There must, must be a better way, when the only way we know is so bad.
Solving the problem of Triplet Rocks for a half-sane route however is some advanced-level calculation…few have tried, all have failed.
I spent hours utilizing all of my favorite tools, looking at the target of Triplet Rocks from every possible angle like a Rubik’s cube in my hands. Every route I came up with felt stupid and dangerous, and hardly any improvement. Triplet Rocks is not just extraordinarily isolated by SG standards, and rugged by anyone’s standards, but so are the mountains and canyons surrounding it, too. Its an onion of navigational problems. I actually gave up about a year ago on this problem, throwing my hands in the air, and moving on to other projects.
Mathew has emerged as one of the most versatile and capable mountain explorers I know, and his stoke levels can be unmatched. When he told me he had Triplets in his sights for this year, that was enough to inspire me to revisit. And so after taking a long hot shower, going for a walk, eating a sandwich, a year later I returned, with a few new tools and another few months of experience, and this yielded a breakthrough.
You see, the primary things about the standard route to Triplets that piss me off the most is how much incredibly difficult gain you waste going up and back down again, and how the entire incoherent, jumbled and episodic route is ultimately, well, downhill. No good hike has a mountain peak destination thats freakin’ downhill. And not one with so much wasted hard AF gain. Not on my watch, at least.
So using a fundamental geomorphic truth, I took those two big flaws and flipped them completely upside down.
How would you hike to Triplet Rocks without ever having to go downhill to get there?
Thanks to gravity and water, from any point on earth this is ALWAYS possible. (Unless it is an endorheic basin, which do not exist in the San Gabriel Mountains.)
Following this principal, one is lead from Triplet Rocks, down a tributary to west fork of Bear Creek, to Bear Creek, and then the West Fork of the San Gabriel River, and a mile later you are at a trailhead parking lot on route 39. Its a long ways, but you get there. And Bear Creek even has a pseudo trail along it. Hot damn, now we’re getting somewhere!
But what’s the play from Bear Creek to Triplets? Follow the water, baby! My first impulse taking the Bear Creek West Fork to a tributary that would lead to this promising south ridge that leads right to the base of the third triplet. When a drop of water falls on a Triplet, this is where it goes.
Now, before we proceed, there is one other fundamental geomorphic truth of the San Gabriel Mountains I forgot to mention - when you have an idea for a route, always run it by Dima first. He’s probably already tried it. From a couple different directions. And if he failed, then you are going to fail too, and sooner.
And yup, sure enough:
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Damn.
But wait. That trip report is dated June 2020…
What far-reaching, historically cataclysmic event occurred in 2020 that disrupted our collective whole world?
The Bobcat Fire.
Dima didn’t have the Bobcat Fire when he had made his previous attempts. The West Fork watershed became a very different place after the Bobcat Fire, and has to have remained so 5 years later, no?
We don’t necessarily need riparian canyons, with their pretty but problematic waterfalls, in 2025. Because the Bobcat Fire burned all of our brush-related navigation problems to the ground. Climate change for the win!
The massive amounts of ongoing uplift in the Gabes meant Bear Creek flowed through a deep cliff-sided canyon, but where the west fork met the main fork, slope shading suggested a promising break in the cliffs.
Lets do this.
After various work and weather delays, Matthew and I set out at 6AM from the Azusa Canyon West parking lot at an elevation of 1,600 feet. (Just a little different than the 6,750 feet of the Waterman Ski slope!)
A quick road walk led us to Bear Creek, and its trail proved to be intermittent but lovely in the soft morning light between numerous crossings. I was prepared for this however, and was wearing an older pair of hiking boots I readily waded in as a dry set of new ones dangled from my pack. Mathew held out with rock hopping for a little while before giving up to take the plunge as well. If you travel the Bear Creek trail, be prepared to get wet up to nearly 3 feet with current water levels. Its feels pretty nice though. Not all that cold.
Our mythical target reveals itself in the distance. .
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As the canyon walls got higher, the pools got deeper, and we discovered Bear Creek is absolutely full of trout to an extent I've never seen before in the Gabes. Elongate figures darted away from us every time we stepped into the flow of water, which was often. The trail would come and go, and was very easy to lose and find again. Boulder hopping and stepping over burned trees is very common. Its not fast or easy going, but its very manageable and generally lovely.
At about 9am, 4.3 miles and 3 hours in, we reached the junction of the west fork at 2,170 feet. It was now time to stash the wet shoes and socks, and fill up on water. Another huge advantage to this lower south approach - you can filter your fill of water 4.3 miles into the route. East Twin doesn't offer that! .
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Now the adventure was to go up a notch. The big question now was how high and thick the brush would be out of the canyon. This would make or break the route, as we knew it was impassable before September of 2020.
