East Fork of the San Gabriel River- Misadventure7/6-7/7/2013

[sarahlynn]

Backpacking the East Fork of the San Gabriel River- our experience

Saturday July 6th

Tom and I lazily packed our bags for our soon to be mellow 14 mile backpack down the Narrows of the East Fork of the San Gabriel River. I admit, we got a late start but we knew we would only hike about 6-7 miles our first day, so we weren’t too worried. We stopped by the ranger station at the entry station of San Gabriel Canyon Road and picked up our wilderness permits. We were planning on camping approximately 2 miles from the iconic Bridge to Nowhere, which would land us in Sheep Wilderness which requires permits for overnight stays. After picking up our permit we continued up the mountain road until we arrived at the parking area for the trailhead. At this point we realized our late departure had caught up with us in the form of cooler filled SUV’s carrying boatloads of people who had come for the day to cool off in the river. I decided to drop Tom off at the trailhead with both of our packs and I continued down the road in search of parking. At approximately 1.5 miles from the trailhead I found a parking space, and so I parked and jogged 1.5 miles to meet up with Tom. We were finally ready to head out.

Our hike was hot, to say the least. Luckily there were numerous river crossings the entire way to camp, so we had some cool water to lick the sweat away on this hot 95 degree day. After just a few hours we made it to a nice clearing about a mile away from the Bridge to Nowhere. It looked like a perfect spot to pitch our tent for the night, but it fell short of where I originally planned we would camp. Tom and I discussed our options and decided to hike onward a little ways to see what else we could find. As we were boulder hopping I mistakenly put my hand too close to a Yucca which pierced through the flesh on my finger like a razor. Immediately my finger started bleeding, swelled and turned blue/purple. After gauging my reaction to the wound we decided to fall back and camp in the site we originally spotted just in case my reaction got worse.

Once we got settled in at camp we decided to kick back, cook some dinner and drink some whiskey. Life was good. We stayed up until the sun sank and we ended up curling up in our sleeping bags around 9:30PM.

Sunday July 7th
12:40AM

There is a bright beam of light shining directly into our tent from the side opposite to where I am laying down. I suddenly wake up, look at the light and think, “ Wow, the moon is really bright tonight.” I was surprised so I looked out my side of the tent only to see that my side was pitch black. Immediately I realized that the light wasn’t coming from the moon, there was someone standing right outside shining a light into our tent. Tom woke up simultaneous to my stream of thought and started whispering trying to figure out what to do. He could immediately tell someone was beside the tent; After a few moments I yelled, “HEY!!!” in an angry voice. Then, “HEY” again. After not hearing a word I shouted, “ Tom get the gun!”, in hopes that it would scare this psychopath off. The light moved downward and then turned off. (As a side-note, we were camped backed up to a wall, and there was only about 5 feet between our tent and the side of the wall, so this person couldn’t have been more than 5 feet away from our tent. We were camped on a river bank, so all sounds were muffled by the river) Tom and I were both frantically searching for our things, my glasses, our lights, Tom’s knife. After about 2 minutes Tom unzipped his side of the tent and peered outside his side of the tent. We realized, retrospectively, that Tom’s side of the tent which was previously pulled taught and anchored beneath a large rock has been dislodged from the rock and was hanging loosely. Our adrenaline was pumping. There was no sign of the person. A second later Tom said, “Sarah, there’s a bobcat out there.” I peeked outside his side of the tent and flashed my light which exposed a pair of beady feline eyes perched on some rocks overlooking our tent. I then opened my side of the tent and to my shock there was a full grown mountain lion less than 15 feet away from us. “ Tom,” I said, “ That can’t be a bobcat, there’s a mountain lion out here!” (Tom and I think the cat perched above our tent was a cub). The cat immediately stopped in its tracks when it saw me poke my head out of the tent and just stared intently at me. Without thinking and fearful that it was going to start approaching us, I let out a loud HISS, which Tom will not let me live down. Looking back it seemed a little crazy, but right after I hissed the cat slowly slinked away down the river.

Someone was right outside our tent beaming a light in. Were the cats stalking him? Was it mere coincidence that all of this happened at once? If this person was out here alone, the cats could have spotted him and tracked him to our campsite. We didn’t know what to think and we weren’t about to go to sleep. Tom sat awake clutching his knife and shining his headlamp every 10 minutes for the next 4 hours as I lay in my sleeping bag, drifting in and out of sleep, never closing my eyes for more than 15 minutes without my subconscious jolting me awake.

