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A peaceful hike in a canyon almost ends in a serious injury!

A new friend and I explored one of my favorite haunts in the area: Millard Canyon.  I’ve probably hiked this trail a dozen times in the past, but it’s been a few years since my last visit so I was looking forward to seeing it again.  Sam and I met at 9am in the parking lot closest to the trailhead.  We passed many parked vehicles along Chaney Trail, possibly foreshadowing the amount of people we would find on the trail.  However, this wasn’t the case.  Although it is one of the more popular family hiking trails in the front side of the San Gabriel Mountains, there were very few people in the canyon.  We saw only one or two families along the 1/2 mile trail to the waterfalls.

Sunny blue skies bathed most of the  San Gabriel and San Fernando Valley this morning, but clouds hung over the peaks of the lower San Gabriel Mountains, sliding into canyons such as this one.  Humid atmosphere hung in the canyon dampening the ground, trees, and rocks. The thick air made Millard Canyon all the more magical, as if taken from a fairy tale.

Most visitors to this canyon only take the trail as far as the waterfall and do not attempt the upper canyon area.  To get to the upper canyon, find the trail about 100 yards below the falls on the south side of the canyon.  It is marked by a simple post.  This steep path runs right up the side of the canyon and is one of the most difficult areas of the trail.  Scramble on hand and foot up about 100 feet and you’ll find a trail leading up and around the waterfall, rewarding hikers with a few miles of less disturbed nature.  There’s also an old mine at the end of the canyon – Dawn Mine – that offers some spelunking for those adventurous enough to explore dark wet caves.

Sam and I hiked about two miles into the canyon until we reached the second difficult spot on the trail, an area where a landslide and/or flood had filled the canyon with truck-sized boulders.  We took a break here.  While we were resting, a group of hikers approached.  I had my back facing the lower trail and had only noticed the first two hikers, but in just a minute or so, fifteen hikers had snuck up on us.  Without a word, Sam and I decided it would be best to stay in front of this group, so we quickly got up and going.  Sam took just a few steps before she slipped, falling face first off a small boulder and down onto another boulder.  I looked on helplessly as she hit the rock hard.  She took a minute to take a damage check – a bruised knee and some dings here and there – but relatively unscathed.  It could have been a lot worse.  A broken leg here and it would have been a difficult medical evacuation.  Sam is a great hiker (she would end up kicking my ass up Telescope Peak for hike #21) and her fall just made it more clear on how dangerous hiking can be.  Every step counts.

We turned around after the fall and kept a constant pace with few stops back to the trailhead.  We both assumed that the rush of adrenalin Sam experienced immediately after the fall would wear off sooner than later, making it hard for her to walk, let along hike.  Sure enough, Sam’s leg would need to be iced at home, but she was back on her feet the next day.

Thoughts about the hike:

1. I’m glad I always pack a first aid kit when hiking.  Not sure how much good it did Sam other than cover up a few scratches, but bandages are better than nothing, I suppose.  The pain-relieving pills were probably the most appreciated aid given.

Resources:

1. LocalHikes – Millard Canyon – Dawn Mine
2. Dan’s Hiking Pages: Millard Canyon Falls

Hike #18 Trip GPS Stats:

• Date of hike: June 14th, 2009
• Location: Millard Canyon – Altadena, California
• Length: 3.8 miles
• Duration: 3 hours, 7 minutes
• Average speed: ±1.2 mph
• Altitude at start: 1,795 feet
• Altitude min.max: 1,795/2.542 feet

This map was made with the data my GPS captured on the hike.
For a more detailed trip report map, check this out.

Photos: