Ken Burton's Nightmare Before Oakwilde

Elwood · Post by **Elwood** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 8:04 am

I was sitting at my desk yesterday morning enjoying a bagel and cup of coffee, as well as the quiet of the closed office. One glance at the weather forecast for the day convinced me that the front range would be a far more satisfying place to spend Presidents' day than would work. The parking area at the top of Windsor was full so I parked on one of the adjacent streets, grabbed my little day pack and headed down towards the Gabrielino Trail. When I reached the El Prieto trail it dawned on me that I'd never hiked it. Since I had no planned destination, I figured what-the-heck. I blasted through to the Brown Mountain Fire Road, staring down any MTBers who threatened violate the sacred hiker right-of-way on the narrower sections. Once I reached 2N65 I decided that Oakwilde Picnic Area might be an interesting destination. Little did I know...

I quickly hiked up 2N66 to the Ken Burton trailhead (12W19). Neither the skull and crossbones nor the hand-written "unmaintained" on the trail marker were heeded. To be fair, the footbed is mostly O.K., and there are very few exposed spots along Ken Burton. Roughly a tenth of the passage requires pushing through hip to shoulder-height brush.

After turning NNW on to the last switchback (where the trail clearly once crossed the gully at 34.2431, -118.1803) I could not find what I considered to be a safe route down to Oakwilde. I tried several "use trails" to no avail. The only remaining options to me were to downclimb the aforementioned gully or return from whence I came. Since the condition of Gabrielino between Oakwilde and Paul Little was unknown to me, I opted for the unpleasant latter course of action. Since the return route would delay me somewhat, I contacted a friend of mine in Calabasas on the handy-talkie and asked him to call Mrs. Elwood's cell phone and leave a message regarding my safe condition and delayed arrival at home.

The return hike was uneventful, though I opted to take 2N66 all the way back down to the Arroyo. The frogs were singing their chorus beautifully and loudly along the darkened trail. Two things I might have done differently: 1) started with more robust beta regarding ACTUAL contiguous trail condition 2) Had more than a single Clif Bar in my pack for food for this energetic seven hour hike. As an aside, there was a family gathering, bundling, and removing shopping carts full of good-sized branches from the trail. How legal and/or ethical is this on National Forest lands?

I'll post pictures and GPS info later. Some idiot also forgot to put fresh batteries in his GPS and it finally crapped out somewhere on the way up Burton.

Oakwilde area as it first came into view from Ken Burton Trail.

South fork of the Arroyo Seco, looking east towards Bear Canyon.

Easier stretch of the Ken Burton Trail, think looking up Long Canyon.

Traversing section of Ken Burton Trail between the trailhead and switchbacks.

'S' curve in Gabrielino Trail northeast of Oakwilde site.

Toe of CCC Ridge, Dark Canyon to its left.

Another of the gentler, more passable sections of Ken Burton.

Bench just above Oakwilde, that I couldn't find a satisfactory route off of.

Very interesting piece of microwave telemetry. I assume Pasadena Water uses this to relay flow and/or control data from equipment in the Arroyo via the VHF stick up top.

GPS track and elevation plot.

cougarmagic · Post by **cougarmagic** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 9:01 am

A hike that turns Elwood back is a rough one indeed! It's kind of amazing how unreachable Oakwilde is right now. It can be done, but it's no stroll in the park.

Next time try finding your way around the Brown Mtn debris dam. Should be easier. (and I mean, relatively)

Augie · Post by **Augie** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 3:17 pm

Elwood thanks for that update on current conditions on that trail. Back in the day, when the Burton trail was clear and Oakwilde still existed and the trail past the dam was still in good condition, I used love biking that loop from the JPL parking area.

Post by **Sean** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 4:27 pm

Thanks for the report. I've been thinking of the Ken Burton trail. Was there any Poodle Dog?

RCKSIL · Post by **RCKSIL** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 5:08 pm

Thanks for this report. Looking for new spots to hike. So I guess I will take 3 Clif Bars!

Rick

Elwood · Post by **Elwood** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 7:05 pm

No turricula, save for one or two dead stalks along the entire route.

Post by **Uncle Rico** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 7:20 pm

What about the route down Dark Canyon? Is that a viable way in? If memory serves me correctly, I think mattmaxon intimated that somebody not him had drop into Oakwilde via that route a while back.

Mike P · Post by **Mike P** » Tue Feb 18, 2014 11:32 pm

Hey Elwood! Nice TR.

You mentioned the frogs... were they Pacific or California Chorus frogs?

Elwood · Post by **Elwood** » Wed Feb 19, 2014 7:26 am

It was too tough to discern the frog subspecies. The tenor section was very strong, though the buffo profundi were certainly holding their own. Sadly I forgot to bring the AN/AVS-9 (night vision rig), and the thought of environmental disaster caused by shining a headlamp on the poor critters was overwhelming. Besides, the Arroyo frogs might have their MYLF brethren rat out my evil twin Jake for his trips up Little Rock Creek.

walker · Post by **walker** » Thu Feb 20, 2014 12:19 am

Nice hike, Elwood. Thanks for the pics and such. Probably a good call to turn back given the current state of affairs in the area.

That very afternoon while you were up on Ken Burton, I rode my bike to Paul Little and explored a bit. The dam can be bypassed via the remains of the trail. Past the dam, the trail descends back into the arroyo and after you cross a washed out side drainage and enter an oak grove, the trailbed has been reclaimed by super dense poison oak that's starting to leaf out all over the place. At a certain point, there is a use trail heading roughly NW or up canyon that avoids most of the poison oak. A little lower, things open up a bit and someone has placed a bit of trail tape at the junction of the "trail" with the streambed. This is where several folks have been rescued over the last few years. The area is almost unrecognizable now and finding the trail turnoff is possibly the crux of a descent from above, especially if you're tired from a long trek from Switzers or Ken Burton. It's actually kind of a thicket of young 8-15 foot alders shooting up everywhere very close together in there so it's easy to miss the trail turnoff and end up stuck above the dam.

As for Dark Canyon, used to be a nice stroll down the old road grade from CCC ridge across a couple of washed out spots. Since the fire, it's very easy to miss the road grade turnoff along the fire break and I haven't been down as far as the washouts, so no idea what kind of shape those are in.