This week’s adventure had us exploring the San Gabriel Mountains and the Bridge to Nowhere in the Angeles national Forrest. Like most of these weekend trips nothing started off easy with my amazing wife Mrs. Kit Fox Outfitters driving a very tired/just packed that morning (that’s a whole other story) me to work so I could carpool with Gary from San Diego Hiking network. Having worked for the day we quickly headed to Steve’s for phase three of car shuffling.
I was lucky enough this trip to sleep in the back especially while in that lovely Friday before a holiday weekend traffic. They woke me up when it was time to grab some Sonic and do some grocery shopping, only the essentials… Then it was back in the car for another hour to Azusa, I was surprised how quickly LA blends into the mountains and cell coverage falls off.
This was obviously a popular spot becaualmost all the parking spots where full at seven and we saw a bunch of people parked along the turnouts coming up the road. Fortunately we just had a half mile hike with the off road cooler and our bags to the camping area. I would not call it a campsite but more of a gated secondary trail head with a vault toilet and trash cans but nothing else past that oh and a picnic bench. So it is pretty much dispersed camping a and first come first served…
So were were sharing our area with a couple of characters, there was a family of about twenty who literally brought the kitchen sink and generators. They were up until four am with the lights and music going Friday night and to tell you the truth I wasn’t even mad, I was impressed. Then there was our prospector buddy who also had quite the camp set up to include genny, we didn’t get on the trail until about nine haha.
The trail its self was very interesting considering its popularity the trail (which was the old road kinda) got lost and you had to pay attention to where you were going especially at the river crossings which there are around five of depending on your ability to find the trail. So I basically left my Chocos on which might not have been the best idea but I did end up doing like ten miles in sandals so I earned my hippie badge. The can yon was beautiful with tones of wild flowers out and as long as you followed the river up you were in the right direction. The masses of people also helped with the navigation as you could get a good idea of what direction you were headed and where the trail was from the brightly colored hikers. So the “loosing” the trail wasn’t stressful but it does add time and energy, yes the sign says its four and a half miles from the trail head but you end up doing like six. So it makes for a nice little scramble from time to time, full body work out.
The trail had even changed in the year that Gary had been there with all of the rains. But the final stretch begins to weave up into the hill side as the canyon grows closer. There is a decent grade and hills on either side until you reach a sign explaining the rules of the private property surrounding the bridge. And yes it is a bridge a full on giant concrete bridge built in the 30’s to connect the valley until a land slide made it impossible to finish out the road so the project was abandoned. One of the great upcycling stories though is that this Bridge has been put to use as a Bungee Jumping operation which was pretty neat to see. At the time of this article it was $120 for a jump and a T-shirt. The do it from 10-2:00 and there is more information here (Bungee America).
While the daredevil feats where fun to watch we explored a little further up the river and away from the crowds to cool the feet and grab some sun. After a bit it was time to turn back and like most of these trips the way back was easier and quicker. We really didn’t have much trouble going down the river and meandered back to camp. One thing of note for me was these where some of the largest yucca plants I have ever seen, they were impressive. But with that we made it back to camp we had an awesome food spread drank a couple beers and I was in bed by seven. As always thanks for following along and we hope to run into you Getting The Fox Out There!
