19/Jul/09 -- The Caltrans gate is still some 3 miles South of the Valley of
the Moon parking area and as such access to the Upper Bear Creek Trail
still requires parking at the gate (or elsewhere) and hiking 3 miles up
Highway 39 before reaching the trailhead.
The condition of the trail from the trailhead to Smith Mountain Saddle is
good however from the Saddle down to the bottom of the mountain to the creek
the trail kind of disappears in places and the valley is choked with poison
oak -- which can be fun!
21/Mar/09 -- Today was the last day of repair work needed on the blast
site and the trail is good to be re-opened by the United States Forest
Service. With any luck the USFS will review the repair work that was
done and re-open the trail!
For a review of the last day of work, check out
Last
Day of Upper Bear Creek Trail Blast Site.
07/Feb/09 -- The San Gabriel Mountains Trailbuilders did the first set of
restoration of the newly-blasted trap section, details of which
can be
found here. The trail is still closed, however, yet I would
expect that another 4 trail work sessions will get the trail working
safely once again.
31/Jan/09 -- The trail was blasted with 935 pounds of explosives, details
of which can
be found here.
30/Jan/09 -- Trail blasting has been scheduled and should take place
shortly to the point where the San Gabriel Mountains Trailbuilders will be
able to get the trail re-opened within a couple of weeks (maybe!)
25/Oct/08 -- Blasting of the cliff face will be scheduled shortly so that
the trail can be re-opened after the San Gabriel Mountains Trailbuilders
restore the path under the blast area. There are a couple of protected
species in the area that must be protected before blasting can be done, so
the Trailbuilders will be building protective safety for the local plants
and animals before the blasting starts.
02/Mar/08 -- Bear Creek Trail has been closed by the U. S. Forest Service
due to the danger of the gap across the trail. This is a good sign since
it means that some time soon we should see a blaster scheduled to get up
there and remove the rock face so that the Trailbuilders can come in an
finish the trail.
26/Jan/08 -- Another survey was performed on the Upper Bear Creek Trail
where a 15 foot section of the trail is missing. The general concensus
so far is that the rock face abutting the missing section of the trail
will need to be removed and then be cleaned up to re-establish the trail.
Other alternatives -- building a bridge, installing a retaining wall,
and what not -- would be fairly expensive and would probably take a
fairly lengthy amount of time.
If a blaster comes in, the San Gabriel Mountain Trailbuilders can come
up and re-establish the trail after the blaster is finished.
18/Jan/08 -- A survey was performed on 19/Jan/08 of the damage to the
Upper Bear Creek Trail, details of which can be found
by clicking HERE -- complete with photographs and a brief description
of the damage.
As of 22/Jan/08 no decision about how to start restoring the
trail has been reached however another survey with additional engineers
and crew is going to be made on Sunday, 27/Jan/08.
This page will be updated every time work is peformed by volunteers
or by contractors on the damaged section.
The current status of the trail is: CAN'T BE PASSED SAFELY
This web site is not operated or maintained by the US Forest Service, and
the USFS does not have any responsibility for the contents of any page
provided on the http://CrystalLake.Name/ web site. Also this web site is
not connected in any way with any of the volunteer organizations that are
mentioned in various web pages, including the
San Gabriel Mountains
Trailbuilders (SGMTBs) or the
Angeles Volunteers Association
(AVA.) This web site is privately owned and operated.
Please note that information on this web page may be inaccurate.