mill creek

Mill Creek under Highway 38: March 1 2014

By Guy McCarthy

Welcome back to Watershed News. I let the site go dormant the past three years I was at Patch. If this is your first visit, thanks for checking in.

Yesterday I saw a video of storm runoff in Mill Creek roaring through the narrows under the SR 38 bridge below Mountain Home Village.

The National Weather Service estimates 8.58 inches of rain hit Yucaipa Ridge during a 24-hour period that ended at 9 p.m. Feb. 28.

Post by Camisha Perez.

The place under the bridge looked and sounded a lot different today. It was still raining a bit, enough to soak me, but it was quiet and peaceful compared to Friday.

Further up Mill Creek it was snowing in Forest Falls.

 

Elkhorn General Store has a sign outside stating "Elevation 6,000 ft." Two residents went into the store and one of them had a chihuahua mix wrapped in a blanket.
 



I spoke briefly just before 2 p.m. with two volunteers with San Gorgonio Search and Rescue, who said the day had been quiet so far. 

 

Back down Mill Creek, below the bridge and near Fish Hatchery in east Mentone, a silver 4-door Jeep 4x4 with a New York plate visible on the rear was still stuck in the wash at 2:40 p.m. The California Highway Patrol reported discovery of the unoccupied vehicle Friday evening. There was no sign Saturday of whoever left it there.

Right around the same time, the Highway Patrol reported an incident involving two vehicles near the end of Valley of the Falls Drive. Fire rescue personnel were called and responders were advised of the need for a landing zone.

By 6:30 p.m. this evening, the CHP had labeled the incident a fatality, and two vehicles had been taken for evidence.

One of the emergency personnel who responded to the incident said two pickup trucks collided about 100 feet west of the rangers kiosk at the Big Falls parking lot.

One victim, a girl who appeared to be between 9 and 12 years old, was taken to a helicopter at the LZ set up further down Mill Creek, below Forest Falls and east of the 38 junction.

She was believed to be in critical condition as she was airlifted by a Sheriff's Aviation crew to a hospital. Another injured victim, an adult female, was taken by ground ambulance to a hospital for treatment.

Firefighters from Forest Falls and Angelus Oaks, AMR personnel, and the San G SAR team were among those who responded.

Distraught family members, who had come to Forest Falls to play in the snow, remained near the crash scene and prayed.

Photos by Guy McCarthy

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busy baldy

Sunday climbers take direct route up San Antonio

By Guy McCarthy

MOUNT BALDY - Valleys and foothills of east Los Angeles County were socked in under a cold blanket of cloud much of Sunday, but above Baldy Village it was clear and warm.

Snows high on sun-drenched Mount Baldy drew scores of backcountry skiers and snowboarders, and squads of hikers equipped with ice axes and crampons climbed the steep, direct route to L.A. County's highest point.


Cloud cover viewed from above Baldy Village Sunday morning

Thousands more visitors drove up to San Antonio Canyon by the afternoon, packing parking areas above 5,000 feet elevation and briefly blocking emergency responders when a woman suffered a head injury in a possible sledding accident, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

By 2 p.m. two people had been treated for snow-related injuries and an estimated 4,000 people and their vehicles were between Baldy Village and the Mt. Baldy ski lift, Forest Ranger Mike Testa told Watershed News.

Testa said it was "a beautiful day" and he advised people to "be careful in the rocks and snow."

Search-and-rescue volunteers responded and fire engine drivers sounded their horns to get through traffic on upper Mount Baldy Road to reach one of the injured.


Rescuers on Mount Baldy Road while a woman is bandaged Sunday

It was so crowded by 2:30 p.m. authorities were stopping traffic near the Baldy Trout Pools, and a line of eager motorists a mile long stretched downhill through Baldy Village.


Traffic outside Mt. Baldy Lodge restaurant Sunday afternoon

Photos by Guy McCarthy

mountain search

Sunday afternoon view of Baldy Bowl

MOUNT BALDY - A search was under way this evening after dark on Mount Baldy for an Asian woman in her 50s, an experienced hiker who was reported overdue on Saturday, a technical flight officer with the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Aviation Unit said.

"We have an update from some hikers that they heard a woman screaming, maybe near the ski lifts," said Deputy Carlos Quezada, who was on a search flight this afternoon on the east side of Mount Baldy in a sheriff's helicopter known as 40 King.

"She may have got stuck coming down," Quezada said Sunday in a telephone interview at 5:30 p.m. "She's an experienced hiker, but she's overdue since yesterday. Her vehicle was still in the parking lot. She's an Asian female in her 50s, with a blue backpack."

Just before 3 p.m. today, a Forest Ranger and a sheriff's deputy met people coming off Mount Baldy on a restricted access road above Manker Flat, near the trailhead for the Ski Hut-Baldy Bowl trail, to ask whether they'd seen the woman.


Sunday afternoon view of San Antonio Ski Hut

The ranger said the woman may have spent the weekend at the ski hut, and he hoped to reach a caretaker at the hut this evening. The ranger also said 40 King was coming out, and the airship appeared a few moments later over a ridge to the north.

