01-16-2013 Classic Canyon and Fall Creek

 Fall Creek right above the shadow.

This day of canyoneering started out good, became terrible for a little bit, then got back to being really fun; I’ll explain. I met up with some canyoneers near the junction of the Angeles Crest Highway and Big Tujunga Rd. The main canyon we wanted to go down was Fall Creek.  Instead of taking the fire road described in Brennen's guide, we agreed that taking Classic Canyon down to Big Tujunga Creek would be more fun.

As a second bonus we decided to take a little known canyon dubbed Camp Five down to Classic Canyon. Camp Five is really just the upper part of Classic Canyon. The drop-in point is just a few steps away from Big Tujunga Rd. We reached the only rappel in Camp Five after about half an hour of hiking. It was a pleasant 60ft drop through a lightly flowing waterfall. Looking up the waterfall from below I thought to myself, “This is a lovely way to start the day.”

Not too many people travel this canyon. This anchor station was pretty overgrown.

That's me coming down the only rappel in Camp Five. Photo courtesy and copyright Mark C.

The fun didn’t last for long. Immediately after the waterfall the canyon got choked up with brush. Since I wasn’t carrying a rope I thought I might as well take the lead and try to break the brush for everyone else. That was a mistake on my part. The following hour was spent fighting (kicking!) thorny vines, ducking fallen branches, and trying not to break an ankle in hidden holes. Somewhere along the way I looked down and saw an old can half-buried in the ground. I picked it up and examined it. It was an Aspen Soda can. Pepsi stopped making that stuff back in 1982. So that can had been sitting in the canyon for the last 30 years. I stuffed it in my bag to take it back my collection of old cans I’ve found on my hikes through the years.

Looking back at Camp Five Canyon. I shan't be going there again.

Camp Five ends where the watercourse intersects with the fire road. We walked down the road a few hundred yards until we found a nice spot to drop into Classic Canyon. Classic gets some traffic, so the going wasn’t nearly as difficult as Camp Five. In fact, it was back to being a nice hike again. There was a nice cold, little trickle of water in the canyon now. The second rappel in Classic terminates in a small pool with thigh deep water (I’m 6’3”). It was a nice warm day so the water was refreshing to me. However, had we started with Classic first thing in the morning it might have been a bit cold for just regular hiking clothes. I was wearing 3mm booties and canyoneering boots to keep my feet warm. The last waterfall in Classic was a beautiful 160 footer.

It was a short walk to Big Tujunga Creek from the last waterfall in Classic. We stopped and ate some lunch. Then we hiked up creek until we crossed the fire road again. From there we took the fire road up to a deep bend towards the back of Fall Creek and dropped into the canyon.

Trekking up Big Tujunga Creek. Photo courtesy and copyright Mark C.

Just a single bolt here.

Fall Creek is a nice wet canyon.  On a colder day I would say a wetsuit might be in order, but this day was sunny and warm, so neoprene for my feet was all that was necessary. I really enjoy rappelling through water. The exhilaration from the water splashing me in the face combined with dangling from a single line in the middle of a remote and beautiful canyon washes away the stresses of urban life. On the taller waterfalls I like to stop mid-rappel for a few seconds and try to soak in the moment.

Dropping into the second and third waterfalls. Photo courtesy and copyright Mark.

 
The first rap in Fall Creek is off a single bolt. When we got to it we found a pathetic little piece of cord set up in an attempt to back up the bolt to a bush. The bolt looked solid enough for a 25ft rap, so we didn’t bother with trying to back it up.

The last waterfall of Fall Creek

Fall Creek is a pretty quick canyon. There are four rappels stacked up fairly close to each other. Bolts have placed on the third waterfall since Brennan last updated.  A capable group like ours can make it through in just a couple of hours. After finishing Fall Creek there was really only one thing left to do, hike back up to the cars. This is a long, not fun, slog of a hike. But we eventually made it back to where we had started. I really liked this group; everybody had a good attitude, and was fun to hang out with. I’d really like to hit up some more canyons with these folks again if I can.

