San Gabriel Mountain Adventures - Trogden's High Trail
Taking the road less traveled.
So about a year ago I was out prospecting for gold in my favorite area of the East Fork of the San Gabriel river and I'd decided to try to hike out via the old High Trail that the old timer prospector George Trogden had built to access his cabin when the water levels on the river got too high for crossing. The trail hadn't seen any maintenance since Trogden's death in 1929, so the majority of it was washed out and/or overgrown with brush. It was really tough, but I was able to do it. And the awesome views were more than enough reward.
The site where George Trogden once lived
Views from the High Trail
Views from the High trail
Overlooking the "Bridge to Nowhere" from the High trail
So then fast forward to just a few weeks ago I was out prospecting my spot on the river and I was visited by my good buddy and fellow youtuber Alan aka Pharroah. Who had brought out a group of his friends to camp out overnight. That night while we were all hanging out I started telling Alan how I was able to find and make it through on the High trail. Alan is also an avid explorer and knows more about the East fork than anyone I know. He is the only other person I knew that had attempted finding it. And even he had failed. So he was very much intrigued by my story.
Camping out in the East Fork
Then this last weekend Alan had organized a clean up project where he got a group of people to hike 4 miles up the river and clean up a bunch of trash left by some low life litterbug. I joined them in that mission and we were able to haul out 23 bags of trash!!
The next day Alan and I headed out for the big adventure! We started hiking early and stopped for a quick break at the base of our big climb, about 5 miles up river, and we made some breakfast. Then we made the big climb up to the High trail, which we were able to find and follow all the way through to the Iron fork!! It was an awesome adventure, climbing high up on the mountainside with the bighorn sheep!! I would tell you more of the details, but Alan has graciously given me permission to use his videos in my Steemit posts (you can ask him if you don't believe me). So I'll just let his awesome video do the talking...
Youtube video - 
Thanks for Watching! 
Thanks for Watching! *All videos are by Pharroah and are used with his permission
Map - !steemitworldmap 34.237113 lat -117.765241 long 'East Fork of the San Gabriel River' D3SCRSteemit World Map
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Wow! Trash cleanup and then that crazy hike? You, sir, are an ANIMAL (pretty sure we know what kind)
That Mountain Sheep encounter was awesome!
this is like heaven ,, beautiful scenery, I think to reach this peak is not easy, this is really amazing friend ..
Thank you @lidiasteem. Yes, being up on a steep mountainside overlooking beautiful scenery... it's like heaven for a mountain man like me! It's definitely not an easy climb, but the difficulty makes it that much more rewarding.
Dude very nice photos and views, I also love hiking here in Portugal. There are some really nice places and views here also.. You should visit Portugal someday ;D
Thanks @bluedemon. Maybe someday I will do some hiking in Portugal. There are so many places I want to hike, I wish I had time for them ALL!!
Hey I recognize that tent and pack! :) And thanks for picking up where others were less thoughtful. It's so sad to see trash on the trail.
I've been staring at this mountain peak from out my window and I'm thinking we should climb it and then it can be a duo adventure on your steemit blog. :D
Dude 23 bags just from one spot near Devil's gulch... and there's still more there that I need to keep working on... and Kevin Brown is working on cleaning up a big pile of trash in the Narrows right now too. It sucks, but as long as there are stupid people that leave their trash I'll be picking it up. There's no other option.
...did you say climb a mountain!? I'm in. I like climbing mountains. lol.
Let me know if/when there is another trash cleanup meet and I will be there!
There is still more to get at this spot. I'm not sure who all is planning to go on the hike this wednesday, but maybe we could do that instead of BSAC? It's a 9 mile round trip though. But if we're down for it there's an awesome waterfall like 3 minutes from the cleanup site!
I am in!
Boom! That's how shit gets done!
This is beautiful!!! And 23 bags of trash!!! I so dislike people who are leaving their trash laying around!!
Looks amazing there! Love hiking and camping, when I can do it. It is my favorite thing to do to relax. Upvoted :)
Thanks @crystalpacheco30!
This is so cool; the views really are amazing. And I can tell from the panting on the video that it was a pretty steep climb haha
...and as a farm girl originally from Ontario, where we farmed...are you ready?....onions! I totally loved your appreciation of the wild ones ;)
Cheers!
Thanks @lynncoyle1! It was a steep climb, but the views were totally worth it. I'm glad you enjoyed the wild onions! I really like wildcrafting.
This post is sponsored by @appreciator in collaboration with #steemitbloggers. Keep up the good work
Wow, that was intense! I would have to wear Depends out of fear on those steep scrambles lmao! But wow, the Bighorn view you as their kin.
It's funny, I have watched some of Pharroah's videos before, he is always finding cool sites. So cool to see someone I met get featured in a vid.
I am going to pick your wildcrafting brain!
Haha!! Ya, I've been told I'm 3/4 bighorn. Pharroah is a really cool dude, and he's featured me in a few videos over the years, but he makes so many I can't find the time to watch half of them. I've been telling him about Steemit and Dtube, but he's totally clueless about crypto. lol. And as for wildcrafting I'm all about it. I love being able to identify all the native plants. If you haven't already, I'd recommend checking out Christopher Nyerges. His wild foods books are excellent.
I like looking up animal totems.
Looks to be an amazing place to hike through, very annoying people litter everywhere. Kudos to you going in to clean up after others tardiness, preserving nature.
Sorry I won't be able to see the whole video a bit long on my slow connection today @derekrichardson