A walk through the valley of the shadow of the poodle...
Posted: Mon Oct 21, 2013 11:25 pm
A few years ago, right after the Station Fire Closure was lifted in the West Fork, I descended the Gabrieleno Trail from Red Box and ascended the Valley Forge Trail through nearly three miles of nonstop feral poodle-dog bush. Needless to say, I spent the next two weeks with most of my legs and much of my arms covered with what looked like deep purple bruises that itched like hornet stings. Ouch.
Last Saturday I decided to have a look at how things are coming along in that area. Left the car near the towers on Mt. Wilson at 1:00 pm and descended Kenyon Devore to the junction with the Gabrieleno.
The next stretch of the Gabrieleno between the trail junction and Valley Forge Campground is in pretty decent shape. Taking care to avoid the abundant PDB, it can be navigated without trouble. In some sections, it's very thick, but there seems to be enough foot traffic now to stomp a path through it and keep it from completely reclaiming the trail, though it does encroach on it in many places.
There seem to be very few green leaves on the PDB at this time of year. They're mostly dried out stalks with dark brown leaves still clinging to them, and in some cases just slender sticks. However, I don't know if that means it's any less potent. I found it helpful that the smell is so strong. Sometimes I didn't see it, but then suddenly noticed the smell and found branches sneaking their way into the trail concealed by other plants.
There was fair water flow in a couple of the canyons that come down from Mt. Wilson along that stretch as well.
Ascending the Valley Forge Trail, there was definitely much less PDB than on my last visit. In fact, some sections seemed to be almost "back to normal" - yucca, buckthorn, manzanita, without even a trace of the ocean of the stuff that was there before. Lots of young buckthorn lining the trail and encroaching on it in places. Maybe the poodle-dog is in retreat?
Trail work has been done along the whole route, so a lot of the washouts have been shored up and deadfall cut and cleared. However, it looks like continuous falling branches and burn debris will be a feature of the area for some time to come.
I got to Eaton Saddle and decided to take the scenic route over Occidental Peak back to my car. It turned out to be much more challenging than I expected. Definitely not to be taken lightly. I probably made the mistake of trying to stay too close to the ridgetop and lost the various use trails that snake through the vegetation on the north side of the ridgeline. However, you have to avoid going too low or you'll take a tumble off the top of a 45-foot road cut. The ridge takes several ups and downs and there's a notch right before Occidental that involves a bit of scrambling/bushwhacking/thrashing. It's a surprisingly isolated spot for somewhere just a few yards away from the highway. In any case, after reaching the peak, the east ridge is smooth sailing. But don't take the Occidental detour if you're in a hurry. Doing it without getting yourself into trouble can take up a lot of time.
Got back to my car at 5:30, I think it was about 9 miles round trip.
Sorry, no pics!
Last Saturday I decided to have a look at how things are coming along in that area. Left the car near the towers on Mt. Wilson at 1:00 pm and descended Kenyon Devore to the junction with the Gabrieleno.
The next stretch of the Gabrieleno between the trail junction and Valley Forge Campground is in pretty decent shape. Taking care to avoid the abundant PDB, it can be navigated without trouble. In some sections, it's very thick, but there seems to be enough foot traffic now to stomp a path through it and keep it from completely reclaiming the trail, though it does encroach on it in many places.
There seem to be very few green leaves on the PDB at this time of year. They're mostly dried out stalks with dark brown leaves still clinging to them, and in some cases just slender sticks. However, I don't know if that means it's any less potent. I found it helpful that the smell is so strong. Sometimes I didn't see it, but then suddenly noticed the smell and found branches sneaking their way into the trail concealed by other plants.
There was fair water flow in a couple of the canyons that come down from Mt. Wilson along that stretch as well.
Ascending the Valley Forge Trail, there was definitely much less PDB than on my last visit. In fact, some sections seemed to be almost "back to normal" - yucca, buckthorn, manzanita, without even a trace of the ocean of the stuff that was there before. Lots of young buckthorn lining the trail and encroaching on it in places. Maybe the poodle-dog is in retreat?
Trail work has been done along the whole route, so a lot of the washouts have been shored up and deadfall cut and cleared. However, it looks like continuous falling branches and burn debris will be a feature of the area for some time to come.
I got to Eaton Saddle and decided to take the scenic route over Occidental Peak back to my car. It turned out to be much more challenging than I expected. Definitely not to be taken lightly. I probably made the mistake of trying to stay too close to the ridgetop and lost the various use trails that snake through the vegetation on the north side of the ridgeline. However, you have to avoid going too low or you'll take a tumble off the top of a 45-foot road cut. The ridge takes several ups and downs and there's a notch right before Occidental that involves a bit of scrambling/bushwhacking/thrashing. It's a surprisingly isolated spot for somewhere just a few yards away from the highway. In any case, after reaching the peak, the east ridge is smooth sailing. But don't take the Occidental detour if you're in a hurry. Doing it without getting yourself into trouble can take up a lot of time.
Got back to my car at 5:30, I think it was about 9 miles round trip.
Sorry, no pics!
