Sunday, October 01, 2006

There's a Bridge that Leads to Nowhere

Will's been telling me about this hike for some time so when he got an invite to go with some Flickr photog pals he responded in the affirmative. We were up at about 5:30 this morning, coffee brewing, animals being situated for the day, Green Chili Pork Stew slow cookin' in the Crock Pot. And we were off with our packs and our hiking sticks to meet up at Scott and Mary's house just down the boulevard where we waited for a few others to show up, and rendezvoused with a few more along the way, ending up with a small caravan of vehicles filled with people and dogs heading up to the East fork of the San Gabriel River.The trail is beautiful as it follows the river up to the Narrows.The weather conditions were perfect with cloud cover for most of the trek breaking open to let the sun shine occasionaly, then the clouds would roll in keeping it from getting too hot. Several creek crossings and very rough terrain get you to a beautiful bridge built in 1936. Unfortunately the great floods of March 1938 washed the road away and it was never completed. But the bridge stands in unbeleivably good shape on its gracefully curving support piers.While the others went on around the bend to the Narrows, Will and I rested and then took a scramble down to the river's edge. On the way back we saw a couple of Big Horn Sheep up on the side of the hill. I noticed some dark droppings along the trial on the way up and wondered what they were and thought maybe dear or rabbit. But they must have been sheep.At about a half mile away from the vehicles, big fat drops started falling and soon it was raining pretty good. I took in several deap breaths, glad to be off the rough trail and breathed the smell of damp earth as I stretched and got a big hug from my baby. See I took a spill on one of the river crossings, landing solid on both knees while attempting a leap that was too much of a stretch for me when I should have just waded across. It didn't bother me much at the time, but further down the trail my emotions bubbled up and on the way back I felt the right knee giving me some trouble. But after 10.4 miles and about 8 hours on the mountain we headed home where we were greeted by our animals and settled in with some Ibuprofin and Green Chili Pork Stew.

No comments: