East Fork SG river 7/2-7/3 Heaton to Alder Gulch
Posted: Mon Jul 06, 2015 12:21 pm
Went for an easy overnight on some humid days.
Forward to up the midway ridge, just past the bridge to nowhere canyon. OK, there is the really stupid way to the Stanely-Miller mine, and then there is the northbound no way to the mine anymore LOL...worse, I forgot to bring my topo map. After struggling for a few hours, I managed to grab a hold of the pipe in some brush signifying Stanley-Miller territory..yay! Losing a few hundred feet in elevation brought me to the regular sightseeing. I walked to the ore cart as the typical tourist, but my flashlight was illuminating a lot of dust in the air...something a lower level light wasnt picking up, just saying.
Heading back down to the river, I did regret not visiting the cabin, but I needed to focus on getting down....which ended up being OK considering. I dont think anyone actually uses the 'less than one strand' twine, but I only got one trash out of there...still one left.When I got to the river, shortly thereafter I was met by 1 of 2 rescue air5s...who seem to be focusing from the bridge to just upstream. I pushed onto Fish Fork camp.
Next morning I set out for Alder Gulch and got there in 2 hours or more. I headed up Alder Gulch in hopes of seeing that darned Blue Jay cabin but turned around 1/2 an hour of travel in. I had imagined a wild unassuming creek, but fairly easy travel. Nope....instead its a steep rock canyon. Once I saw there was no mercy I was out of there.
Overall from Alder Gulch to Heaton, it was nice. Maybe I was there at the right time, but from Alder to Fish Fork there is a tricky trail....tricky in that typically when it crosses the river, a person has to go upstream to find it again, but it was there and a huge time saver. Most of the rivers were flowing nicely...the east fork, FF(kinda strong flow), IF(spring time conditions), Falls Gulch even has a small flow. The only other thing is there was a flash flood in the past year, as evidenced in the section between IF and the bridge. Some miners were at work, just mucking it up even worse....ridiculous stuff.
Midway ridge
The BTN canyon area seen from the ridge...the topo says the trail went to that grey scree area lower middle and went up to to Allison ridge, top mid.
View towards the Angeles Crest, the predominant view.
Ross
The end of Iron Fork
East Fork past Iron Fork
Known as a grotto on Ross side, but I havent seen any ferns here.
Previous spot as seen from Falls Gulch.
The tinniest bit of narrows past Fish Fork
Views of the terrain on Ross/subpeak 5599
Bypassing a cascade in Alder Gulch early on.
Looking down cascade
Turn around point. The cabin is listed as 1 mile in and I probably did less than 1/4 mile.
Flash flood remains and the miners
Forward to up the midway ridge, just past the bridge to nowhere canyon. OK, there is the really stupid way to the Stanely-Miller mine, and then there is the northbound no way to the mine anymore LOL...worse, I forgot to bring my topo map. After struggling for a few hours, I managed to grab a hold of the pipe in some brush signifying Stanley-Miller territory..yay! Losing a few hundred feet in elevation brought me to the regular sightseeing. I walked to the ore cart as the typical tourist, but my flashlight was illuminating a lot of dust in the air...something a lower level light wasnt picking up, just saying.
Heading back down to the river, I did regret not visiting the cabin, but I needed to focus on getting down....which ended up being OK considering. I dont think anyone actually uses the 'less than one strand' twine, but I only got one trash out of there...still one left.When I got to the river, shortly thereafter I was met by 1 of 2 rescue air5s...who seem to be focusing from the bridge to just upstream. I pushed onto Fish Fork camp.
Next morning I set out for Alder Gulch and got there in 2 hours or more. I headed up Alder Gulch in hopes of seeing that darned Blue Jay cabin but turned around 1/2 an hour of travel in. I had imagined a wild unassuming creek, but fairly easy travel. Nope....instead its a steep rock canyon. Once I saw there was no mercy I was out of there.
Overall from Alder Gulch to Heaton, it was nice. Maybe I was there at the right time, but from Alder to Fish Fork there is a tricky trail....tricky in that typically when it crosses the river, a person has to go upstream to find it again, but it was there and a huge time saver. Most of the rivers were flowing nicely...the east fork, FF(kinda strong flow), IF(spring time conditions), Falls Gulch even has a small flow. The only other thing is there was a flash flood in the past year, as evidenced in the section between IF and the bridge. Some miners were at work, just mucking it up even worse....ridiculous stuff.
Midway ridge
The BTN canyon area seen from the ridge...the topo says the trail went to that grey scree area lower middle and went up to to Allison ridge, top mid.
View towards the Angeles Crest, the predominant view.
Ross
The end of Iron Fork
East Fork past Iron Fork
Known as a grotto on Ross side, but I havent seen any ferns here.
Previous spot as seen from Falls Gulch.
The tinniest bit of narrows past Fish Fork
Views of the terrain on Ross/subpeak 5599
Bypassing a cascade in Alder Gulch early on.
Looking down cascade
Turn around point. The cabin is listed as 1 mile in and I probably did less than 1/4 mile.
Flash flood remains and the miners