At three miles, we hit the Smith Mountain Saddle where we headed down into the San Gabriel Wilderness:
The downhill portion of the Bear Creek is in fair to excellent condition. Up high (within the mile below the saddle) there were several short but airy, narrow washed-out sections. Someone had been up there recently pruning the buckthorn and manzanita. Thank you if you are on this board! We found the San Gabriel Trail Builders tool chest. I almost missed it because it was in camouflage paint
Typical tread of the downhill section:
Further down the trail but before we first hit Bear Creek, the trail was in excellent condition. We had "lunch" when we finally hit Bear Creek. In this area was Upper Bear Creek Trail Camp.
The next two to three miles was constant boulder-hopping and stream crossing. Short sections of trail were found here and there. Thankfully, the route is "fairly" well-marked with cairns. Leafless poison oak was in abundance here, as well.
The West Fork of Bear Creek joined the main stream about halfway down the canyon:
The canyon widens significantly south of the West Fork junction and the trail became much more apparent. Unfortunately, idiot humans have defiled much of this area:
Another brilliant mastermind felt that arrows needed to be painted on many of the rocks:
The total mileage from the trailhead to the West Fork parking lot was 11.5 miles. We left at 7:45 am and finished our leisurely trip at 2:00 pm. The first 5.8 miles can be done quickly while the next 4.7 miles in the canyon is very slow and tedious. The last mile is on the West Fork Road pavement. A short car shuttle was easy to arrange. We were lucky to have low water and excellent weather for this trip. I highly recommend this trip for folks that are in shape for a lot of boulder-hopping and route-finding!
