Modern Hiker

One of southern California’s best hikes - a 9 mile river-hopping trip along an abandoned, flooded out roadway. Plenty of mines, swimming holes, and a giant bridge in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, if that doesn’t pique your interest, I don’t know what else to do.

On Sunday morning, Will, Glen and I made our third attempt to hike the East Fork of the San Gabriel River. Previously plagued by faulty alarm clocks and low clouds, the third time was - as they say - a charm.

We drove out to Azusa and parked at the slightly crowded trailhead. We could hear music, and when we looked down over the guard rails to the riverbed below, we saw a rather large celebration going on. Couldn’t tell if it was a wedding, birthday, or whatever, but since we’d gotten a slightly late start to the day already we declined further investigation.

We took a short dirt path down to the riverbed, which was fortunately pretty low.

I’d heard stories about people having to wade waist-deep through rushing water here, but throughout this hike we had no trouble finding suitable boulder-hopping crossings. I mean, it usually took us a little while to find them, and I dunked my right foot in once … and there was that one place where I just gave up, took off my shoes and waded through. But it could have been a lot worse.

One of the big draws of this hike, besides the usual ‘beautiful outdoors’ and rushing white noise of water, was the area’s unusual history. Back in the ’30s, the State wanted to build a road north through the San Gabriel River canyon to meet up with Highway 2, which runs along the ridge of the San Gabriel Range east to west. Using prison labor, they managed to quickly build about five miles of road into the Canyon before several days of rain in 1938 caused a major flood that wiped out all of their work. Sections of the road could be seen along the sides of the canyon walls, along with some higher-elevation work from when the State tried to build the road again.

Along the left hand side of that picture, you can see the flattened area where the road used to be, torn apart from beneath by the river. Well, that’s Nature for you. Although, by this point, the engineers really should have seen it coming. Both the San Gabriel and Los Angeles Rivers were constantly changing courses, flooding, and generally kicking the city’s ass every time it rained until the Army Corps of Engineers came along and turned them into open concrete sewers.

But despite our best efforts, eventually the river’s going to come back. If you’ve ever fantasized about the city of Los Angeles being ‘reset’ back to its original state, this hike provided plenty of great hypothetical views. Here’s what a major road looks like after 70 years of disuse:

If you weren’t paying attention to the slight change in ground density while you were walking, you might not even notice you were stepping on asphalt.

Taking my mind off history for a little bit, I did also manage to stop and enjoy the surroundings as well. Lots of water polished boulders, naturally, but also a few isolated sycamore groves along the banks and an extremely varied geologic landscape (there are still several active mining claims in the area). Every time we followed the river along another bend, the mountains just seemed to keep opening up before us.

After a long time on the trail, we hopped onto a section of the old road that made a sharp and steady incline up from the riverbed. The road dissolved back into the wilderness as it ended well above the water. And then, around one more bend, you see it: The Bridge to Nowhere.

It doesn’t look like all that much when you first come to it, but when you cross it and look back, you see how huge and incongruous with its landscape this things actually is.

The 1938 floodwaters were high and fast enough to almost completely wash out the road up until this point, but the bridge was tall enough to escape unscathed. And since no auto traffic had ever gotten the chance to drive across it, it’s in the same state it was when it was finished. Just hangin’ out in the middle of nowhere.

We met a guy who lives out near the bridge - on land his family’s had on a gold claim since the turn of the century. Now he does a small bit of panning, but he also operates the only bungee jumping site in California - right off the bridge. My roommate Aimee did this exact jump for her 25th birthday, and looking at the height of the bridge and the rocky canyon floor at the bottom for myself, my respect for her went up significantly.

Still not something I would ever do, though.

We scrambled on past the bridge, where the canyon walls rose almost vertically all around us. I stopped to eat a bit of lunch while Will and Glen crawled through a small cave into a section of incomplete tunnel that was supposed to lead to the bridge.

Looking back, I kind of wish I’d peeked in. But I dunno. I just have this thing about not wanting to be inside half-completed architectural structures from 70 years ago.

Call me crazy.

Or a wuss. I’ll accept either.

Afterward, we climbed down the walls to the river to lounge around in the water for a bit … and to check out some of the rock formations. I stretched myself out on a large boulder and just listened to the rushing water around me. Stopping a few times to take some pictures, of course.

A great hike. Not too long distance-wise, but time-wise it was a killer. Those river-crossings will really slow ya down. We were in the middle of a gorgeous sunset on the return trip, and got back to the car just before we’d need flashlights. If you’re nimble on boulders or don’t mind getting your feet wet, it’s definitely worth the trip.

The Basics:

- Distance: 9 miles, round trip.
- Elevation Gain: About 1000 ft.
- Time: Plan to make this a full day. The countless river crossings will slow down your usual pace, and you’ll want to take time to enjoy the oddity of the Bridge to Nowhere.
- Trail Condition: Moderate. It’s usually easy to find, but the crossings will slow you down. There are a few places where use trails wind up off the river and end up nowhere, but generally if you follow the river, you’ll get where you’re going.
- How To Get There: From the 210, exit at Azusa Blvd. and head north. Pass through the town and into the Angeles National Forest. Take a right onto East Fork Road until it ends at the East Fork Ranger Station. The trailhead is on the northeast side of the parking lot.
- Map It

The Notables:

- Beautiful river scenery.
- Historic road and tunnels. Evidence of Man’s Folly, if you care to read them that way.
- Multiple swimming holes.
- Incredible isolation, especially the further along the trail you get.
- Oh, that Bridge to Nowhere.

More Pictures:

- Up on Flickr.

For a more detailed write-up of this trail, with GPS information and maps, see my second run

Originally hiked November 5, 2006.