"Up at that elevation, it was a little windy and choppy, and it started to snow on us," Quezada said. "It was about 20 miles per hour steady and 35 gusting."

Quezada said search-and-rescue volunteers were being summoned tonight to help locate the woman on the ground.

Before noon on the ice-patched summit of Baldy, also known as Mount San Antonio, gusts and wind-chill with near-freezing conditions did not deter scores of hikers from going for the top of the mountain. Baldy's high point is 10,064 feet above sea level. It is the tallest mountain in the San Gabriel range, and it is the high point in Los Angeles County.


Sunday morning below summit of San Antonio

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Ski Hut web site is here

Photos by Guy McCarthy

fish canyon

DUARTE - The mouth of the canyon is owned by Vulcan Materials. Their public relations people bill the company as "the nation's largest producer of construction aggregates" - which they define as "primarily crushed stone, sand and gravel."



Vulcan Materials is the latest owner of the mining operation at the mouth of Fish Canyon. It's been there since the 1920s or 30s. Vulcan Materials allows access through their property from time to time, with a van shuttle to a trailhead. The access calendar current as of today is here.



The last time Vulcan Materials allowed access was Saturday Nov. 13. A few miles in is Fish Canyon Falls, described by author and historian John W. Robinson as "one of the top natural attractions of the San Gabriel Mountains." The tarantula was at the base of the falls eight days ago.



The falls plunge "some eighty feet in stairway fashion," Robinson says in his popular guide "Trails of the Angeles." The view above is before the sun crept into the canyon.



The Fish Creek watershed is regulated by the dam keeper at Cogswell Reservoir on the West Fork of the San Gabriel River, so it's unclear how much natural runoff contributes to the falls.



The canyon is shaded in places by sprawling oak and other chaparral species.



There is an alternate trail up and over the ridge pictured to reach the canyon trail and the falls. Some locals say it is steep. Robinson says "the hike into the canyon and on to the falls is no longer the easy walk it once was."



The Vulcan Materials calendar for the "Azusa Rock Project" does not list a date for the next time access is allowed through the quarry property.

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Photos by Guy McCarthy

baden-powell

ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST - Three weeks ago there was a little snow on the walk from Vincent Gap up to Mount Baden-Powell, a few miles west of Wrightwood.



Most of the trail switchbacks upward through tall evergreens to a high ridge, where the so-called "elfin forest" begins. Here the Limber Pines are more exposed to the wind and other elements.



Snow and ice underfoot combined with alpine glare to make the traverse interesting. This view is just below the 9,400-foot summit.



There is a tree up there estimated 1,500 years old.



Today this ridge is likely blanketed with a bit more snow.

Photos by Guy McCarthy

gale-force baldy

Sunrise tints a ridge on San Antonio aka Old Baldy

MOUNT BALDY - Gale-force winds rake the high east end of the San Gabriel range from time to time, and they did again today.

Before sunrise at Manker Flats, gusting winds out of the northeast roared down canyons aligned with the blasts, but the bulk of Mount Harwood sheltered most of the Ski Hut-Baldy Bowl trail.

By 9 a.m. about 3,000 feet higher up the winds had more room to maneuver, and people walking steeper sections of the trail skirting the Bowl paid attention.

At 10 a.m. on the 10,064-foot summit, the high point in Los Angeles County, walking and standing were challenging tasks. Wind-speed estimates among those on the mountain top ranged from 50 miles per hour sustained to 70 mph gusting.



National Weather Service meteorologist Todd Hall, based in Oxnard, defined gale-force winds this evening as 39 to 46 mph.

"Forty-seven to 54 miles per hour is what we call a 'strong gale,' " Hall said in a telephone interview.

Further west in the San Gabriels earlier today, instruments at Chilao measured 30 mph sustained winds with 42 mph gusts, which also qualified as gale-force, Hall said.

Conversation below full-on shouting on Baldy's summit today was difficult, but descriptions of conditions up there later included the words "scary," "intense," and "freezing."



Most who summited around 10 a.m. took refuge behind several knee-high rock barriers cobbled together long ago for shelter from the winds.



A bit later in the morning, others headed to the top bundled in scarves, headbands and gloves.



Aside from the winds it was a crisp, clear sun-drenched day, and a few decided to dress light.



These folks were heading down and glad to be warmer below the Ski Hut.

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Photos by Guy McCarthy

watts fire

By Guy McCarthy

WATTS - Fire gutted a building containing an auto body shop this morning in Watts.

No injuries were reported. Firefighters at the scene called for extra backup twice as they fought the three-alarm blaze for more than one hour.

The fire in the 2500 block of East 114th Street was reported at 4:15 a.m., county fire dispatchers said.












A knockdown on the fire was declared at 5:38 a.m., but crews continued mop-up well past 7 a.m. An investigation was under way to determine the cause.


Photos by Guy McCarthy