Upper Bear Creek Made Useable If You're Careful

Today the San Gabriel Mountains Trailbuilders returned to Upper Bear Creek and the section of the trail that is missing to determine whether the trail needed to be routed around the failed section or whether the existing section can be restored. I got to climb ropes! Joy. And only nearly fell to my death once or twice.

During the previous survey we encountered metal rebar in the trail along the way so today we brought tools with us to remove the old rebar which constituted a tripping hazard. It took a lot of effort to get all of the metal rods removed but eventually the rods were added to the team's spare parts bin. We'll use that metal for other projects.

The missing section was once again examined in some detail and sections of the rock face were chipped apart with a pick ax to test the possibility of using explosives or expansion materials to remove enough of the rock to re-establish the trail.

Additionally crew volunteers climbed up the cliff face to the East of the mission section to examine the possibility of using placing safety equipment for volunteers to crack apart and remove a large part of the rock face.

Eventually we got down to actually tackling the shelf of jutting friable granite rock at the base of the bulge on the rock face, working to see how much of it we could remove with just the tools we had brought with us. Not surprisingly we managed to remove enough that a REASONABLY safe passage was made.

What we found was that people had been crossing the missing section any way (we found their foot prints on the far side of the gap) despite the fact that we had placed a barricade and a rope across the trail. In fact some stupid shit STOLE our rope since when we got there it was missing.

The issue is always one of safety. People were crossing the gap despite the danger and despite the fact that a note at the trailhead indicated that the trail was out just past the 2 mile mark. We made the trail much safer to cross the gap however doing so still means that hikers must use their hands to cling to the rock face while crossing the gap.

While we were working there were four hikers that came through, two of which cross the gap prior to our efforts to make the crossing safer despite my recommending that they don't attempt it. The other two hikers climbed down into the ravine below, crossed, and then climbed up the far side -- which was also rather dangerous.

We came up with something like five good ideas on how we might get the trail safe and usable once again, and all suggested methods will be presented to the U. S. Forest Service and hopefully a decision will be made. If the USFS blasts, the Trailbuilders will come up and clean the results up and rebuild the trail. I HOPE that they blast and allow me to video tape it since explosions makes good theature.

But as it stands, the trail can be used by experienced and careful hikers, it seems to me in my opinion, but the missing section of the trail should probably not be crossed by young kids or adults who don't have a lot of practice rock climbing. Hikers should consider the trail to still be out and I wouldn't recommend that anyone cross the gap.

In all it was another great day to be out and getting exercise. We didn't do nearly as much actual work as we normally like to do but at least we got some things accomplished.