12-08-2012 Hall Beckley Canyon

I've been going down to the Angeles National Forest a lot recently. On this day I drove to La Canada/ Flintridge to meetup with a few other canyoneers to explore Hall Beckley Canyon. Christopher Brennen describes a car shuttle in his guide to this canyon. I can tell you definitively that the shuttle is not the way to go. There is a fire road you can hike that starts at the exit point/parking area, and goes all the way up to the drop in point. Our group split up with one half hiking the fire road, and the other half (mine) driving up the Angeles Crest Highway to the drop off point described by Brennen. The trail up was in good shape, and pretty nice. When we peaked out we got a nice view of the cities.

A view of La Canada/Flintridge from the Mount Lukins fire road

When we made it over to the drop-in point we found that the other group had beaten us there by a good ten minutes. The fire road is the route to take. When we finished the canyon these guys would be able to hop in their cars and drive away, while someone from my group would have to drive me back to my truck parked on the side of the highway twenty minutes away. The shuttle is just a waste of time and gas.

Dropping into the canyon
 
We geared up and dropped into Hall Beckley. The first thirty minutes are a steep decent down a use trail. The first rappel was a short one anchored with some webbing that should probably be replaced soon.

The first rappel

 That webbing doesn't look too good

The next few rappels and down-climbs were pretty straight forward. There was webbing already in place at all the raps. Some of the webbing looked a little sun bleached and might need replacing soon. The biggest rappel in the canyon is 140ft with five ledges before you get to the bottom.

The large multi-step rappel 

After the next rappel there is a cave on the the left hand side of the canyon. I only crawled in about 10, but it goes back about 75ft before it's closed off by a man made wall. After the cave the battle to keep my shoes dry became futile. We started to see a lot of piping and cable that has been long forgotten by the water company.

Steel cable ladder

Brennen has eight rappels listed in his guide, but we had to rap eleven times. The wire cables he describes as being down-climbable are no longer viable. After we climbed down a couple of debris dams it was a short walk to the quiet neighborhood that we had met at in the morning.

The first and bigger of two debris dams

One of the members of our group, Jason, runs a neat canyoneering  resource called uCanyon. The site has all kinds of canyoneering information. One thing Jason does is make these awesome illustrations of canyons with all the information you need. Here's the one he made for Hall Beckley:

11-24-2012 Supercloud Canyon

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work off some of the excess Thanksgiving calories this weekend in a canyon. Located in the Angeles National Forest, cut into Mount Disappointment is a shady, pleasant canyon dubbed Supercloud Canyon by Christopher Brennen. I met up with with my fellow canyon-mates at the Switzer Trailhead along the Angeles Crest Highway. This trip requires a car shuttle; so we left a car on the side of the road near our exit point, then we managed to fit six more people into my truck and we drove up just past the Red Box Ranger Station to start our hike.

The approach to the drop-in point is an easy 45 minute walk up a gated Forest Service road to a use-trail that takes you to a steepish scree slope. Dropping into the canyon was a simple affair. The scars of the Station Fire are still visible on the larger trees.

Debris Dam

After maybe a 10 minute walk we came to the first rappel. Like the previous two canyons I've done, this one has been bolted since Brennen last updated his beta. After inspecting the webbing and bolts, we proceeded to rap on down.

Getting ready for the first rap

After the first rappel things proceeded quickly. The next station was just a short walk down canyon. We had a couple of ropes, so we were able to rig the next rap as soon as a couple people got down. And that's how it went. The two rappels that weren't bolted were rigged to solid tree anchors, so, no worries there.

 Fireman's belay at the first rappel

 Solid natural anchor for the third rap

Yeehaw!

