A family friend joins the 100 Hikes Club.
Bob and I on Winter Creek Trail for hike #28
I met up with Bob, a family friend, for this hike in the Chantry Flats area above Sierra Madre. It wasn’t long ago that I could say that I hadn’t been up to Chantry Flats before, yet here I was going for a second time in a week. This was the first visit on a weekend and, oh boy, what a difference a day makes. Not only was the parking lot full, every available turn out on the curvy Santa Anita Avenue leading up to Big Santa Anita Canyon had a parked car. To allow for more hiking time and less why-the-hell-did-we-park-a-mile-down-the-road time, we paid the $10 to park at Adam’s Pack Station. The pack station has been in business since the 1930’s, hauling supplies by horse and mule train into the camps and the cabins of the area. It is the last pack station in Southern California.
Our goal today would be to hike Winter Creek Trail loop. We started down First Water Trail – the same for hike #26 – then headed up canyon on Lower Winter Creek Trail to Hoegees Camp, then back to Chantry Flats via Upper Winter Creek Trail. It seems to me that the most popular destination from Chantry Flats is the waterfalls, Sturtevant Falls and Hermit Falls. I also assume that most people get there by walking down the steep paved San Olene Fire Road from the Chantry Flat parking lot then either turning left to visit Sturtevant or right to visit Hermit. I assume all of this because Bob and I saw very few people outside of these trafficked areas. Coming down the First Water Trail had just as many people on it as it did on an early weekday morning. I could count on two hands how many people we saw on both sections of the Winter Creek Trail.
Bob was the main organizer of this hike, having done it many times in the past. In fact, Bob is the biggest hiker I know. Just the day before our hike, he went on a 15+ mile hike. Not bad for anyone, let alone someone who went to high school with my Dad.
Thoughts about the hike:
- I don’t think I plan on visiting the waterfalls in Big Santa Anita Canyon on a weekend. It’s Disneyland-crowded down there!
- Bob pointed out how many invasive plants are in this canyon due to the century of cabin owners planting whatever they pleased. They didn’t look bad, but they certainly stick out after Bob pointed them out.
- TONS OF NATURE!!! Both Bob and I are shutterbugs as well as hikers, so the hike took us much longer than most because we were stopping all the time to photograph the lizards, butterflies, damselflies, and…
- SAW MY FIRST ANGELES NF RATTLER!!! A beautiful Southern Pacific rattlesnake. I was within two feet of it before I saw it’s head sticking out of a bush onto the path. It crept back into the bush and started to let us know it was there by rattling its tail. I took a little video while Bob snapped a few photos.
Resources:
Hike #28 Trip GPS Stats:
- Date of hike: July 12th, 2009
- Location: Big Santa Anita Canyon – Sierra Madre, California
- Length: 6.2 miles
- Duration: 5 hour, 0 minutes
- Average speed: ±1.2 mph
- Altitude at start: 2,178 feet
- Altitude min.max: 1,673/2,873 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:
Bob looking stoically into Big Santa Anita Canyon along First Water Trail
A Southern alligator lizard (Elgaria multicarinata)
One of the many butterflies we saw on the trek.
There are a handful of ancient flood control dams found in First Water Canyon.
Bob standing next to a Really Big Rock.
Bob standing next to an interesting rock wall.
Hoegee's Campground
One of nine crank-operated emergency phones in the canyon. I wish I could find more history on this operational relic.
Another view of Emergency crank phone #5.
Hiking above Hoegee's Camp along Winter Creek Trail.
A beautiful pool and small falls along Winter Creek.
First rattler of the Angeles National Forest! This is the position the Southern Pacific rattler greeted us when we were walking down the trail.