I did not expect to be driving steeply uphill to get to Chantry Flat. Chantry Flat which is not really flat is named after Charley Chantry, an Iowa-born prospector who came to the Sierra Madre, CA in 1905. Charley Chantry, in between prospecting for mineral deposits in the San Anita Canyon, found a relatively flat area at the crest of the San Anita Canyon which he thought would be where he'd build a ranch on.
Chantry Flat is the trailhead for the Gabrielino National Recreation Trail. The National Recreation Trails designation on trails like the Gabrielino or the Pacific Crest are designated based on the National Trail System Act of 1968. The Gabrielino Trail got its designation in 1970.
It's Cinco de Mayo and I was thinking of the Tongva folks who were indigenous to the area long before they were called Gabrielino Indians.
I kept thinking of Karlee's co-worker at Starbucks named Angeles. This is the advantage of hiking solo, I get to think of what would be blogging about while hiking. I also get to plan on what photos I should be taking and there goes my blog line.
Angeles of Starbucks was called An-Hell-is by another high school co-worker showing off how well he is doing in his Spanish class.
"No, it's An-Djel-less, for you!" Angeles was vehement and serious.
So it's An-Djel-less National Forest for me as well!
I was using my National Forest Adventure Pass for the first time. Kay asked me to get one from Big Five two months ago and I kept the second vehicle pass. It's more of my first time at the An-Djel-less National Forest. Chantry Flat is probably part of the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument which encompasses both An-Djel-less National Forest and San Bernardino National Forest. I say a little prayer for Sam Ting Wong who I also called Tae Kwon Doo in an old blog. This was the Korean gentleman I met at the Devil's Backbone Trail at the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument who was trying to summit Mount Baldy for a thousand times. He fell to his death while hiking for the umpteenth time to the Mount Baldy summit early last month.
I didn't expect to find the parking lot full on a Cinco de Mayo Friday. Cinco de Mayo is a date observed to commemorate the Mexican Army's victory over French Forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. The victory in Mexico City happened 14 years after the signing of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, when the Mexican Government lost their northern neighbors. The treaty added California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming as part of the U.S.A!
The Santa Anita Canyon Road that was completed in 1935 ends at the crest of the canyon. A year after the Road was completed, J. P. Steele, a businessman from area obtained a permit from the US Forest Service to operate a pack station, outfitter store and a parking lot by the crest that is known as the Chantry Flat of today.
The establishment was later bought by the Adams family. Not to be mistaken as the Addams family, the Adams family which consisted of siblings Frank, Bill and Katie continued to transport supplies by mules and donkeys downstream to the foot of the canyon where resorts that rented out cabins were in operation. At one time, during the great hiking era, there were more than 300 cabins at the foot of the Santa Anita Canyon.
The pack station still serves more of a crude convenient store selling day adventure pass, cold water, ice cream, souvenir bandanna and collecting parking fees for a few space in their private lot when all the parking areas designated for Adventure Pass areas are full.
The Gabrielino National Recreation Trail starts at Chantry Flat downstream into the lower winter creek.
Not far from the Chantry Flat trailhead is a fork that leads the First Water Trail and the Hermit Falls.
I saw my first old cabin halfway into the Hermit Falls . I decided not to go looking for the Hermit Falls after I unsuccessfully stepped on stepping stones. I didn't want to end up like Sam Ting Wong.
Past the fork where the sign that leads to Hermit Falls is, the paved trail ends into a wooden bridge reinforced with steel. I crossed the bridge when I got to it, what else could I have done?
The trail past the bridge runs alongside a creek. There are concrete structures that looked like levees in some areas of the creek.
Across the creek are several cabins that looked unoccupied but not shabby-looking or dilapidated.
A few of the cabins that were not washed out from big floods gave the trails much of the rustic and idyllic character of the Gabrielino National Recreation Trail. Signs that either point to intertwining trails or a crossing make it easier for some inglorious fucking gnome mad to go hiking alone.
TLC's song about chasing waterfalls is becoming as old as the mountain cabins on the trail so I think of another song:
"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
Stand a little taller
Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
What doesn't kill you makes you a fighter..."
I'm reminded of Zubair's favorite saying: "It's a matter of time!"
The waterfalls named after Wilbur M. Sturtevant was no different from the other waterfalls I have seen in Southern California and it's just as refreshing. Wilbur, more than a century ago, bush whacked the area to make trails so he could start his logging concessions. The An- Djel-less National Forest was established before Wilbur could cut trees, thank God!
Wilbur, however, didn't stop making trails but continued to bush whack further along the Santa Anita River and built a camp about a mile from the waterfalls named after him. The Sturtevant Camp is still in operation and mountain cabins are still being rented out.
I try to think of a quote from "The Big Thirst" by Charles Fishman.
"Water has a secret life that goes beyond its birth in deep space one molecule at a time, its quiet accumulation by the oceanful in the deep rock of earth..."
I line up the gnome, Tenshi and the Guatemalan bag for water bottles and did what I learned from Beng about using cell phone camera timers.
I have to be at San Marino before 6 pm but I couldn't wait to return for a day trip with Che, Maria and Kay and hike uphill into Hoegee camp, on the Mount Zion trail and summit Mount Wilson and complete the Gabrielino National Recreation Trail.
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