Bichota Canyon: 15 May 2011 FAIL
Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 8:22 pm
When it rains on a Sunday morning, what does one do? Hike, of course. Norm and I headed up Hwy 39 to the parking area about 100 yards north of the gate on the east side of 39 about 2.5 mile up from diaper alley. We were headed for Bichota Canyon, trip #72 of Robinson and Christiansen's Trails of the Angeles.
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We passed through the locked gate and headed down the intermittent asphalt. The road doubles back on itself in the flat riverbed area and then pass several burned-out cabins. Looking down on the cabin area from the road:
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The road was fairly easy to follow, but there were spots that were overgrown:
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The book describes a concrete bridge that allows hikers to cross over the North Fork of the San Gabriel River. We looked for an hour in the rain for the darn bridge. We finally found half of the bridge in the alders on the east side of the bank. Evidently, after the 2002 Curve Fire the bridge was destroyed by floods. the still-standing eastern half of the bridge. (We approach the river crossing from the west side.)
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Without the bridge there was no safe way to cross the North Fork. The waters were boiling. In this picture there was old cable spanning the riverbed:
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We walked almost three miles in that area looking for a safe crossing. No luck... We will come back another day when the creek recedes to allow for a safe crossing. There are plenty of big boulders that will be exposed to allow for good crossings. My apologies for not taking more pictures but I only took out the camera in lulls of the rainstorm.Norm and I headed back to the cars and then made our way to Soldier Creek and Lewis Falls. TR and video of the falls will be up coming up shortly.
We passed through the locked gate and headed down the intermittent asphalt. The road doubles back on itself in the flat riverbed area and then pass several burned-out cabins. Looking down on the cabin area from the road:
The road was fairly easy to follow, but there were spots that were overgrown:
The book describes a concrete bridge that allows hikers to cross over the North Fork of the San Gabriel River. We looked for an hour in the rain for the darn bridge. We finally found half of the bridge in the alders on the east side of the bank. Evidently, after the 2002 Curve Fire the bridge was destroyed by floods. the still-standing eastern half of the bridge. (We approach the river crossing from the west side.)
Without the bridge there was no safe way to cross the North Fork. The waters were boiling. In this picture there was old cable spanning the riverbed:
We walked almost three miles in that area looking for a safe crossing. No luck... We will come back another day when the creek recedes to allow for a safe crossing. There are plenty of big boulders that will be exposed to allow for good crossings. My apologies for not taking more pictures but I only took out the camera in lulls of the rainstorm.Norm and I headed back to the cars and then made our way to Soldier Creek and Lewis Falls. TR and video of the falls will be up coming up shortly.
