Rubio Canyon (Los Angeles Area)
I did Rubio for the first time on Sunday, and it lived up its reputation as an five star canyon. We took a bottom-up approach, and our car-to-car time with five people and an unhurried pace was only 5.5 hours.
The rappels were extremely slippery, to the point that we rappelled on our knees or hips on some sections. Of course that could be avoided by using alternatives anchors for most rappels, but playing in the water was more fun.
The Approach:
There are a couple of different approaches to Rubio, but I couldn't find anything on the particular one we ended up taking. The classic route (as described by Brennen) involves a long hike around Echo mountain and a car shuttle. Instead there are a couple of shorter routes that start from the bottom of the canyon and traverse the eastern side, dropping into the canyon somewhere above the first rappel.
We started out following the GPS coordinates from the uCanyon Beta, but that approach goes farther up the canyon and involves some additional rappels.
Instead we followed a heavily worn foot trail down to the canyon just above what Brennen describes as the first rappel. From the road, the foot path is easy to follow. Just start heading up canyon on the herd paths that generally follow the water course until you reach the first rappel. There's an easy to find path up a gully on the east side of canyon. That trail is pretty easy to follow and it takes you up to the rim, past a great view of Thalehaha Falls, and on to the drop in point. The drop in point had a series of fixed ropes to help with the scramble down the steep earth slope, so it is hard to miss.
First Rappel:
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Thalehaha Falls:
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Other Rappels:
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