Racing Bears

The San Gabriel Mountains of southern California have many beautiful trails. Among the best is the east fork of the San Gabriele river. The west fork is more accessible making it more popular for fishing and family hikes but the east fork has a rugged beauty that is unsurpassed in the area. The canyon is part of the Sheep Mountain Wilderness Area.

One of the most bizarre things to see anywhere is located on the east fork. It is the Bridge to Nowhere. A road was built up the lower portion of east fork in the 1930s to connect San Gabriel with Wrightwood. In 1936, a bridge was built across the river. In 1938, a flood took out most of the road leaving the bridge isolated up the canyon. The road was never rebuilt. Over the years, the remnants of the road have nearly disappeared but the bridge remains, coming from and going to nowhere, hence the name.

Another interesting aspect of east fork is gold. It's not unusual to see someone panning in the many fords of the river. Over the decades, a surprising amount of gold has been taken from the river. I must admit that I too have tried my hand there a few times – always unsuccessfully.

East Fork Canyon is really two parts. The lower half is accessible and popular for hiking and fishing. The upper half is totally different. It is very inaccessible in places. The canyon is narrow with steep walls. Few hikers try the upper canyon and of those that do, fewer still repeat the hike.

I had been to the lower half of east fork many times but had never attempted the upper half. You have to try everything once, right? Up I hiked.

The middle section of the canyon was the worst. Here the walls were very steep and the area bolder strewn. In many places, the only option was to wade directly up the river. In other places, I picked my way up the canyon side with enough exposure to make me wish I had chosen to wade the river instead.

Finally, I was far enough up the canyon to see the top at Blue Ridge. I was tired and miserable and of course, that's when thing got very exciting. Hearing a noise, I looked up and saw two black bears growling and charging right at me.

I've never hiked in Grizzly territory and my prior encounters with black bears had always been peaceful with the bear attempting to avoid me as much as I avoided the bear. This had made me complacent and I never carried bear repellant.

Down the canyon the bears charged and I had nowhere to go. The canyon walls were too steep to climb and there was nowhere to run. I had only a few seconds left so I did the only thing my overloaded mind could think of. I found the narrowest place I could between a bolder and the canyon wall and jammed myself in. The bolder wasn't as height as I would have liked but I didn't have time to shop for other real estate. I removed my pack and placed it in front of me as a shield. I had little illusion about how well a nylon shield would do against a bear claw.

In a few seconds, the growling got very loud. The ground might have been shaking but more likely it was just me. Suddenly, the two bears were right in front of me, and then just as suddenly, they were gone. It seems they weren't charging me after all. They were chasing each other down the canyon. I couldn't dawdle as I didn't know if the bears would reverse course. I scampered up the canyon to Blue Ridge in record time.