EISPIRATEN

Tried to beat the heat with an early start, attempting to reach Fish Canyon Falls via the Van Tassel Ridge trail.


For the first part of the ascent, the trail is pretty well maintained, albeit lots of grass and other harmless plants protrude into the trail.


After topping out on the ridge, the descent is laden with waist-high foliage. It's manageable, but the ground is hard to see.


However, within a few minutes of tramping through the bush, I heard a loud buzzing sound in front of me near a bunch of flowers.


Thinking it was just some harmless flies (I was DEETed up already), I was about to pass through when I encountered the most frightening scene on a hiking trail: the wall of flowers before me was covered with dozens of bees. Stopping for a moment, I pondered whether I should cross the gauntlet of bees. But I decided against it. Bees are not my thing. So I turned back.

All in all, the Van Tassel Ridge trail seems fine, apart from the dense foliage encountered later. If not for the bees, I would've liked to have seen the falls.

While hiking, I met a nice gentleman named Gary who hikes the ridge quite often. He carried some pruning shears with him and was doing some light trail maintenance. Kudos to you, Gary, for making the first mile and a half so clean.

nice try. did you see much PO?

there are some old trails that head up Fish canyon north of the falls, I wonder how it would be to descend from the fire roads above and head south to try to get to the falls. that could prove to be "interesting"

Rhus ovata
Sugar Bush or Sugar Sumac

http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species ... ecnum=7091

The first mile ascending the ridge was clear of poison oak. Upon descending the "jungle" area, I didn't get very far, so I can't estimate the number of poison oak plants in that area. I generally didn't notice any in front of me impeding my access.

However, I took a pic of this red ribbon tied to some plants. I didn't look closely, but I suspect it may have been poison oak (might be hard to make out). The red ribbon may have served as a warning to hikers?

blueshammer wrote: The red ribbon may have served as a warning to hikers?

Generally the flagging tape is to assure hikers they are on the trail

there is PO in that picture,