At about 4:30AM light had just started to illuminate the canyon and our exhaustion got the best of us and lulled us to sleep. We woke up at about 7:30AM to find that we were both still alive and the sun was shining. In the morning we entertained each other with different theories.

In disbelief of the events that happened during the night, we packed up and decided to get the hell out of there. Before approaching the bridge on our way back we ran into my friend Peter who said he would be fishing up there this weekend; we said our hello’s, told him our crazy story and continued on the trail. After stopping off, we got back on the trail and started down the only portion of the trail that could be considered semi-technical. As I’m watching my footing and cautiously making my way across the rock face, Tom yells, “rock!”. A rock the size of a softball comes crashing down, followed by a small onslaught of rocks. One rock slams into the side of my foot, and I lean as close to the wall as possible, praying that a rock doesn’t hit my skull. The rock fall stopped, we skirted around the ledge, and I made it out with a busted foot, of which I’ve had worse.

Needless to say, we made it out of the San Gabriel’s alive. I ask myself, what would have happened if this weirdo’s beaming headlamp didn’t wake me up? We’ll never know…

I hope you all can learn from this story, never venture into the woods without some adequate protection!

Safe Travels!!

[Taco]

Thanks for posting here, Sarah.

Pretty rad that you saw a lion.

Might wanna carry and train if you plan on going around those parts anymore.

Cheers

[mattmaxon]

FWIW There is some gold miners out there. Esp just above the bridge.

I'd report this to the Sheriff.

San Dimas -
270 S. Walnut Ave., San Dimas 91773
Phone (909) 450-2700, (909) 599-1261 or (626) 332-1184

Nothing will be done I'm sure but I don't like the sound of it.

If they know of unusual events they can keep an eye out

[tekewin]

A stalker and a lion in one night. Yikes! What kind of lunatic would shine a light on sleeping campers?

Taco, is it legal to carry a gun in the ANF?

[longcut]

There were people camped nearby that noticed the lions. they were using their lights to watch the lions which happened to be very close to your tent, making it appear that they were pointing their lights at your tent. they might have even (foolishly) approached closer for a better look, which put them in close proximity to your tent and completely enthralled with the large predator they were watching, which is why they did not respond to you and were probably wishing you would keep your voice down so the cats would hang around longer.

The yucca, falling rocks, and other misfortunes can only be attributed to bad kharma. you need to volunteer with the trailbuilders or something to make the mountain gods happy again.

[pheonix]

There were people camped nearby that noticed the lions. they were using their lights to watch the lions which happened to be very close to your tent, making it appear that they were pointing their lights at your tent. they might have even (foolishly) approached closer for a better look, which put them in close proximity to your tent and completely enthralled with the large predator they were watching, which is why they did not respond to you and were probably wishing you would keep your voice down so the cats would hang around longer.

That's a possibility, since there were other campers in the area. But if this were the case, you'd think that the folks would say something in the AM as to why they were creeping around last night. They wouldn't have known that the tenters saw the cats. I guess the world will never know. I still think that's incredibly lucky to have had the cat encounter! What a rare once in a lifetime encounter that was!

The yucca, falling rocks, and other misfortunes can only be attributed to bad kharma. you need to volunteer with the trailbuilders or something to make the mountain gods happy again.

You don't know Sarahlynn ~ with all the awesome deeds she does, she should already be the queen of good kharma. It was just a little bit of bad footing or bad luck after a relatively sleepless night.......she already voulenteers - bless her heart!

[AW~]

What kind of lunatic would shine a light on sleeping campers?

My best guess is that someone is hanging out with another group and finally heads back to their campsite whenever....and the other part of it is that some people treat it as their home and you are the stranger. Checking out if you are a new miner staking a claim or whatnot.

[mcphersonm80]

Awesome about the lions, not so much about the creeper with the flashlight, although I'd also suspect it was just another nearby camper checking out the cats. Were they close enough for you to hear their footsteps?

