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“The up is gonna suck.”

Melanie, Josh and I in First Water Canyon

I’m beginning to realize that the best time to hike in Los Angeles is on a weekday morning.  While city folk start another day of their cosmopolitan lives in the urban jungle, the mountains start their day free from most humans. It’s tough for even a nature lover like myself to wake early enough on a weekday to get in a hike and get to work on time.  I have to set three alarms to get my butt out of bed.  If I’m able to roll out of bed, stumble around the apartment like a recently hibernating bear, and shock the brain awake with a shower, a sunrise hike starts to sound great. (Not so much the case the night before after a long day of work.)

Melanie has been a great hiking partner  (hike #5, hike #13), especially on weekdays.  She’s a morning person (I’m not), and is lucky enough to work from home helping others find employment.  Josh is an old friend I haven’t seen in over a decade who, out of the blue, contacted me about joining me on a hike.  One thing lead to another and we found ourselves meeting at my apartment the next morning and carpooling up into the Angeles National Forest.

Chantry Flats is a recreational area five miles up Big Santa Anita Canyon above Sierra Madre, CA.  Although it is just a 20 minute drive from my apartment in Arcadia, I have never made the journey.  I can’t comprehend why not – possibly because the road was closed for many years around the time I moved to the area – but I was happy to finally make the journey.

Our quest for the day was to make it down to Hermit Falls. The trek would be a “backwards hike”, meaning the first half would be mostly downhill while the last half would be uphill. We all enjoyed the first half, but Melanie quipped, “The up is gonna suck.” After a few switchbacks, we were into the canyon. There’s nothing as peaceful as a shady canyon filled with rays of light and sounds of running water. Along the small creek, we spotted a few check dams and cabins, most likely added many decades ago.

I set a mental alarm that we would turn around at 9:45am, giving me enough time to get home, shower, and arrive at work in Pasadena before 11am. Unfortunately, since we were all having fun photographing our surroundings, 9:45 am arrived about a 1/2 mile from the Hermit Falls. Alas, we would need to return another day to see them. (We would!)

The way back up did indeed suck, as Melanie predicted, but all-in-all we had a lot of fun.

Thoughts about the hike:

1. An SLR camera and a small tripod are suggested for early morning hikes into deep canyons. Low level lighting can be a pain with just a simple point-and-shoot camera.
2. Unfortunately, I could tell how popular this trail is on weekends by the amount of trash found along the way.
3. Hiking poles rock.

Resources:

1. Dan’s Hiking Pages: Hermit Falls
2. Hiking Santa Anita Canyon | Modern Hiker
3. Hermit Falls in the Angeles National Forest

Hike #26 Trip GPS Stats:

• Date of hike: July 7th, 2009
• Location: Chantry Flats, Big Santa Anita Canyon – Sierra Madre, California
• Length: 2.3 miles
• Duration: 1 hour, 39 minutes
• Average speed: ±1.4 mph
• Altitude at start: 2,164 feet
• Altitude min.max: 1,646/2,164 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:

May Your Search Through Nature Lead You To Yourself.

Josh, the fellow photographer.

Heading down into the canyon.

Beautiful lighting along the trail.

First Water Canyon has cabins that are still occupied.

The group in First Water Canyon along Hermit Falls Trail.

First Water Canyon

Cabbage White (Pieris rapae)

Foolin