EISPIRATEN

Not much of a tr here....up MtWilson toll road and road to Idlehour was open(sign not thrown into Esme canyon either). Slightly before that, I was informed that someone had stolen backpack(s) at Henninger Flats and to be on the lookout in case they discarded what they didnt want to steal. Esme canyon proved uninteresting from above, with no backpacks in sight.

The trail to Idelhour was about the penalty for forgetting about bugs in the air, which increased mightly near and at Idlehour camp. Nifty 5 ft waterfall upstream, not visible on the trail.Went to explore up 1 N Havard(the canyon one north of Harvard branch). Back down...then Eaton creek, past the "point of no return", which now is not the case thanks to a side route canyon left. My camera had long since ran out of battery and for some reason, I lost the muster to continue past the first rappel thinking it was too risky to drown my camera in some way.

Thus back out the telephone trail(yuck) and down the toll road(even worse). Eaton at the bridge was getting close to being maxed out with people hanging waterside. 5 seconds of separation was about the max.

humid along the toll road as the sun heats up the fog


Its about to get summer temps up here while below is nice and cool


The island of Griffith Park(I think)


1 N Harvard in the background(2 ridges over)


up 1 North Harvard


ok, nothing much further ahead for canyons so....


looking at the top of a 40ft drop


drop


not a canyon I would recommend


stock footage of Eaton creek(summer didnt overgrown it , cant say the same for the telephone trail)


bored? video....

So you came up the telephone trail? Interesting. I've always used it as a drop in as part of a short cut to Idlehour.

The part that's really overgrown is the part on the north facing slope where the old road is south of the little drainage that the road crosses. That's been pretty overgrown for quite some time -- or are there some other areas that are now getting overgrown?

HJ

Hikin_Jim wrote:So you came up the telephone trail? Interesting. I've always used it as a drop in as part of a short cut to Idlehour.

The part that's really overgrown is the part on the north facing slope where the old road is south of the little drainage that the road crosses. That's been pretty overgrown for quite some time -- or are there some other areas that are now getting overgrown?

HJ

The key part is dropin#2 is being eroded fast. The former way(dropin#3) to go down to the creek is a goner for walking in. My guess is by 5 years from now ,most will skip the telephone trail and just use the Idlehour trail. It seems to be kinda like if it overgrows maybe less people will use the telephone trail and not go to the creek below.

As far as the creek, its a lot easier to pick a route going downstream. Its not a highway anymore and most travel is along the creek. Last time I went down I could cut chunks out by skipping the meandering of the creek and just go straight...now its fresh thorn vines and poison oak growing. The good news is the creek level now allows nifty creek travel.

My next trip I hope to get down to the creek via a drainage one north of Esme. That one ends in a drop of about 90ft, but there are other options.

AW wrote:The key part is dropin#2 is being eroded fast. The former way(dropin#3) to go down to the creek is a goner for walking in. My guess is by 5 years from now ,most will skip the telephone trail and just use the Idlehour trail. It seems to be kinda like if it overgrows maybe less people will use the telephone trail and not go to the creek below.

Drop in 2? Drop in 3? Do you have those marked on a map?

The only drop in I'm familiar with is the one marked on this map:


HJ

Its all in the classification of the drainages departing from the telephone trail...there isnt a topo magnified enough for that. A hiker isnt going to care and just follow the use path, however they might wonder why it continues past where its obvious to go down...well that end used to be a scree-filled gully that was used...aka#3. Almost not worth mentioning anymore except at the end, most are contouring from #2 to #3. Once the current #2 meets the same fate, and someone says oh just go down to the creek, its like a hiker then says you trying to kill me? Canyoneers will always have rope to use though Course, savy ones will know that there are 3 drainages so they dont have to rappel until all 3 go the way of the dodo bird.

AW wrote:... its like a hiker then says you trying to kill me? Canyoneers will always have rope to use though

Bah. Ropes is cheatin'!

Nice exploratory there AW. Good to know the Idlehour trail is "open"

Are you still using that crazy-ass old weird rope I found of yours near the bottom of Twin Peaks?

TacoDelRio wrote:Are you still using that crazy-ass old weird rope I found of yours near the bottom of Twin Peaks?

Sort of...it was always a pull cord or retrieval line or to work for some small problem. I rappel so rarely now, I just use webbing(150ft). The last time I had to rappel was ? I think Eaton 2 winters ago.

Ah gotcha. 8)