[PackerGreg]

UOC - unloaded open carry
LOC - loaded open carry
UCC - unloaded concealed carry
LCC - loaded concealed carry
LUCC - locked unloaded concealed carry

National Forest and BLM Details:

LOC and UOC are legal everywhere except "prohibited areas" (areas where shooting is prohibited)

LOC, UOC, UCC, and LCC are all legal in one's campsite. (PC 26055, 26383, & 25605)

Shooting is prohibited within 150 yards of any residence, building, campsite, or developed site ("prohibited areas")

Shooting is prohibited on or across roads or bodies of water ("prohibited areas")

Consensus opinion is that UOC of handguns is now illegal in "prohibited areas" of NF/BLM (AB144 / PC 26350) not all agree (PC 26388)

Forest administrators have the authority to prohibit shooting in other areas of the NF but must clearly post this information ("prohibited areas")

IMPORTANT NOTICE - some NFs are now banning shooting almost entirely

BLM administrators may post closures and restrictions regarding firearms use ("prohibited areas")

LCC is legal for licensed hunters/fishermen, while hunting/fishing, but only where shooting is not prohibited (PC 25640)

UCC is legal for licensed hunters/fishermen while hunting/fishing and while traveling to/from hunting/fishing expeditions (PC 25640)
*2 -
to/from hunting expeditions (PC 26366)

CA CCW/LTC permit holders may LCC in NF/BLM

Source: http://www.calguns.net/calgunforum/show ... p?t=186457

[outwhere]

You write a verrry good tale there Sarah! Next time I need some popcorn on hand when reading such a story

Seriously though, nicely written, it was almost like being there... and i mean that in a bad good way on the bright side, no one got hurt and you made a great life-long memory and story to tell...

One theory to your visitor... it mighta been our man Hikin Jim. With his love of camping stoves --- sometimes when he sees a tent, no matter the hour, he can't control it, he has juuuuust has to see what/if your cookin' with

Sarah, some serious throat-gulpping moments here :

Immediately I realized that the light wasn’t coming from the moon, there was someone standing right outside shining a light into our tent.

And I thought images of startling a rattlesnake while off-trail was the ultimate making of a mountain nightmare

Thanks for the fun misadventure report, Sarah... btw, what did cook up for grub - always interested in hearing what campers stir up for dinner...

[sarahlynn]

Thanks for all the comments you guys! I'm happy to share our story, and in retrospect I do feel really lucky to have gotten so close to a few mountain lions. In all the years I've been going out I've never caught a glimpse of one, I just wish it had been in a less strange context.

Awesome about the lions, not so much about the creeper with the flashlight, although I'd also suspect it was just another nearby camper checking out the cats. Were they close enough for you to hear their footsteps?

McPherson, I've had lights shined on my tent by passerby's before, and I've never thought twice about it. This person was shining a light directly into our tent, and the way we were backed up to a vertical wall, there's no way it could have been a passerby. I could't hear much over the river and our scrambling, but I'm positive someone was scoping out our tent.

I can't imagine someone getting so close to the mountain lions either.. I honestly think this person was walking around with some ill-intent and the cats just happened to have stalked him right into our site.

On a brighter note...
@ Outwhere, I froze some pre-cooked tri-tip and heated it up with my MSR. Short trips make it easy to indulge.

[Mike P]

Random thoughts:

Did you have the rain fly on the tent? If not, then he/she/they were looking directly onto your sleeping bags? Now that would be creepy.

Were you close enough to the bridge to have had bridge campers come up to your tent?

I'd be surprised if those folks were following a lion at night.

What scares me the most about this incident is the fact that I never use a tent - unless it's raining or there are skeeters out. I've camped out up there before and now wonder how often mountain lions walk around sleeping backpackers? Maybe my snoring scares them away...

[hvydrt]

.......and drink some whiskey.

I think this is the answer to your sightings.

[tracker]

.......and drink some whiskey.

I think this is the answer to your sightings.

I was thinking it was those spotted mushrooms that grow in the shady spots somehow got put on the tri-tip.......
Sorry. I'm a firm believer in Occam's Razor.
now you have to Google it.

[outwhere]

I froze some pre-cooked tri-tip and heated it up with my MSR. Short trips make it easy to indulge.

.......and drink some whiskey

Sarah, my friend wants me to ask you, 'do you have a sister or a cousin' ?

And if I may add, in addition to tri-tip and whiskey, you're able to scare off peeping-tent lunatics !! A good woman [or man] is hard to find these days

[Sitting Bull]

How can it be legal to carry a firearm while hunting or fishing if you can't carry near a waterway (prohibited area)? How are you supposed to fish without water?