03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way
Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 1:35 pm
Well, “difficult” to say the least. Zach and I had planned a snow/ice trip, but with the warm weather, decided against it due to rock fall dangers. So, at the last minute, we decided on Smith Mountain via Lower Bear Creek from West Fork San Gabriel.
We started at 6am sharp from the West Fork San Gabriel trail head with cool temps and a slight breeze coming through the canyon. We quickly arrived at the Bear Creek TH and headed up Canyon. We were both on time constraints, and thought we’d be able to make the saddle, possibly Smith peak and back to the cars by 1 or 2’ish. We were sadly mistaken. Within 10 minutes of walking up the Bear Creek trail, we had our first stream crossing. We were able to find boulders (largely spaced apart) and managed to stay dry. This is where the fun ended. The recent heavy rains have either washed most crossings away, or with the still high flows, have covered nearly all of them. It is approximately 4 miles from Bear Creek TH to Smith Saddle TH, hardly any elevation gain, but with not much of a trail to follow, and the entire canyon covered in tree debris, this was very challenging. We covered the 4 miles in exactly 4 hours. We had to make 27 stream crossings, most of which were wet crossings, we had to walk on boulders nearly the entire way and climb over, under and through countless numbers of downed trees. At crossing number 17 or 18 and running late on time, Zach and I decided we were not heading back the way we came. Damn, those boulders and the river they rode in on. We committed ourselves to reaching Smith Saddle, and dropping down the front side to Hwy 39 and huffing it back to our vehicles.
With that said, we trudged on to the Smith Saddle TH and arrived exactly 4 hours after our start. We quickly started up the trail to the saddle – 2.6 miles away with approximately 2,000 ft el gain. This was a cake walk and such a relief compared to what we just went through. We arrived at the saddle 2hrs and 40mins later, took in a quick view or two and quickly continued down the front side towards Hwy 39 3.6 miles away. We hiked past the blast sites that DamOTclese has discussed in other posts and finally arrived at Hwy 39 1hr and 10mins after leaving the saddle. At this point, the deserted highway was a lonesome sight for us and we were not looking forward to the 4.5 mile walk back to our vehicles. With little to no water left, we scrambled cross country a little bit avoiding some of the switchbacks of the highway and finally made it back to our cars 1hr 20mins after coming off the Bear Creek Trail.
This was another one of those trips where if it wasn’t for good company, the trip would be near meaningless.
Summary:
Start 6:00am Mile 0.0
Bear Creek TH: 6:10am Mile 1.0
Smith Saddle TH: 10:00am Mile 5.0
Smith Saddle: 12:40pm Mile 7.6
Hwy 39: 1:50pm Mile 10.6
End: 3:10pm Mile 14.5
Early Start:
Confluence of Bear Creek and West Fork San Gabriel:
Sallie on route to the stream (see my recipe thread for Flaming Salamander):
Start of one of many crossings:
In Flight:
Samples of the jumping required to cross the stream:
Another action shot:
Crossing anything we can:
The easiest crossing of the day:
I think we found DamOTclese camp site:
Tripping on shrooms:
Lunch break:
Starting up to Smith Saddle:
Twin Peaks I believe:
Rest break on Tool box:
Smith Saddle:
Recent blast site:
Walking the line:
We started at 6am sharp from the West Fork San Gabriel trail head with cool temps and a slight breeze coming through the canyon. We quickly arrived at the Bear Creek TH and headed up Canyon. We were both on time constraints, and thought we’d be able to make the saddle, possibly Smith peak and back to the cars by 1 or 2’ish. We were sadly mistaken. Within 10 minutes of walking up the Bear Creek trail, we had our first stream crossing. We were able to find boulders (largely spaced apart) and managed to stay dry. This is where the fun ended. The recent heavy rains have either washed most crossings away, or with the still high flows, have covered nearly all of them. It is approximately 4 miles from Bear Creek TH to Smith Saddle TH, hardly any elevation gain, but with not much of a trail to follow, and the entire canyon covered in tree debris, this was very challenging. We covered the 4 miles in exactly 4 hours. We had to make 27 stream crossings, most of which were wet crossings, we had to walk on boulders nearly the entire way and climb over, under and through countless numbers of downed trees. At crossing number 17 or 18 and running late on time, Zach and I decided we were not heading back the way we came. Damn, those boulders and the river they rode in on. We committed ourselves to reaching Smith Saddle, and dropping down the front side to Hwy 39 and huffing it back to our vehicles.
With that said, we trudged on to the Smith Saddle TH and arrived exactly 4 hours after our start. We quickly started up the trail to the saddle – 2.6 miles away with approximately 2,000 ft el gain. This was a cake walk and such a relief compared to what we just went through. We arrived at the saddle 2hrs and 40mins later, took in a quick view or two and quickly continued down the front side towards Hwy 39 3.6 miles away. We hiked past the blast sites that DamOTclese has discussed in other posts and finally arrived at Hwy 39 1hr and 10mins after leaving the saddle. At this point, the deserted highway was a lonesome sight for us and we were not looking forward to the 4.5 mile walk back to our vehicles. With little to no water left, we scrambled cross country a little bit avoiding some of the switchbacks of the highway and finally made it back to our cars 1hr 20mins after coming off the Bear Creek Trail.
This was another one of those trips where if it wasn’t for good company, the trip would be near meaningless.
Summary:
Start 6:00am Mile 0.0
Bear Creek TH: 6:10am Mile 1.0
Smith Saddle TH: 10:00am Mile 5.0
Smith Saddle: 12:40pm Mile 7.6
Hwy 39: 1:50pm Mile 10.6
End: 3:10pm Mile 14.5
Early Start:
Confluence of Bear Creek and West Fork San Gabriel:
Sallie on route to the stream (see my recipe thread for Flaming Salamander):
Start of one of many crossings:
In Flight:
Samples of the jumping required to cross the stream:
Another action shot:
Crossing anything we can:
The easiest crossing of the day:
I think we found DamOTclese camp site:
Tripping on shrooms:
Lunch break:
Starting up to Smith Saddle:
Twin Peaks I believe:
Rest break on Tool box:
Smith Saddle:
Recent blast site:
Walking the line:
And I was starting to like him. Or did you mean trail? 8)
