I rolled into the Icehouse Canyon parking lot later than usual at 7AM. Oddly enough, the place was only half full.
I proceeded up the Icehouse trail but soon abandoned it maybe a hundred yards beyond the first switchback. Icehouse Creek was crossed, and Falling Rock Canyon was entered without much fanfare.
However, to my great joy, it did not take long for the canyon to present me with a series of enticing class 3 walls, all of which can be bypassed on the left.
Falling Rock offered no water, and its narrow walls were choked full of massive boulders accompanied by several fallen trees. It was easy to imagine a few of the living trees becoming dead obstacles in the near future. One seemed ready to leap out of the ground.
Another was preparing to hurl itself off the cliffside into the canyon below.
After a stretch of relatively easy rock-hopping in a section where the canyon is slightly wider, I arrived at the scree slope turn-off for Sugarloaf Peak.
It looked extremely boring, so I continued a short ways up-canyon to a dry waterfall, which I could see from the Sugarloaf turn-off.
Being more my style, I headed straight up the waterfall.
Once above the waterfall, I turned right and departed Falling Rock Canyon, scrambling up to the Sugarloaf Peak Trail.
The trail took me along the ridgeline to Sugarloaf Peak in a matter of minutes. I found the long-range vistas to be very refreshing after having my nose against rock walls much of the morning.
I spent some time gazing at the summit register, noting how many times Mars Bonfire signed it. Then I ran down the scree slope, plunging back into Falling Rock Canyon. I tried to make a graceful exit through the boulders and debris but somehow failed, gruesomely slicing my left palm while bracing the slightest of slip-ups.
Bloody high-five!
A couple hours later the doctor sewed me up with six stitches.
