Final Stats:

15 miles, 4500 ft (my path)

To paraphrase,

“Insanity: Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different result.”

East Fork to the Narrows & Stanley Miller Mine at EveryTrail

meetup link and other’s photos and comments

I think there was some insanity in this hike as well. What a hike.

This was part 3 out of 4 in the hiking series “Mines of Iron Mountain”. #1 was Allison Mine, and #2 was Baldora and Widco Mines. I expected this one to be harder than the first two, but even so it was a bit harder than I predicted.

We started off with 9 people hiking up the East Fork around other people heading up to the the bridge. The water level was lower than last time I was there in the spring, so the few crossings were easier and sped up our pace. We made it to the bridge in 2 hrs.

From there, we continued into the Narrows, a section that I don’t think anyone in the group had been to before. I really liked the area, with plenty of watering holes around smooth rock, nice areas to camp, and a little more isolation. Apparently there is a guy named Hobo Dave who resides back here.

So the plan was to get to Stanley-Miller Mine. I can’t say it was a well thought out plan. I studied a map beforehand as well as made gps coordinates and tracks around the area, and I read one Sierra Club trip report that hiked up the west ridge of Iron Mt and passed by Stanley Miller on the way.

If you study the USGS topo map, you’ll see a bunch of trails around the Narrows and Stanley-Miller. The one used in the trip report seemed to be the one ascending from Iron Fork straight up to the mine. The other trails I had heard were non-existent.

Well this certainly was a nonexistant trail to! In fact, I wonder how it could even be considered a trail. We started ascending up, passing up a bit of poison oak (mentioned in the Sierra club TR), and then went up the steep gully formed with lots of steep rock slabs. This was alright for some, but harder for others. One specific spot that had few decent handholds slowed the group down and had some turn around.

Once we got past that obstacle and continued up the rocks, it seemed the “trail path” was going straight into brush. So I decided to veer NE along the rock in hopes to eventually cut across south and avoid the brush. Well, rocks heading NE were even worse. As many of you know, the San Gabriels have some terrible, crumbly rock. Well there I am, climbing up this crap with a nice steep drop to my left on the side of freaking Iron Mt.

Of course I paid attention checking and testing all the holds before I would make a move, but it was unsettling when so many holds would give out. Even large slabs of rock would give out. At point I tested a rock and it came out so quickly I almost lost my balance.

At that point I said ’screw this’ (actually I said some more colorful things) and cut across south to deal with the brush. I was in the area of the mine, but I couldn’t see anything. The gully was covered in brush. Rudy and I waited for the other 4 to meet up (Hugo, Tim, Winston, & Andy), and they saw on the other side of the gully the chimney from old pictures. We then also thought we saw a mine entrance, and I took a pic of it.

At that point it just seemed we would cut across through some brush and find everything. For some reason, it was harder than it seemed. The brush was annoying but we made it across. The we started ascending, but apparently we ascended to far, so after looking around we descended again, and finally found the cabin ruins along with other artifacts.

The cabin is basically right on top of a ridge along the trail that connects Stanley-Miller to Allison Mine. We did not see a mine right around it. We went over the picture we thought was a mine entrance, and determined based on the trees in the picture it would be higher up. Tired already, we went up a bit again and then I continued up determined to find this SOB. I went up 500 ft or so, but no luck.

At that point we had spent 3-4 hrs up there and were resigned to not seeing the actually mine entrance but happy we did find the mind ruins. We descending down slightly south of our path up, on the other side of the brush which had some loose dirt making for a quicker descent. We connected back up with the rock-slab filled gully near the bottom which took some strong friction/wedge moves to avoids sliding down.

Back at the river, I just dropped my stuff and walked right in. Cooling off never felt better after that hot, brush-filled and exhausting climb. After everyone came down, we headed back.

Along the way back we saw Hobo Dave’s hut. I went over hoping he would be home and explain where the mine entrance was, but no luck.

On the way back past a rock slide we heard some rocks falling, and looked up to see about 8 Bighorn sheep. My first time seeing them!

All in all, it was a great, frustrating, dangerous journey.

Post: Later on, Tim pointed out to me the picture in the LA Gold Mines site. When I looked at that link previously, I thought the picture was just detailing the inside of the mine so I didn’t pay attention carefully. What a moron I am!

The picture shows the location of the mine relative to the chimney and ruins. Apparently the mine is about 100 yds south of the chimney. This means while we were going up and down along the northern side of the ridge, the mine was actually south at the same elevation. Ugh. In hindsight it makes sense since there was an open area around there, but we were focused with the illusion of a mine entrance we thought we saw on the northern side, so we didn’t even consider it.