A nice fallen tree anchor for the last rap

Looking up at the last rappel


There was a trickle of water at the last waterfall. It was just enough to keep the moss moist, my feet did not get wet. After the last rappel it's a bit of a walk to the highway. There's a decent trail with a bit of rock hopping here and there. There were a few pools of water along the way. There are the remains of a concrete structure just past a debris dam. We got a little mixed up trying to find the use trail back to the cars but after a few backtracks we figured it out.

Did somebody live here at one time? Maybe it was related to the nearby debris dams?

 After crossing a little log bridge be ready to turn left down this use-trail.

This was a fun little canyon. I really enjoyed the company of my fellow canyoneers. I hope we can meet up and do another canyon soon.

A view of Los Angeles from the Angeles Crest Highway

10-13-2012 Suicide Canyon

Big Tujunga River

For this adventure I again had to leave my familiar Los Padres NF and head over to our neighbor, the Angeles NF. I was going to go on another technical canyoneering  trip.  The canyon for the day was Suicide Canyon. It’s one of many canyons cut into Mount Lunkins and drains out in to the Big Tujunga River. If you are interested in any of these canyons, the guru of southern California canyoneering, Christopher Brennen, has excellent descriptions on his website.

Through early morning fog I see visions of the things to be

I met up with my canyon-mates at the Stonyvale parking lot at 7:00am. We didn’t waste much time before started out on the use trail to the canyon. What kinda sucks is right off the bat, I mean within 50 yards of the trailhead you have to cross the Big Tujunga River. The river was calm and nice, but there was nowhere to cross without getting your feet soaked. Everybody else just charged across, so I did the same. You have to cross the river again another hundred or so yards down the trail. From there you don’t get wet again until you’re in Suicide’s watercourse. I would suggest wearing a pair of sandals or something until you get past the river crossings, then put on your boots; your feet will thank you.

Crossing the Big Tujunga River

The Maxon Route

We took the Maxon route as described in Prof Brennan's guide. It’s steep and the tread was loose. There are patches of poison oak so you have something to focus on other than your footing. After climbing a few hundred feet we passed some power lines. A little past that, there was a slightly narrow ridge that was easily passed. Then the ‘trail’ got a lot more overgrown. We basically just bushwhacked our way over to the canyon.

 

Once we had dropped into the canyon we geared up. We followed a small trickle of water down a few yards to the first challenge, a 200 ft. waterfall named, ‘Lovers Leap’.  In his guide, Prof. Brennan uses natural anchors for all his rappels. In the time that has passed since he published his guide, someone (I'm guessing Matt Maxon) has installed bolt anchors at all but one of the rappels.

Overlooking 'Lovers Leap'

Coming down 'Lovers Leap'. Photo courtesy and © Andre

The first rappel of any canyon is always an introspective moment for me. Have I forgotten to secure something? Am I on the right line? Do I really want to do this? A lot of questions race through my head. A big one is, am I about to die? But I go through my mental checklist, ask somebody else to check me out, and when I get the thumbs up, it's time to go. After you really lean back and let the rope take the load and you don't tumble to your death on the jagged rocks below it becomes a fun experience.

Photo courtesy and © Andre

Photo courtesy and © Andre

Down at the bottom I soon realized another danger; falling rocks. The whole way down the canyon we were sprinkled with loose rocks from above. Belaying was particularly risky. At one point I had to duck out of the way of a face shattering, golf ball sized rock that had been dislodged by the person I was belaying. 

 Photo courtesy and © Andre

The rappels kept coming precipitously; we never had to hike far before rigging up again. Once a few of us would get down, we would take a rope and try to find the next anchor while the rest of the group came down. Most of the rappels were fairly tall. There were a least a couple that were in the 80-100 ft. range. 

 Posing for a picture

... I can take or leave it if I please
 
After a few hours we made it down the last rappel. I would suggest that if you decide to pack up your gear here that you keep your helmet on until you completely leave the canyon. Those rocks I mentioned before were still raining down on us as we made our way back to the Big Tujunga confluence.