An extremely well-trodden game trail lead us just as hoped out of the canyon. It was no wonder the trail existed, as it was cliffs for more than a mile in either direction surrounding it, and animals gotta drink. In my excitement I completely overshot the bench above the canyon we were intending to travel north upon, and charged up an additional slope. This made Mathew eager to take the higher bump-hopping route over point 3329 that I had created earlier (v3) while I had my heart set on the bench route (v4) with less cumulative gain. I truck a compromise between them, and we began navigating this new world above the creek canyon, pushing a small herd of deer before us in the bright morning sunlight. And most importantly - the brush was reasonable!!!! Most of the time shoulder or waist high, with bare ground pockets between the scrub oak. Hurray!!!! This route was working!!! .
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Mathew still wanted the higher route, and as I discovered my hopefully flat-ish bench had somewhat steeper and deeper ravines than the slope angle shading may have led one to believe, I started to agree more with him. We ended up taking adjacent ridge lines up point 3329, about 0.16 away from each other, but able to keep ourselves within view and earshot. I knew in an area this remote and rugged its bad news bears to get separated.
Along the steep climb to 3329, I got this excellent and extremely rare view of the south face of triplet rocks, with this one-of-kind giant gash in the granite face. Its unlike anything else I've seen....that gash would be one hell of a canyoneering route to come down. Is this Taco's Zebra wall? .
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I met Mathew on 3329, with a spectacular view of the whole remote area. I'm not sure how many people have ever bagged 3329, but its got to be nearly no one. Could it be one of the most remote, and pre Bobcat at least, difficult to reach benchmark in the Gabes? Curious if anyone knows of anyone who has been there. Check out this rad view it presented of all 3 Mermaids: .
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Coming down the north side of 3329 we began encountering the dreaded POODLE DOG BUSH. And oh my, did we ever. .
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And as we began to ascend the ridge that would eventually deliver us to the Triplets, it kept getting worse. .
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The leaves and stalks were brushing our clothing, and we could smell the aroma strongly in the air. This was my first time encountering this storied plant, and after a couple nasty poison oak experiences, I was starting to feel pretty nervous. Ready for brush warfare, I was thankfully covered head to toe with gloves, gaiters and the like, but still I knew people described Poodle Dog as "poison oak on steroids" so I was not feeling super confident charging through it all. Mathew miraculously had just passed into a little bit of service, so took advantage by calling Sean to ask for advice. Sean said we should basically burn our clothes and clear our calendars for the next 4 weeks. That was enough for us to bail then and there, at 5.8 miles into the hike at 3,5000 ft elevation and 11:30AM. It was a disappointment, as we were *just* starting to travel this south ridge we were both fully stoked to scramble along, and done so much preparation for, and still had a couple hours before our turnaround time. And Triplets were right there staring down at us past the Seussian poodle dog leaves peacefully swaying in the mountain breeze.
Poodle Dog is a strangely abstract obstacle, because in the moment its actually no obstacle at all. Its just a pretty flower. You have to intellectualize the *possible* consequences days later. Difficult pill to swallow when you got a little summit fever in you.
Fire taketh brush, giveth Poodle Dog. I came into this expedition knowing our odds of actually summiting was less than 50/50 chance. I thought probably brush, cliffs or time would be what got us, but Triplets cooked up a surprise with the Poodle Dog. I hadn’t thought of that one! Well played, Triplets.
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We followed my v3 route back down up and over 3329 again, being super cautious with poodle dog. I’ve never been so happy to see shrub oak in my life then when shimmying around the PD. We pushed through the brush and stumbled down the crumbling slopes until we had made it back to Bear Creek and our waiting shoes and socks, and took the opportunity to do lunch in the dappled shade, of which there was absolutely none when out of the creek canyon. I ate Sardines while watching the trout dart about the beautiful pools, now bright and cheery in the midday sun. .
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Before the Bobcat fire Bear Creek was probably shaded in the middle of a late spring day, but now that is not the case, and the majority of our trek back down the creek was in the warm, breezy sun. .
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At least there weren’t any skin-irritating plants along the creek…. Oh wait. .
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Mathew started getting it from all directions, with a couple falls into the water, attacked by Yellowjackets while trying to eat some goo, and blasted by stinging nettles. He can tell you more about those episodes.
We made it back to the car around 4pm, driving back into Los Angeles in our underpants as our contaminated clothing sat in poisoned piles in the trunk.
I am *very* thankful to say that a little over 48 hours later, I have only one lone little blister on my right ring finger. Here’s hoping….
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In conclusion, I’ve never had a target as challenging as Triplets. I understand now first hand why it has the reputation it does. The Poodle Dog presents an exotic problem I’m not sure I fully understand how to combat. The trouble is our window for brush height is in the process of closing…I think we have maybe 3 more years before it starts becoming enough of a problem to make this route no longer viable. There may be 3 more years of Poodle Dog which fill that window. Is there any opening in between? Is being full covered in a hazmat suit of some kind make it possible to get through the PD? Is there another possible route that could circumvent the poodle dog? I do know we are freaking close. The exposure of the south ridge above where we turned around remains the only open question, but the slope angle shading suggests its possible, if a couple spots on the edge. I’m not exactly sure what the next attempt should look like exactly, but I do think an overnight camp is probably involved.
I need more time to process before deciding what comes next, but Triplets - my hat comes off to you. You earn your status.
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11.7 miles, 3,535 feet of gain.
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