From the parking lot it's 1.3 miles via the Creek Trail to the XC portion. There is a major split where the Creek Trail continues to the right, following the south branch, while a use trail heads leftward (east), and keeps you in the main branch.
From this point the main branch has a sporadic, overgrown path, which eventually deteriorates into nothing.
Annoying bushwhacking slowed our progress. Also, navigating in this canyon is tricky, with multiple tributaries that look like they might be the main branch.
In addition to the normal obstacles, this area also put tar seeps in our way.
This stretch of the canyon was indeed narrow. A few bits got down to about six feet wide.
The cliffs were also impressive.
The rock, however, seemed generally too unstable to climb. Much of it is very decomposed and brittle.
After scrambling about 0.7 miles through the narrows, we hit this tall cascade.
This cascade and a couple prior ones were fairly easy class 2/3 climbs. But at this point we realized that somehow we had missed our exit tributary. So instead we clambered out of the main branch via the nearest ridge to the fire road, which we then took back to the parking lot.