The best part about this map is the fact that the guy labeled the route we took as the “really stupid way to stanley-miller mine”, and he had a better way. From what I can tell this better way is something he found and not on a map anywhere. Suffice to say, I would agree with him!

So with all the ups and downs I did ~4500 ft for something that should have taken much less. I’m not sure if I feel I have unfinished business with the hike yet…

To Stanley-Miller Mine
Miles: ~15
Elevation Gain: 2000-3000 ft
Terrain: Same as above, PLUS: total cross-country exploration. No trail. Bushwacking. Yuccas, steep loose terrain. Bring protective clothing.

We will be adventuring up the East Fork of the San Gabriel River. But we won’t simply be stopping at the Bridge to Nowhere, about 5 miles up.

Instead, we’ll continue on up to an area less explored. We’ll pass through the Narrows, an area with deep canyons and many nice swimming holes to relax in. Some people may choose to stop and relax here.

For the few that are very adventurous, I will be continuing on to attempt to visit the abandoned Stanley-Miller mine. This is one of the mines around Iron Mt that very few ever get to.

For those who are interested in going that far, you must read our previous trip reports to 2 other mine exploration adventures to get a feel of what it will be like.

Allison Mine

Baldora and Widco Mines

I have no idea how hard exactly it will be to climb up from the riverbed to access the mine. It should only be about 1000-1500 ft above the river, but who knows the navigation difficulties we’ll encounter.

Ideally, I would like someone to lead a hike up to the Bridge / Narrows, and then I would take the few people who are moving quickly up and beyond to the mine.

I do not know how long this will take. Therefore, expect me to move at a brisk pace during the beginning of the day. I will not wait very long for the whole group to catch up. Please agree to stay with at least one other person.

Damnit, I think I’m going to plan it.

Click on this link to interact with a topo map with the mines marked.

The marker on the bottom left, “E”, indicates Allison Mine, which we had an extremely successful and fun journey up to in January. Stanley Miller mine “F” certainly has my attention, but being so far from a trailhead I will wait until good night temperatures to do it has an overnighter up the East Fork. Marker “A” indicates the Baldora Mine. It can be accessed from the same Heaton Flat trail that is used for access to Allison mine, as well as link up to the strenuously climb up the south ridge of Iron Mountain. From the end of the trail at the Coldwater/Allison saddle, there is a Coldwater Canyon trail that leads down to – you guessed it – Coldwater Canyon.

From there, any trails on the topo map will be nonexistent. Those trails are so old that they have totally been overgrown by now. However, I have heard access to Baldora mine up Dry Gulch is not too bad of a cross country expedition. I cannot say the same for the two abandoned mines further up.

So for now, we’ll stick with trying to get to Baldora mine. The Heaton Flat trail is tough but not ridiculous, ~ 3000 ft gain in 4.5 miles. We’ll then descend 500 ft or so, and then end up climbing about 1000 ft to get to the mine.

One the way back, there will be some elevation gain but it should be less than 1000 ft. So in total, I estimate

Distance: 14 miles
Gain:4500-5000 ft gain
Terrain: use trail, cross-country, BRUSH (wear pants)
Difficulty: 8.5/10

I imagine the most difficult portions of this hike being the end exploring around the mine…which people do not have to do. And I have no idea how much of the old machinery is left – likely much less than what we saw at Allison Mine. But remember, it is the journey not the destination!

Tentative elevation profile from the saddle to the mine:

This route though was very scenic all the way. After the recent rains, the water level was a little higher and the current flowing somewhat swift. This made crossing the river at certain points a little bit more exciting.

After several crossings, we finally made it to the gulch. The incline at this point became more substantial. There were at times some visible portions of a trail, but mostly it was covered in fallen leaves. Also, the way up involved some rock hopping which slowed the pace a bit.

The trail up to the mine starts at the northern slope. There was a tree with some plastic ribbon tied to it. This marks the start of a trail, but we couldn’t find it at this point. So we continued up the gulch for about 50 yards until a trail became more visible. This was the start of the serious climb. From here it’s just switchbacks that follow the steep mountain up. This part is pretty serious. It’s about a 1500′ gain in about a mile and a half.

Just follow this trail until you get to the mine. From here, the exploring begins. Be sure to have a flashlight or candle handy as it is dark. When the lights go out, you can’t see your hand in front of your face.

The pics above are from the first cave. We went about 40 feet west along the trail until we got to this old wooden structure and had lunch beside it. This was the only really flat portion that gave us enough room to sit and eat.

