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03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 1:35 pm
by EnFuego
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


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Early Start:
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Confluence of Bear Creek and West Fork San Gabriel:
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Sallie on route to the stream (see my recipe thread for Flaming Salamander):
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Start of one of many crossings:
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In Flight:
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Samples of the jumping required to cross the stream:
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Another action shot:
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Crossing anything we can:
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The easiest crossing of the day:
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I think we found DamOTclese camp site:
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Tripping on shrooms:
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Lunch break:
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Starting up to Smith Saddle:
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Twin Peaks I believe:
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Rest break on Tool box:
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Smith Saddle:
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Recent blast site:
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Walking the line:
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Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 1:43 pm
by lilbitmo
Is that "Disco Dave" the Trial Devil? :D

I've seen that style before - if you open up the "Kiss Album" to see the inside picture of the two album set (the original) and look at the crowd from the stage of "Cobo Hall" in Detriot, you will see one of the guys from my high school sitting in the front or second row with same style, niceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Maybe we can call you the Disco Dave the Bush Master, since you had to whack your way through the wilderness. :?:

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 2:16 pm
by Liz
Stayin' alive! Go Disco Dave! Why didn't Zach look so glamourous on the hike? Ha ha!

Well, nice TR and cool pics. I hope to get outside with you boys eventually.

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 5:11 pm
by Zach
That picture looks strangely similar to the 'shrooms Alex had in his miso soup.

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Mon Mar 02, 2009 5:29 pm
by Ze Hiker
my curiosity leads me to wonder how many times you ran into brush that tried to take your 'fro away!

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 8:29 am
by EnFuego
wrote:my curiosity leads me to wonder how many times you ran into brush that tried to take your 'fro away!
I think when the brush saw me and my "fro" coming, they bent themselves out of the way for us. :D

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 2:10 pm
by 406
nice stuff. How did that fro smell post hike?

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 2:18 pm
by Zach
damn it, i have poison oak rash all over my back and on my wrist

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 2:21 pm
by lilbitmo
Just be glad it's not in a more "Delicate Spot" as happened to me once.

And of all the bad luck it was the week of my wedding :oops: :!:

Remember I said to bring the "Technu" with you when we did Rattlesnake two weeks ago - I told you.

:D

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 4:23 pm
by EnFuego
Zach wrote:damn it, i have poison oak rash all over my back and on my wrist
Dang!!! Sorry to hear that. First, a lost toe nail, now poison oak. All on same hike. I'm surprised I didn't get any poison oak. And I was in short sleeves.


lilbitmo wrote:Just be glad it's not in a more "Delicate Spot" as happened to me once.

And of all the bad luck it was the week of my wedding :oops: :!:

Remember I said to bring the "Technu" with you when we did Rattlesnake two weeks ago - I told you.

:D
What the #$*@ were you doing before you're wedding, out in the woods, that you got poison oak in your "delicate spot"? What ever happened to a "normal" bachelor party?

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 4:39 pm
by AlanK
EnFuego wrote:What the #$*@ were you doing before you're wedding, out in the woods, that you got poison oak in your "delicate spot"? What ever happened to a "normal" bachelor party?
Let's just say that one can do a lot worse than poison oak, depending on the nature of the party. Or so I hear.

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 5:11 pm
by Hikin_Jim
Zach wrote:damn it, i have poison oak rash all over my back and on my wrist
I was going to ask how the PO was over in there. Last I was through, the PO like well nigh unto impenetrable (unless suffering not hiking is your thing). Have the rains at least cleared out some of the thickets?

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 5:12 pm
by Zach
u gotta be kidding me

i now have it on my back, ankle, wrist, neck, and "delicate spot"... I knew i shouldnt have pee'd in the woods.


...and now the itching, puss-filled blisters will begin driving me crazy.

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 5:40 pm
by lilbitmo
We now have a trial name for Zach

Puss Bucket :oops:

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 6:32 pm
by Hikin_Jim
lilbitmo wrote:We now have a trial name for Zach

Puss Bucket :oops:
Trial? Is he a lawyer?? :shock: And I was starting to like him. Or did you mean trail? 8)

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 6:37 pm
by Ze Hiker
Zach wrote:u gotta be kidding me

i now have it on my back, ankle, wrist, neck, and "delicate spot"... I knew i shouldnt have pee'd in the woods.


...and now the itching, puss-filled blisters will begin driving me crazy.

i had it quite bad 2 weeks ago from a bushwack hike while wearing shorts...needless to say i had it all over my legs, just covered.

i literally could not sleep for 2 nights.

for me best remedy is hot showers, increasing the heat until you can't take it anymore. then cold shower to reduce inflammation.

but if you have it real bad, try to get a doc prescrip and get some steroids

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:14 pm
by EnFuego
Zach wrote:u gotta be kidding me

i now have it on my "delicate spot"... and now the itching, puss-filled blisters will begin driving me crazy.
That ain't from poison oak son!!! Where did you say you went drinking the night before? Something about Indians? :shock: :shock: :shock:

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2009 7:18 pm
by EnFuego
Hikin_Jim wrote:
lilbitmo wrote:We now have a trial name for Zach

Puss Bucket :oops:
Trial? Is he a lawyer?? :shock: And I was starting to like him. Or did you mean trail? 8)
LOL!!!! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

If you read nearly all posts from Lilbitmo, his left hand is slower than his right hand and he always misspells "trail". Sometimes, the inadvertant mistake sounds kind of funny in the message.

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 12:09 am
by lilbitmo
Hikin_Jim wrote:
lilbitmo wrote:We now have a trial name for Zach

Puss Bucket :oops:
Trial? Is he a lawyer?? :shock: And I was starting to like him. Or did you mean trail? 8)
Trial is where someone gets to try out a name so he can get used to it - trail name is where he has no choice and that's just what we are going to call him, no matter what he thinks.

In this case I think we will go with "Trail Name", sorry Zach. :D :twisted:

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 10:33 am
by Hikin_Jim
lilbitmo wrote:
Hikin_Jim wrote:
lilbitmo wrote:We now have a trial name for Zach

Puss Bucket :oops:
Trial? Is he a lawyer?? :shock: And I was starting to like him. Or did you mean trail? 8)
Trial is where someone gets to try out a name so he can get used to it - trail name is where he has no choice and that's just what we are going to call him, no matter what he thinks.

In this case I think we will go with "Trail Name", sorry Zach. :D :twisted:
:lol:

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 12:07 pm
by Zach
puss bucket, huh? well i guess there are worse names to be called

Re: 03/01/09 Smith Saddle - The Hard Way

Posted: Wed Mar 04, 2009 12:15 pm
by lilbitmo
We're only "Working you" Zach - but we will come up with something that will stick - other than the Poison Oak - we know that's already sticking to you. :D :twisted: