Wes and I left Pasadena shortly after 9 am. We arrived at the Wildwood picnic area around 10. We crossed the stream, followed the wash a little bit and walked the trail which snaked its way up alongside the canyon. The most surprising thing was to see very moist environment and even fern on the way up. It is rare to see fern in Southern California. The hike is pretty much up all the way. It took about three hours to get up there. There was a big Korean hiking group eating lunch on the top and the views weren't that great because of the clouds/haze so we walked down for a minute and ate lunch. We suspect it is the same Korean group that we saw last month on Cucamong. Last month when we asked them they said it is a hike organized by one of the Korean high school alumni associations. After lunch, we decided to run down to the parking lot to see if we can make it in an hour and a half. We did.
Wes and I started from Pasadena around 8:30 in the morning. It was a little cloudy on the freeway but by the time we started driving up the mountain it cleared off. The parking lot for Icehouse canyon was full because there was an organized Korean group hike at the same time. We parked on the road then started walking on the trail. There were maple trees along the way by the stream. It was good to see some fall colors. It was a gentle hike up to the Icehouse saddle where it was windy and cold. We ate something quick, put on my sweatshirt and went on a fairly level trail to Cucamonga saddle. From there, it was a steady but not too steep climb to the peak. We stopped at a few places along the way. It was windy. Fromt he top we could see clouds rolling over the mountains and blanketing the city. It felt like we were on an island or looking down from an airplane. After enjoying the view and lunch, we started heading down. The portion of the trail from Icehouse saddle to the parking lot seemed to go forever. My feet were tired which would develop into intense pain for the next several days.
Dan and Jackie drove in their car and I drove in my car. Take 210 to 5, take 14 N then exit at Agua Dulce Road. Another couple miles on the road to the gate. We drove to the parking lot next to famous rocks then spent couple hours scrambling. Then we started walking towards the "caves" near the tunnel on the PCT. Dan and Jackie turned back because they had to drive to Berkeley. I started running. Saw the "caves". There was even water. Turns out these caves are more like shelters which are the result of a lot of wear and tear on the mountains. After seeing four of these massive shelters I ran up a shortcut to the PCT then another shortcut to the parking lot to find Dan and Jackie who were just about to leave. Driving time back home: about 50 minutes.
Sumit and I drove to Kings Canyon National Park and camped there. In the morning, we went on a short walk first to the roaring river falls then on the meadow loop further towards the end of the road. Then we drove to Yosemite. Sumit and I managed to borrow a raft from some folks and event floated on the river for a bit. I walked to the lower Yosemite falls while Sumit took a nap in the car. Then we took the shuttle to the Happy Isles and hiked to the top of Vernal falls.
Sumit, Nandu, Ricardo, and I got to Colby Canyon (highway 2, just past Switzer picnic area sign) around noon. We walked along the trail for 10 minutes then split off into the canyon when the trail started meandering on the side of the canyon. The first obstacle was not easy. It was probably a 5.7 class move with a pool of water underneath. Others preferred to go around the rock but I managed to traverse the rock without falling. Once we arrived at the waterfall, it took a little bit of convincing to get people on the rocks. No one had prior rock climbing experience and this waterfall does not require any. Everyone was excited about the scramble up the waterfall. The first section was a little slippery and had a place where you would have to pull yourself up a ledge and more climbing to a platform. Nandu gave up (after taking a short fall) but three (including myself) managed to climb to the platform. The second section involved more climbing on the left side of the waterfall. The rock was solid and the handholds were plenty. With a bit of encouragement and screaming, everyone eventually managed to come up this part. The third section was the trickiest. It involved climbing across the waterfall. Very slippery and a non trivial pull yourself up with only sketchy handholds and slippery footholds. I went first. Then Sumit. Then Ricardo. This section looked 10 times scarier than it actually was. After coming up, we started the fourth section which leads us to the trail. This part looked easy but it took the longest time to overcome. This was not climbing on rock - it was just loose soil and scree. If you stand on it, you are sure to fall down. I showed everyone my technique of running up the side. But others were not convinced of the technique so they spent about 20 minutes inventing their own techniques. Sumit at one point said "I am stuck, and I am not going to move". We laughed and screamed and encouraged each other. After what seemed like a long time, we managed to pull ourselves to the trail.
At this point, we could just walk down the trail and follow the canyon. Another option was to climb down. We thought it would be impossible to down-climb the cross-waterfall (third) section. So we decided to take a different route. We managed to come down miraculously in one piece in less than 15 minutes. Nandu seemed pretty bored watching all this drama for the last hour. Then we hurried back to the trailhead and the car and the road.
Mikkel, Lauren, Dan, Jackie, and I went on this backpacking trip. It involved sleeping overnight without a tent. It was a bit worrisome because there were plenty of tics and ladybugs around. We started at the hunting hollow entrance. We hiked up for an hour to the ridgeline. After some cross country traverse, we ate lunch. Then we left our packs a mile short of pacheco falls and spend the afternoon hiking down to the falls and coming back up. The following morning he hiked to Coit lake. Then we went to Kelly lake. Then we hiked to Coyote creek. The total for the second day was about 9 miles but 2 miles were steep. I fell once but nothing broken.
Wes and I started driving around 8am and we hit the trail around 9. About an hour into the trip, we took a little detour to the bottom of the waterfall. The trail to the water was steep but not bad. After taking a few pictures, while we were heading back to the trail Wes realized that he no longer had the topo map. After looking around for a while, he found it on the way up to the trail.