After lunch, we continued along the trail to finish the loop. About 20 feet though from the lunch spot, there’s a fork in the trail. Going right will take you home along Allison trail. Go left to head into another cave. This cave was built heading in all directions. Going right into the cave, there’s a hole which looks as they tried to mine downwards. Peering down into the hole, there’s a multilevel chamber. The first level is about 10′ down, and then lower level from what I can tell is about 20′. Who knows how far it goes beyond that. Climbing equipment would be required for further exploration.

Heading left and up in the cave takes you further. I didn’t go all the way up, but it eventually loops back outside to the trail again. This was loose with rocks. I didn’t head up, rather I stayed below and took pictures of people going up and down.

With the cave exploration ended, we made our way along Allison trail towards Heaton Saddle. This part of the trail was pretty even with nary any gain. Just stick to the path, and chances are you’ll be okay. Unless you stop to take pictures and end up going the wrong way like Ofir.

This trail seemed to continue on for an eternity. I would have much preferred to head back the way we had come since the fog obscured any views anyhow. But we continued along the trail getting rained on at times, and at others, being mindful of where we stepped. There are some good drops at portions of this trail.

Finally we made it back to Heaton Saddle. From here we would take the Heaton Flats trail back to the cars. All of this was well so there wasn’t anything really difficult here. The only bad experiences that were conjured up were the memories of Iron Mountain. That was the only real negative.

But all together, this was a great hike. The river crossings and mine exploration made this hike. If you want to give this a shot, then remember to bring a flashlight, or else you’re not going very far.

You can view all of my pictures from this hike here.

	#	Latitude	Longitude	Elevation	Distance	Time	Avg Speed
	1	N 34° 14' 13.61"	W 117° 45' 54.82"	620 m	0.000 mi	0s	-
	2	N 34° 14' 50.23"	W 117° 45' 37.73"	626 m	1.006 mi	28m 50s	2.09 mph
	3	N 34° 15' 26.94"	W 117° 45' 22.16"	676 m	0.997 mi	44m 00s	1.36 mph
	4	N 34° 15' 44.19"	W 117° 44' 48.64"	724 m	0.997 mi	25m 00s	2.39 mph
	5	N 34° 16' 00.31"	W 117° 44' 13.88"	902 m	1.001 mi	49m 21s	1.22 mph
	6	N 34° 16' 16.19"	W 117° 43' 46.22"	1263 m	1.000 mi	48m 50s	1.23 mph
	7	N 34° 16' 12.07"	W 117° 43' 43.69"	1260 m	0.999 mi	1h 40m 00s	0.60 mph
	8	N 34° 15' 47.17"	W 117° 43' 55.01"	1283 m	1.003 mi	48m 30s	1.24 mph
	9	N 34° 15' 34.67"	W 117° 43' 31.24"	1377 m	0.999 mi	35m 51s	1.67 mph
	10	N 34° 15' 11.12"	W 117° 43' 54.36"	1288 m	1.004 mi	35m 11s	1.71 mph
	11	N 34° 15' 04.35"	W 117° 44' 33.70"	1219 m	0.996 mi	22m 50s	2.62 mph
	12	N 34° 14' 36.59"	W 117° 44' 53.54"	945 m	1.003 mi	23m 00s	2.62 mph
	13	N 34° 14' 34.11"	W 117° 45' 34.32"	677 m	0.994 mi	22m 21s	2.67 mph
	14	N 34° 14' 12.48"	W 117° 45' 55.13"	617 m	0.843 mi	20m 20s	2.49 mph
			Summary	5482 ft	12.843 mi	8h 24m 04s	1.53 mph

]]> http://socalhikes.com/2009/01/exploring-the-allison-mine/feed/ 0 http://socalhikes.com/2009/01/east-fork-to-allison-gulch-allison-mine-heaton-flat-trail/ http://socalhikes.com/2009/01/east-fork-to-allison-gulch-allison-mine-heaton-flat-trail/#comments Mon, 26 Jan 2009 23:08:38 +0000 Zé http://socalhikes.com/?p=953 Final Stats:

Gain: 3500 ft
Distance: 13 miles

Allison Mine, one of the more difficult mines to reach in San Gabriels, provided a superb dayhike adventure.

Please also look at John’s report

Others’ photos and Meetup link here

GPS track here

KML Google Earth file

11 people showed up for this trip, all expecting and not phased by any poor weather. We started from the East Fork parking lot at about 8:45 am, which was about 45 later than I had planned due to some logistical issues. However I expected it to take us about 8 hrs for the hike, so I thought we still should be able to complete the hike before dark.

