly washed out in the 1969 flood and was subsequently abandoned. Besides, it was routed to bypass Adams' Falls. To see the falls, just travel the watercourse upstream - you can't miss it!

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 5:23 pm

OK, thanks.

HJ

cougarmagic · Post by **cougarmagic** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 6:48 pm

Matt, Jane and I hiked up there some time last year. You don't need to be any closer to those cabins than you are to the ones along the main trail. I didn't feel awkward about it. We passed by quietly, and didn't go snooping in windows or anything of course.

There were faint traces of a trail for maybe 1/4 mile, and then it turned to boulder hopping. It reminded me most of Millard canyon near Dawn Mine. Very pretty.

At some points we had to go around some particularly bouldery sections. The slopes support healthy poison oak plantations, as one would expect.

I don't remember seeing any pot farm evidence in there, though we didn't go too far.

shreddy · Post by **shreddy** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 6:48 pm

Thanks for all the info!

PackerGreg · Post by **PackerGreg** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 8:35 pm

Uh, oh! I feel a rumor coming on. But since the alleged parties are deceased, I will pass it along...

I once asked Glen Owens, author of The Heritage of the Big Santa Anita (available at your nearest LA county pack station) what inspired him to write his book. As a fellow aficionado of San Gabriel Mountain history, it seemed to me that I was asking it a silly question. The answer was more colorful than I expected.

In Glen's book there is a photo from the 1950's of an old BigSAC character named Mac Conway standing on the front doorsteps of his cabin (which now belongs to the aforementioned Chinese Dentist, and is adjacent Glen's cabin) with a diminutive young lady named Wanda Lee Thompson.

Glen officially describes her as a "naturalist", but an equally accurate moniker may be that of a "naturist". To clean up Glen's language a bit, she had a nice figure and was well-endowed; and all the men were as interested in her as she was in them.

Wanda Lee spent many years hanging around BigSAC and had accumulated a lot of knowledge. So, in her later years, she decided to write a book about it all. To quote Glen, "Everyone was running around saying 'Wanda Lee Thompson's gonna write a book, Wanda Lee Thompson's gonna write a book!' But she never did, so I wrote it myself."

Where is this story going and what does it have to do with the East Fork of Big Santa Anita Canyon?

Now, what Wanda was doing hanging around Old Mac I don't know. That may be they subject of another rumor. But his cabin is very near the East Fork and the old trailhead to Spring Camp. Enter Kenyon Devore.

Kenyon was the son of [oh, can't remember his name] and Cherie Devore who opened a camp in the West Fork of the San Gabriel River (now De Vore Trail Camp) then moved the operation upstream to Valley Forge. Many long-timers have met Kenyon and there is now a trail from Mount Wilson to the West Fork renamed in his honor. He was also a good packer.

There was (and still is - Gabrielino/Silver Moccasin portion) a rather direct trail from De Vore/West Fork to Sturtevant's/BigSAC. But Wanda Lee Thompson used to like to go all the way up the East Fork from BigSAC by way of Spring Camp to West Fork, and Kenyon used to like to go all the way around White Horse Mountain and up the back side of Monrovia Peak from West Fork by way of Spring Camp to BigSAC. It came out in later years that the two of them had a regular "rendezvous" at Spring Camp!

And to think that Spring Camp had previously been used as a work camp for conscientious objectors during WWII. Seems like neither of them were objectors.

Mike P · Post by **Mike P** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:13 pm

PackerGreg wrote: ↑Kenyon was the son of [oh, can't remember his name] and Cherie Devore

Was it Ernie or Ernest Devore? Going off of memory here...

PackerGreg · Post by **PackerGreg** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:16 pm

Yes it was. Thanks Mike.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Mon Jan 24, 2011 10:47 pm

Fascinating.

Slight change of subject: I've always thought it odd that there wasn't a trail down the West Fork.

HJ

outwhere · Post by **outwhere** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 10:36 am

Great stuff PackerGreg - took another look at the Adam's Pack Station site - well done, everything about it...

Not to spoil anyone's surprise - but do you have any pictures you'd care to share of the East Fork area or Adam's Falls?

Please pass along respect to Glen Owens - I adore his book!

Terry Morse · Post by **Terry Morse** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 3:34 pm

Here's a scanned photo of Adam's Falls taken by my friend last Friday. He hasn't gone digital yet.

Post by **Hikin_Jim** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 4:32 pm

Nice!

HJ

shreddy · Post by **shreddy** » Tue Jan 25, 2011 4:39 pm

Very Cool!

outwhere · Post by **outwhere** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 5:16 pm

Please pass along the thanks, Terry

Wow, the San Gabriels sure are amazing - all the times we passed that area, never knew that sweet spot was up there...

PackerGreg · Post by **PackerGreg** » Wed Jan 26, 2011 7:29 pm

Cougarmagic: What were you doing in a rugged yet easily-accessed canyon that is rarely frequented by people?

Everyone else: Use the restrooms provided before entering the East Fork lest you make an appearance in some sick video