Then we started walking again. Other than our brief stops, we kept on moving. I did fall into the river while crossing it. Banged by knee and hit my hand, but no body parts fell off. After collecting myself, we started walking again. We were anticipating this huge thicket that we would have to whack through, but no, other than the sun, nothing of that sort met us on the way. The trail up to the Paul Little camp goes along the stream, crosses it countable but too-tiring-to-count number of times, and goes up on a gentle incline along the stream. We sat on the bench for a bit. The trail after the camp is steeper but not impossible. We took our time. When we emerged on the saddle, it was around noon. Then we walked along the saddle to reach the base of the final climb. It looked pretty steep. We drank some water. This is not going to be easy.
After eating lunch, I tried to take a nap on one of the big rocks on the summit. It didn't work. We decided to head down after spending about half an hour relaxing, looking around, and making plans for our next hike. We were down to the base of the last climb in less than 10 minutes. We walked along the ridge - first down then a slow up to the saddle. Then steeper downhill to the camp with tons of people trying to find enough room to camp in a narrow campsite. Yep, they have arrived. Then, another couple hours to the trailhead. Realized that it is tiring to walk 14 miles in a day.
Wes and I wanted to leave around 8 but we managed to be late. I picked up Wes in Pasadena and we drove to the Switzer Falls parking lot. It was a nice half an hour drive. We were very excited about our second canyon hike on CB's website. We walked the service road for about half a mile. I was realizing how wonderful it is to breathe some air underneath the trees. We came to a river crossing where the service road ended. We then walked another half a mile on a trail that provided a lookout to Switzer Falls. The trail that went around the cliff reminded me of scenes from the movie: The Caravan. The trail went down to the river. We decided to do the side trip to the fall before going to the gorge. We had to do a lot of jumping on the rocks and water to cross the stream. It probably required 4-5 crossing before we got to the lower fall. We then walked around the fall and headed to the upper fall. The path between the lower and the upper fall was more challenging. I was determined not to get my feet wet so I always found creative ways to cross the stream. At times Wes would almost give up but I managed to encourage him. Water spray from the huge fall made standing near it very refreshing. Wes was saying he was surprised to find so much water at this time of the year. But considering the storms two weeks ago, this is perhaps not too surprising.
We then walked down to the trail, once again enjoying jumping on the rocks and running across the stream without getting wet. Then we headed towards Royal gorge. The stream was bigger and the crossings more involved. Wes and I once spent five minutes building a brige: hauling a big fallen trunk on to the stream. But we saw it getting washed away as soon as we had thought it was stable. By increasing the jump range, I managed to keep my feet dry. Wes tried to use the technique of running fast in deep water to keep his feet dry. He had limited success on that front. Once we got to the place where the stream we were on met Bear canyon, we looked at each other in surprise. It was not a small stream that we were expecting. It was an energetic flow of water that we had to interact with for the next five? hours. We tried looking around for a way to make any progress. After ten minutes of trying, we were still at the junction of the two streams. We were ready to get wet but not soaking wet. We will come here next time mentally prepared to get soaking wet and we are going to traverse the whole gorge too.
Sunhee, Sumit and I wanted to go to the wilderness and enjoy the fresh snow. We wanted to leave at 4:30 but it was 6:45 by the time we left. We saw snow on the side of the road not too far from the Millard canyon ranger station. We even stopped on the side of the road to take pictures. We wanted to take the fork to Forest Falls but we missed the turn and suddenly we ended up in a huge traffic. We had reached the snow control area and the traffic was due to excited people going to Big Bear to catch some bears. We made a U-turn and slowly drove down the hill, then we made a left on to the road leading to Forest Falls. There was a lot of snow on the road. Once we got to the place where John and I spent a lot of time putting the chains on at the begining of the town, we realized that it would be too dangerous to proceed without chains. Then we drove back to the ranger station and went to Stater Bros to buy chains. Turns out last year they got rid of their inventory of chains so they were no longer selling chains. That means, John has one of the last chains that the store sold. We drove around town for almost an hour shopping for cheap chains. We finally found chains for $30 and we were now on our way back to the wilderness. This set of chains was surprisingly easy to put on the wheels. I was worried it might fall off. After five minutes we could not hear the chain induced vibration. I asked Sumit to stop the car. Then, I looked at the wheels and the chains were still on. This was unexpected.
Once parked at the Vivian creek trailhead picnic area around 10am, we started walking with snowshoes in our hands. The snow seemed packed enough that we were sinking only half a foot. We decided to return snow shoes to the car. Then we started walking. Legs were doing rhythmic motion: left right left right ... Sunhee was getting a little tired so we walked slow but we still made sure that there are no two left's in a row. We then got to the river crossing, crossed the river with occassional contemplation and cautious advances on jump-requiring sections. We were the first ones to walk on the snow after previous day's heavy snowfall so everything was pristine.
At the real trailhead we stopped to eat our lunch. Then we walked up a little bit. This is probably my fifth or sixth time on this trailhead, but we still managed to get lost in about five minutes. I had never seen such deep snow around here. Sunhee was walking the slowest so we asked her to lead as soon as we got lost. Then we were meandering around and surprisingly she managed to lead us to the trail. At that point she declared that she is going to just sit down and take a break. Sumit and I ran ahead for about five minutes. We were sinking almost up to our knees but I was glad I did not bring my snowshoes because snowshoes would have made things too easy. Sumit and I almost reached the sign that announced the beginning of the wilderness area and we headed back. Once we got back to Sunhee's resting area, we casually walked down taking frequent breaks and pictures. Once at the bottom, we decided to walk down the river rather than go across the river to the service road. While on the river, Sumit and Sunhee took part in snow plate and food making competition which I think Sumit won easily. Then we walked on the river for a while. This part was very enjoyable because the snow was deep and powdery. We did not meet anyone the whole trip. Arriving at the parking lot we were greeted with lots of screaming and SUVs.