An old report says that Lower Chimneyville is clean, while the upper one is trashed. Today, they're both tagged-up and trashed. Can't say I'm surprised. So anyway, Upper Chimneyville sits right at the mouth of Bichota Canyon, so I kept going.
It's mostly wild and overgrown, but as usual trails come and go. I guess there was an official ANF trail here at some point? I can imagine that I kept seeing an old human trail. It's followable in many places, but very inconsistent, and overgrown.
This is a good time of year for this trip. The North fork of the San Gabriel is flowing well, but Bichota creek is either dry or consists of stangant pools. Water in the creek would make none of this easier. Representative section:
There's lots of bear sign
(and lots of scat). And woodpecker sign
And these bugs really like it here
Also cougar sign
And human sign
At the junction where the old road from Chamisal Mesa is supposed to come in is this marker:
I scrambled up a tiny bit to see if the old road was still there, but I couldn't find it. Either I didn't look hard enough (possible) or it's completely gone.
This was slow going. Definitely not as slow as the most clogged canyons we've got, but slow. There was a strong Santa Ana wind event happening, with howling winds gusting in both directions in the canyon. This kicked up a lot of the ash from the Bobcat Fire, to make a pretty ominous scene. It didn't really affect what I was doing, but was kinda demotivating. I was also a bit concerned about getting stuck in the forest if a new fire started somewhere. So at about the half-way point, I called it a day. This was around where Schvaterfall canyon comes out, about 2 miles in. Probably about 2 miles left. The remaining terrain would get much steeper, which maybe would make progress easier: less dense and poky brush possibly. Or maybe it would make it worse. I guess I want to try it again before the rains come. Anybody want to come with and cheerlead?
