EISPIRATEN

Went from Vincent Gap on ACH to the confluence of Vincent Gulch and Prairie Fork/East Fork SG River on Saturday 10/20/2007. Great weather. Lots of good fall color, particularly in the Black Oaks around Wrightwood. Robinson's book calls it 3 miles one way. The trail head sign calls it 4.5. I think 4.5 mi OW is closer to the actual distance based on the topo and the time required to complete the hike.

Trail follows the old mining road to Big Horn Mine at first, and then drops down on a lower old mining road after about a quarter of a mile. The trail follows the lower old mining road for about another quarter of a mile, then drops lower down below the lower mining road at about .5 miles from the TH.

Incidently, I followed what's left of the lower mining road for another .5 miles or so past where the trail takes off, but didn't discover anything too interesting. I assume this leads to a lower tunnel of the Big Horn Mine. I'll have to come back to this one some time in the future.

At about .7 miles along the trail, one comes to a flat spur ridge. The main trail takes off to the left and continues down into the canyon. There is a use trail partially obscured by a fallen log contouring to the south. After about .25 miles this use trail comes to the site of Charles "Tom" Vincent's cabin. There's not too much to look at here, but there are some old tin cans, the remains of a chimney, the lower part of which is intact, and what appears to be a replica of the original shake sided cabin. The shake is in too good of a shape to be original material. Kind of interesting.

Back on the main trail, one soon reaches the bottom of Vincent Gulch. One crosses the gulch, and clambers up the opposite (east) bank about 10 feet down stream; look for ducks. The gulch was dry on 10/20, and from what I read usually is at this point.

The trail now stays on the east bank paralleling the gulch as it descends down toward the confluence with Priarie Fork/E. Fork. At approx UTM 11 433291E 3801820N (NAD27), you cross a side creek. This side creek was flowing very well and was an excellent source of water on 10/20/2007.

Just a bit further, there's a bit of a tricky spot. A use trail heads SE into a side canyon. It appears that this may be the main trail; it is not. This use trail just leads to a small campsite. The actual trail turns west for a few yards, enters into something of a small narrows in Vincent Gulch, staying on the east side of the gulch on a somewhat rough shelf. No problem for an experienced hiker, but not exactly a trail anymore.

As one proceeds down canyon, the trail generally follows benches along the east side of Vincent Gulch. In several spots, the benches peter out, and one is compelled to walk in the drainage. The drainage was largely dry except for the previously noted narrows. The drainage is easily passible. No major rock or brush obstacles; this is about as easy as going down a drainage gets. Keep watching for benches on the left; invariably the trail picks up again as soon as a bench becomes available. Note that multiple downed trees have fallen across the trail. We saw an older gentleman with an older style esternal frame pack, and he was having trouble negotiating some of the passages affected by downed trees. One interesting thing about the drainage is that there is an accretion of white mineral of some type of about 1mm thick on the rocks in the streambed where the water had flowed recently.

Speaking of other hikers, we only saw 3 other hikers in this area, but we saw scads of people heading up to Baden Powell and to the mine. Just something worth noting.

As one approaches the confluence of Vincent Gulch and Priarie Fork/E Fork, a sign can be found pointing to Cabin Flat that can be reached in about 1.5 to 2 miles on the remains of the old jeep trail that comes down from Cabin Flat. Unlike Vincent Gulch, Prairie Fork/East Fork was flowing very very well. Again, the white mineral accretion had been deposited on the rocks.

On the way down the canyon, we encountered numerous occurences of bear scat. At the confluence, we saw unmistakably clear bear paw prints in the mud, two sets: one quite large and the other quite small. We surmised that it was a mother and a cub. The prints were fresh.

At almost the same point that Vincent Gulch joins the E Fork, Mine Gulch joins in. On the point of the ridge that separates Vincent Gulch and Mine Gulch are several excellent spots to camp. This is the former site of Mine Gulch Camp. The foundation of what appears to have been an outhouse can be seen. Mine Gulch Camp was our turn around spot for the day given our time constraints, but given more time, several interesting variants could be had of this trip.

One interesting variant is to go to the Big Horn Mine. At the mine, one drops down the drainage below the main mine entrance down a side gully that links up with Mine Gulch. One then proceeds down Mine Gulch to the confluence with the E Fork and returns to Vincent Gap via Vincent Gulch. It is not an easy passage as I recall going down Mine Gulch, but it is doable, and one encounters quite a bit of interesting mining quipment as one descends the gulch.

Another variant would be to drive to Lupine Camp off of Blue Ridge (note that the road in Prairie Fork now ends at Lupine Camp and is no longer open to Cabin Flat. From Lupine Camp one could hike down to Mine Gulch camp and then exit to Vincent Gap via Vincent Gulch. This would of course require a car shuttle.

Lastly, a third variant, a classic, would be to come in to Mine Gulch camp on a Friday after work and spend the night. The next morning (Saturday), one would proceed down the now-a-days trailless E. Fork to one of the former trail camps (Fish Fork, Iron Fork, or The Narrows). Probably Iron Fork Camp or the Narrows would make the most sense. On Sunday, one would hike out to the Heaton Flats/E Fork Station area. This would require one heck of a car shuttle but would be a very interesting hike into not often visited country.