East Fork to Allison Gulch, Allison Mine, & Heaton Flat Trail at EveryTrail

I planned this hike out to be a loop hike, taking 2 trip reports from Travis Linds (gpsmountaineering) and combined portions of the them. His trip reports indicated that the trails, though previously not maintained, were actually not in bad shape as previously thought by many people.

In fact, as we reached the Heaton Flat trailhead, we ran into a group of San Gabriel Trailbuilders. I told them where we were headed, and they raised a few eyebrows saying “that trail up Allison Gulch has been washed out”. I asked when they last heard this, and it was several years ago, so I mentioned updated info indicates the trail is actually being partially maintained. They were definitely NOT happy to hear about this, indicating the illegality it. I accepted this though thinking, ‘well these guys weren’t gonna maintain it’.

So we headed off up the East Fork, and encountered our first river crossing. John has a video of me crossing.

We continued up the river, encountering a few more crossings that ate up a bit of time. I was somewhat concerned of us being behind schedule, but we picked up the pace and arrived at Allison Gulch in decent time.

The beginning of the gulch:

We headed up the gulch following a faint use trail and crossing the stream multiple times, which was relatively easy and quick. The gulch is a very nice shaded area, probably lovely all times of the year.

I had marked a waypoint for where the beginning of the trail up to Allison Mine should be, and it was evident when we got to that point.

The trail up to the mine, as mentioned by Travis, has definitely been maintained. Portion of the trail has rocks embedded in a line for support, and yuccas have been trimmed:

I actually really liked this trail. It was very steep, but did not need to use hands, and the views were great. One could say that some portions of the trail had been somewhat washed out, but nothing unreasonable.

One could see Swan Rock clearly from this trail

We continued up as the fog came in, and the trail eventually heads east toward Allison Mine.

At this point, I was looking for any indication of the old trail heading toward Stanley Miller mine. While ascending up, I was convinced I could see some indication of a trail higher up and along the contours of Iron Mt’s west side that would be that trail. However, when I reached the area where this trail would have started, nothing was clear.

I checked out one use trail, but that quickly headed into some thick brush. I then found some other use trails around a talus slope, and headed up a portion of the way. There were some more faint use trails around it, but again nothing was clear.

Anyways, we headed to the mine from this point. Someone has been camping out around here!

The first hole we found had two separate tunnels that went in probably 30 yards or so with a few branches.

Stupid commentary

Look out for John’s TR, which should photos of the bigger, and more interesting mine shafts. In the mean time, Ofir and I headed up away from the trail, trying to see if anything was left around the actually GPS coordinates of the Allison Mine location. We found plenty of rusted pipes, and some bones:

We headed down and met up with the rest of the group, and went on to check out the old Allison Mine trail that connects with the Heaton Flat trail.

At this point, not many pictures were taken as it started raining, and we were running into more wet brush that made us nice and soaked. Regardless, this trail was not in terrible shape either. It has more brush and more parts partially washed out than the trail up from Allison gulch, but it is certainly passable. Yuccas have been trimmed, so what else do you need? I suppose we are getting relatively desensitized to a little brush. I’d say this trail was less annoying than the ridge up to Monrovia Peak.

This trail did seem to take a while, but finally we connected up at Coldwater Saddle, and took the Heaton Flat trail back down. We got back at 4:45, practically 8 hrs from our start!

This is a great hike, and one that I suggest anyone to try if they are not afraid of a little brush.

The mine can be reached in a few ‘practical’ ways: 1) Take the Heaton Flat trail to Coldwater Saddle, where the old Allison Mine trail starts 2) Head up the East Fork, veer east up Allison Gulch, and ascend an old use-trail to the mine.

Both options will require about 6-7 miles one-way to the mine. Option #1 will deal with a lot of brush and unmaintained ‘trail’ especially on Allison Mine trail, while option #2 deals with hiking along the east fork of the San Gabriel river for some miles and up the gulch, then taking a steep ascent up to the mine.

My preference is to take option #2 up, and option #1 down.

Expected Stats:

Gain: 3000 ft
Distance: 13 miles
Steepness: 883 ft/mile
Terrain: Cross-country = Water crossings, steep unstable use-trails, brush
Estimated time: 8 hrs
Difficulty: 8/10 for intensity, 9/10 for terrain

Trail Descriptions:

Summitpost

Professor Brennan’s Trip Report

This is a tough hike so you must absolutely be in great shape to do it. It won’t be as strenuous like 5000 ft + elevation gain hikes, but the varied and difficult terrain will provide a workout and is only advised for those comfortable with cross-country hiking.

Location

This hike starts at the East Fork Ranger Station parking area. The first few miles will cover the same hike as the Bridge to Nowhere. Each car will need an Adventure Pass for parking.