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View Full Version : Trip Report Little Santa Anita Canyon, CA - 8.6.11 (First Timer!)



Eric Holden
09-02-2011, 02:15 PM
My first time Canyoneering report! Having been a rock climber for about 4 years, I have always wanted to do canyoneering. Finally said, "Screw waiting!" I called up a few of my other climbing/adventuring buddies, gave them a list of things the need to bring and found out about Little Santa Anita Canyon.
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This was a first time for all of us. We even brought along a non-climber friend who was stupid enough to accompany us on our virgin decent. His wife packed him a lunch with a "Love you Have fun" card in it.... I never get these things from my wife!!!

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So we knew to expect about 11 rappels. Turns out we had 13, 12 bolted one, off a tree. The second to last Rap was into a pothole that could be up to 13 feet deep. Exit was under cut granite. Luckily it was only about 5ft deep today due to being filled in with sand. Stacked some rocks and made a pile to stand on and get up and over the lip. We had WAY too much gear as I wanted to make sure we didn't come across something we couldn't get past. Our non-climber friend who had never rappelled before got a backup fireman's belay which turned out to be not necessary as I put the fear of god into him about his break hand.

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All in all it was a great day, my love of canyons as increased exponentially and continues every time I read another trip report. Total time was bout 7 hours round trip, only some bumps and scraps, no injuries! We did have some falling rocks from hikers overhead, Helmets for all! Heading out again this weekend!

Frank on drop #3
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Crystal clear pool before I muddied it up.
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Large overhanging rock created a very nice waterfall.
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Slippery Rocks...
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More pictures can be found.
http://www.drunkreddragon.com/images/adventures/LittleSantaAnitaCanyon/index.html

jman
09-02-2011, 02:28 PM
Finally! Something besides utah slots for a change! lol...

That would be a fun adventure! Thanks for posting this. Oh, and be sure to post your future TRs too.

dougr
09-04-2011, 02:00 PM
3 of us descended LSA on Saturday Sept. 3, 2011. The creek was running about 2/3 of the way down, flow is low but nice. In photo 5 above, that pool is now dry and there is no flow that far down canyon. In photo 6 above, there is no flow over the boulder. Water temp is perfect. 4.5 hrs to descend from head of canyon to car. Took 2 complete noobs to canyoneering and they did fine. Very nice day.

Photo 4 equivalent:
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On top of the photo 6 boulder:
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TH parking at the corner of Mt Wilson Trail and E. Mira Monte: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Little+Santa+Anita+Canyon,+Sierra+Madre,+CA&hl=en&ll=34.169772,-118.049265&spn=0.006968,0.010579&sll=33.915007,-118.404626&sspn=0.055914,0.084629&vpsrc=6&gl=us&z=17

Eric Holden
09-05-2011, 08:22 PM
You second to last photo, the one with the pothole, I really want to run that one with water sometime. mmmmmm Springtime!

hattrick
09-05-2011, 09:22 PM
The pothole was a swimmer a couple months ago. You won't have to wait until Spring, one good storm will fill it back up. I'm looking forward to the hole at the third 3rd rap to open up so you can go under the chockstone again.

Eric Holden
09-05-2011, 09:30 PM
Well, we are having a little bit of a storm right now, so maybe :naughty:

Sombeech
09-07-2011, 08:11 PM
:cool2: