GST
East-Fork Trek
San Gabriel River - East Fork
January, 2006
The Group (Ken,
Gary C., Eric and Mike) met at the East-Fork parking area around 7am., and
prepared their packs for the hike. Arriving last, Gary looked
somewhat concerned. As it happened, he wasn't sure he wasn't lost,
trying to find the spot.
I was amazed at
how light Mike's pack was, and wondered why I pack so heavy. Eric
did a pretty good job of packing light as well. Gary was packing his
3-man tent and conventional sleeping bag, which allowed him to come in
second place for the Heaviest Pack award. No prize was given.
Before heading
out, I asked everyone when they backpacked last. Knowing the only
way to truly condition for backpacking is to backpack., it was my turn to
be concerned when Gary stated this would be his first backpacking
trek. That and having the 2nd heaviest pack... well, this could be
good or bad. There are groups of muscles that only get stressed by
backpacking. You'll know the 'ones', the day following a trip.
Gary's endurance and stamina more than made up for any mistakes we might
have made., pack weight wise.
The first
1/2-mile is a fun stroll along a dirt road to the actual trailhead.
The group was cheerful., perhaps thinking we'd be strolling along a dirt
road all the way. Any such notion was quickly forgotten once we
reached the actual trailhead.
Another
1/2-mile (if that) and it was time for the first of many river
crossing. I had thought about changing in and out of river runners,
at each crossing. Then, at the last minute, decided I just do my
usual sloshing (wet-wading) across. The only way to wet-wade and
backpack is to wear Neoprene socks, as a wet fabric sock will kill your
feet during the grunt work of packing.
You can just see the expression of joy on Gary's face, as
he changes his foot gear for yet another crossing.
Other than a
couple pictures during the river crossings, I kept my camera stored.
Hiking in the shadows of the canyon mountains makes for some lousy
pictures. Besides, I was constantly scanning the terrain to ensure
we stayed on, at, or near the trail. As anyone who knows, the East
Fork trail can be tricky to follow. With each downpour of rain, the
trail (nearest the river) tends to change. True, one can just follow
the river and expect to reach their destination. But keeping to the
trail often provides a better path, with less boulder hoping and ankle
twisting, to travel on. As it happened, I think we made eight
crossings., when we should have made only four. On the hike out, we
succeeded at making just the 'four' crossings. Although, two of the
extra crossings involved going around, rather over, a cliff edge to rejoin
the trail. We erred on the side of caution. Somehow, going the
other direction (on the way out) the cliff looked less dangerous. Or,
perhaps, we were too tired to care... anything to get back to the parking
area on a more 'Direct' route.
Nearly three
hours into the trek, each time they asked 'How much further to the
bridge?', I was always sure it was 'around the next bend'. After
saying so, four or five times, I started just saying 'We're nearly
there...'. Those 'Next Bends' seemed to be never ending.
Finally, we came across the sign that marks the 'Private' (leased) land
around the bridge. I told the group we had made it to the bridge...
at which, they looked around and thought I was suffering from some kind of
sickness. Yep, "It's just up ahead around the Next
Bend". For some reason, they just didn't believe that statement
anymore. But at last, the Bridge was in fact around the next bend...
or two.
Gary, Eric and Mike (L-R) as they approached the Bridge to
Nowhere.
Gary and I on the bridge.
We took a break
at the bridge, as we watched a group of people preparing to bungee jump
off of it. I'm not sure, but I think something related to that may
be why Gary and I are laughing in the above picture. After a thirty
minute break, we loaded up and continued to our journey to the 'Narrows'.
The group expressed some
concern as we rounded a cliff edge, leading away from the bridge. Yes,
this is the trail ... I insisted. And sloooowly, we rounded the
drop-off. Now, without the loads on our backs, this wouldn't have
been so dramatic. With the backpacks, one false step and you'd be
hurting at the bottom of the cliff. More a matter of balance than
that of weight.
No more than another 1/2-mile
into the 'Narrows' (Narrow Canyon), the trail seemed to cross the river
again. But then, I wasn't sure we were even on the right
trail. I was certain that the trail ran along the top of the
Narrows., and we were heading into the Narrows. We decided to
back-track and see if we could meet up with the trail on the Topo... the
one that runs atop the canyon wall. We never did find it., but
that's probably because we gave up and decided we'd setup camp where we
were.
Eric and Mike crossing back when the trail went cold.
We found a nice campsite
overlooking the river and got to work setting up. As only
trout-chasers eager to get chasing trout can. The tents were up in
near record time and we were off to chase trout.
Gary and Eric went down river.,
Mike and I ventured up river. Gary radioed that he'd caught
something. Eric made a static sound. And Mike was long
gone. So I found a little pool and did a little fishing too.
After a 15-20 minutes of searching, I found a pool that paid off.
A beautiful 10-11" bow would be the reward.
Followed by this 12" bow from a pool just up river
from the last.
And then this little guy from the same pool.
And then this little guy from the same pool.
Three fish from the same pool
and still getting strikes. Eric approached and the bite fell
off. Figuring the fish had tired of my pattern, I invited Eric to
try the pool with his pattern. I left him there, while I explored a
little further up river. Now, when I left, Eric was getting strikes.
Eric fishing the pool of many fish...
or in his case, the pool of many strikes.
I traveled up
river a bit and found Mike hoping boulders like a frog, on his way back
down river. He asked if I had caught any fish... and to my reply
said he hadn't., but the water looked good and promising up river from
us. Having had my fun for the day, I decided to head back to camp to
relax and get started on dinner. Passing Eric, on the way back to
camp, he was still working that pool and getting strikes.
Back at camp,
we talked about our discoveries and told fish tales of the days' trout
chasing. I was quick to point out, in the words of Dan, 'You didn't
catch it if you don't have a picture'. Kicking back at the little
camp, you couldn't help feeling satisfied. We didn't make it to the
forks (beyond the Narrows), but we made it to where we were and it was a
splendid spot.
Gary, Mike and Ken at camp.
Mike the morning after, with his stove that liked to never
run out of gas.
He kept saying he was just going to let it burn off ...
as it burned and burned and burned.
After breakfast, it was back to
trout chasing in the Narrows., before heading back. I was eager to
hike deeper into the Narrows, to see what pools I might find. And,
to see if the Narrows could be navigated by backpackers. Seemingly,
the Narrows can be navigated with a pack... but it would be slow going in
some spots. A light pack and strong staff should do the trick.
A fantastic pool in the Narrows. Now, if it only had some
fish in it.
Hiking further
into the Narrows, I came across pool and pool. Some so deep I
wouldn't consider wading across, unless I was prepared to swim.
Again, mike zipped pass me and ventured up river. I got the
impression that he was mostly interested in scouting out the terrain and
determining if we could have made it trough the Narrows to the
Forks. With no regrets, we basically concluded that we could have.
Fishing the
first of many pools, I wasn't surprised at hooking up with a health
12" bow. And then another one from the same pool. To
angle the pool I had to wade atop the falls and straddle a boulder to keep
from going down the 6-8' falls into the pool. But it was worth the effort,
as the follow two pictures show.
At this point,
I was happy in the knowledge that my hunch had proven correct. The
Narrows do hold some rather nice fish. Which only further enforced
my further belief that broad stock might be located beyond the Narrows.,
if not a Fly-Fishing Nirvana.
Soon
it was nearing 11am, the time by which we had decided would be the time to
hike back out. The radio squawked a message from the official time
keeper (Eric)., and we all returned to the camp to pack up and head out.
Before heading back to camp, I turned to snap a picture of one of the many
falls.
Pictures seldom
convey the size of falls, when you don't have something or someone in the
picture for reference. The pool in the background (above the falls
pictured) was about 30' long, 20' wide and an estimated 6-8' deep.
The falls themselves were
about 10-12' tall, feeding into another deep pool.
The hike back
to the parking area went smoothly. Even with a few breaks along the
way, we made good time., and managed to steer clear of extra river
crossings. It was hard to keep from stopping to fish. It's the
same old story... so much water, so little time.
The last
1/2-mile from the trailhead to the parking area seem much longer than the
day before. And I was pretty sure that one of the guys had put
boulders in my backpack., maybe in a hope to slow me down.
With the sun
starting to wane, we arrived back at the parking area to find it FULL of
vehicles and people. We threw the packs off and sat there talking
for a little while before each of us headed down the road.
I enjoyed this
trip. Mike had demonstrated that one could pack extremely light and
enjoy the trek no lesser. Eric gave us a demonstration of why ankle
support is important. Mike and Eric gave me a demonstration of the
modern day (light weight) gas canister stoves. At a third the weight
of the Peak-1 and fuel bottle I was carrying, I was sold on a getting a
Pocket Rocket stove. And Gary demonstrated that chasing Deer is
actually good conditioning for backpacking... And, that it's always a good
idea to hang your Adventure Pass in the window. He had forgotten and
had a nice little ticket on his windshield. Nice, in that, it merely
stated that he need only send the $5 daily fee in the provided envelope. A
kindler and gentler National Forest, I suppose.
We'll
be back
