Lobo canyon (SG wilderness) 2/20/12

TRs for the San Gabriel Mountains.
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AW~
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Post by AW~ »

A chilly early morning on the Angeles Crest as I walked from Shortcut to elev 5111, home of rugged looking Skull canyon. One look at peak 5171 this early in the morning, home of Inferno Gulch, was enough to determine to save it for another day or another decade. Thus I started down the ridge, which was kind of slow going, even though it was mostly brush-free save for poodle dog bush. Passing by Bobcat canyon, and then approaching the West Fork or Devils Canyon at the same time, both sides of the steep dropoffs of the ridge.

Eventually I dropped into a nifty side drainage to Lobo that I noticed on Google Earth. Easy going, trade side canyon, except for a 2 tiered waterfall. Near Lobo canyon there was a half grassy half sandy area that had plenty of prints, and I began to feel lucky I wasnt staying the night here. It appeared that I hit Lobo canyon at exactly the right time as it turned into a trade canyon watercourse. Most of the drops end up being 20ft small, but they dont look that way. I did the only rappel of 70ft cliffside to avoid one of these hehehe. A few swims and whatnot and the canyon ends into a pretty section of the West Fork of the SG river on the Redbox side of things. A short walk to Tumbler canyon, which was rather a letdown. It was 12:45 pm, elevation 2300 or so.

It was 2:00 pm by the time I reached the shortcut road, but it had been a slog for sure, with the only real use trail with 50 yards of the road. A river, a lot of which was in the shade, so time appeared to be 2 hours later. Then up the hellishly long Shortcut road, complete with its 3 downhill parts :( . I got back about at 5:45 pm, with not much light left.
Supposedly this road is 3 miles long, guess I was walking rather slow.


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Dawn on the crest
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Starting down the ridge to Lobo
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Twin Peaks West Ridge
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Lobo canyon down below
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Tracking alongside Lobo canyon
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Lobo watercourse
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canyon travel
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70ft rappel to avoid keeper pothole
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Flash flood remnants
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Last obstacle/swim
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West Fork near Tumbler canyon looking towards Cogswell
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Remembering Lobo
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Taco
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Post by Taco »

A keeper pothole ey? No way. Hmmmm gonna hafta do that. :-)

Good getting out there AW!
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AW~
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Post by AW~ »

Taco wrote: A keeper pothole ey? No way. Hmmmm gonna hafta do that. :-)

Good getting out there AW!
No way Im climbing out by my own hands,even thought the other side could be downclimbed(didnt know that at the time either)....the other canyons towards Devils canyon are the more 'Death Valley' type....you may remember Inferno's last drop...


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cougarmagic
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Post by cougarmagic »

You do find the prettiest spots! And that's gotta be the only keeper pothole around here. Very cool.

I've wondered about Bobcat canyon, but most people (including Chris) say it's not that special.
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turtle
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Post by turtle »

Nice trip report AW! Love the sunrise shot... and that keeper definitely needs to be escaped sometime.
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Taco
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Post by Taco »

Inferno? I take it that's a name applied to a canyon bordering the fire?
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AW~
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Post by AW~ »

Taco wrote: Inferno? I take it that's a name applied to a canyon bordering the fire?
The whole area was burnt toast incinerated. I just thought the name fit inline with the 'Devil' canyon idea.
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AW~
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Post by AW~ »

cougarmagic wrote: I've wondered about Bobcat canyon, but most people (including Chris) say it's not that special.
I doubt any of these are special normally. Its like....why wasnt that pothole filled with logs and debris? I wasnt buying a lot of it, but wasnt complaining either:D

I hope they open up the BigT so we can shoot photos of some of the normal non-special routes and then later people see the photos of the place and say, 'thats not that place', and then look closer and think photo-shopping must have occurred.
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Taco
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Post by Taco »

AW wrote:
Taco wrote: Inferno? I take it that's a name applied to a canyon bordering the fire?
The whole area was burnt toast incinerated. I just thought the name fit inline with the 'Devil' canyon idea.
AH, gotcha. It looks cool. I'd like to explore that someday.
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everyday
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Post by everyday »

Cool! i wanna go there too sometime :D
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