I was looking at Google maps - as many of us are wont to do - and saw this little spur off the trail as it heads toward Glendora Mountain Road. It looks odd on the picture as looks like a line of trees is nearby.
This got me curious as I had never seen any other road/trail there so I zoomed in a bit and found this large bare spot, looking like it was cleared intentionally.
So I figured I'd check it out, arriving at Big Dalton Road just as the gate was opened. I walked up through Mystic Canyon and took the entire Punkout route, continuing on to the junction with the "trail" to 3397. I had a Caltopo guide on the phone where I had dropped a pin showing the spur in the screenshot, but as I suspected that came out to be a wrong location. I walked in there for less than a minute to decide it wasn't a trail.
About 50 yards further along the real trail I found some footprints and while not a clear entrance there is an obvious pathway. This is actually an old road cut as it's graded about 20-30 feet wide and even still has some of the corrugated steel drainage gulleys.
I brought cutting tools so I hacked my way through a couple spots until I came to where I had another pin for a drop down into that clear space. Turned out I was wrong by about 50 feet, finding more footprints further along this track. I got down into a little clearing which didn't look as big as the one in the picture, and I cleared some branches that were about chest-high for me so I could walk through some trees into another little open space. Then I ran into some thicker tree cover where I would have to crawl so I looked at the time and amount of water I had remaining and decided to head back home.
I think I'll go back to see if I can find that bigger space, only drive all the way to the GMR/GRR junction and walk the shorter path to get here. Anyway, this was a nice walk on a great SoCal day, it's about 8 miles round trip via the way I took.
While on the way out I noticed this little bump which was a couple hundred yards past where I stopped - hard to see in the digital zoom photo but it looks there are some posts out on the point which made me think of a honey factory (like the one that used to be below 3397)? Anyway, just another reason to go back and winter is the right time for this stuff.
Mystery spot Monroe Truck trail
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JeffH
- Posts: 1399
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"Argue for your limitations and sure enough they're yours".
Donald Shimoda
Donald Shimoda
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Sean
- Cucamonga
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Based on a 1952 aerial, it looks like they built the road out to 3164 and began clearing sections for whatever reason. Perhaps they were planning a recreation site in upper Little Dalton.
By the way, your waypoints are probably off because the line on Google Maps is off.
By the way, your waypoints are probably off because the line on Google Maps is off.
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