Whatever route you choose, this is good hiking country.

Sounds beautiful!
How steep is Mine Gulch?

Hikin_Jim: Great trip report - I am even more enthused now to visit the lower East Fork area again as soon as work allows (it's been many years since I have traveled lower than the old Mine Gulch camp). Fresh Bear Prints too, oh my!

TacoDelRio wrote:How steep is Mine Gulch?

Mine Gulch isn't actually the problem. It's getting from the Mine down the side gulch into Mine Gulch proper that is tough.

One starts here: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=34. ... &layer=DRG at the mine, proceeds down the gully past here: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=34. ... &layer=DRG and finally joins Mine Gulch here: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=34. ... &layer=DRG

It's been a few years, but I recall having to detour around drop offs and the like. We did not use any technical equipment, but it was scary steep in spots. A whole lot of scree, some of it quite loose.

It was pretty cool seeing whole mine carts and other sizeable pieces of equipment.

Once you get into Mine Gulch proper, it's a boulder strewn wash, but the grade is pretty moderate.

It's probably only 10 or so miles round trip w/ about 2000' gain (mostly on the way back), but I remember being pretty darn beat afterwards.

As I recall, there was water flowing out of the mine shaft, not that I would ever drink that, but there was not water in either the side gully or in Mine Gulch Proper. Plenty of water in the E Fork of the San G. River and water in Vincent Gulch in the side stream noted in my TR.

Thanks Jim!

thanks for this report. Now I am curious about this side creek mentioned. If only Vincent Gap wasnt so far.....

Went down Vincent Gulch Saturday PM. Spent the night close to the East Fork/ San Gab River.

Just a reminder to all- it is awfully nice down there. Nobody is hiking up from Azusa. Nobody coming down from Cabin Flats, and nobody on the Vincent Gulch trail = nice and empty wilderness.

HJ, Thanks for a great TR. The through trip from Vincent Gap to Heaton Flat is on our short list.

Thanks for reviving this, I was just eyeing this in Robinson like yesterday!

I've never done the complete East Fork San Gabriel River. Am thinking if I can arrange a drop off and pick up....

...I start in Wrightwood, take the Acorn Trail up top, then dirt road down to Cabin Flat and begin the fun? Be a full 2 days to get to Heaton Flats.

I've looked at this trail from above and wondered about it and this Saturday decided to satisfy my curiousity and I'm glad I did.
The beginning of the trail from the road to the mine was overgrown and we were concerned about how the trail would be further down, but it opened up and was really nice. The trail was mostly shaded, smooth and a nice easy grade which was nice because it was going to be hot later and I am opposed to reverse hikes on general principle.
Once we got down to the stream we crossed over the dry stream bed and kept to the left. We continued on under the trees working our way down until we came to a gully and ended up going up a trail for half a mile or so until the trail petered out and we founded ourselves going up when we figured. We should be going down. We did find a campsite with 4-5 fire pits full of burned cans and trash and a sleeping bag and some shorts and choneys scattered around. We made our way back to the trail and crossed a short section with some narrow rocky sections and some clambering, probably because we were still off the main route, but what the heck at least we were going in the right direction. There were quite a few trees down on the trail and some climbing over or around. It was easy to lose the trail with the leaves on the ground and the apparent lack of traffic.
We got onto the bottom and wandered that for a while before spotting some cairns, if one or two rocks laid on top of another can be considered a cairn and that helped. Eventually we got off the stream bottom and found the trail which seemed to have had some parts washed away and kept on going until we gotto the junction with the Cabin Flat trail and continued further down to gaze upon the mighty Praire Fork, which was flowing pretty nicely.
We stopped and rested near a brush shelter, log bench and fire pit alongside the Praire Fork.
We hung out for half an hour or so, wandered around and took some pictures then headed back. The lower parts of the trail were more difficult going back then the upper ones were, although there was actually more elevation gain at the end. The lower part just had steeper albeit short stretches.
The gnats were a hassle, but thankfully no stinging insects. I figure the ones I swallowed were just fuel to power my way up.
As we neared the junction with the road we came across 6-8 CCC workers with weed whackers and chainsaws clearing the trail. A supervisor said they were preparing it for 150 people including dignitaries coming in for something at "Green Tree," which I imagine was were the trail first opened up and offered views of Pine and Baldy. I guess it was something about this BS monument push by Judy Chu and that AstroTurf lobby group San Gabriel Mountains Forever. At least the trail got improved for as far as a "dignitary" would deign to walk and the signs got painted and redone.
We did the whole thing in 6.5 hours, or I did, my friends were back at the car well before me, but I thought that was OK for a fat old man.
The parking lot was packed, but we didn't see a single person on the trail, nor much fresh sign of any, which was a pleasant change.
I recommend the hike. It doesn't provide the sense of accomplishment of huffing and puffing to a summit, but it was nice to get to an off the beaten path destination that not many other people will see. It got me thinking of the hike to Heaton Flat, but I'll have to get over my aversion to carrying heavy packs, scrambling over rocks and camping first.

Nice one DB. Let's see some of those pic.