Lower Eaton Canyon CA - 3BIV - 9.15.12

[Eric Holden]

Lower Eaton Canyon, CA - 3BIV

I have been wanting to do this canyon for a while. We have been having >100F temps here in southern California and knew that this was one of the few canyons that required some swimming. Set the date and brought along my good Swedish buddy Patrick for a great day!

Got an early start and left the house at 4:30am. Arrived on site around 6:30 and set out at 6:45am. The hike up to the top of the canyon was uneventful, nice and cool, about 4miles and 2100ft of elevation gain. The last mile is on a very overgrown trail, a few scraps later and after being covered in vegetation we reached the drop into the canyon.

The drop was the worst part of this trip for me. a high angle dirt/rock/tree slope. Someone had "Rigged" some of the old telephone wire that used to run though this canyon up as a hand line for "Rappelling" on. We chose the other route and used the trees and rocks to keep us from rolling down the hill. My hiking shoes no longer have any tread on them and this was a nail biting experience.

Dirty, hot and sweaty, we reached the canyon floor and suited up. Patrick in his full wet suit, me in my quick dry pants and rash guard.


As we started down the canyon we quickly realized how much fun we were about to get into. Two slides into 6ft+ deep water made this hike all worthwhile.


After some slides we came to our first Rappel of the day.


More slides, some jumpers!


After about an hour we came to an area know as "The Gully". Pictures don't come close to view it. A large bowl dug out of granite. A bunch of cairns have been built at the exit of this "cave" that takes an 80ft rap to descend into.



After exiting the gully there are a couple more slides.


And swims


After the fun, you get to slog it out on a 2 mile hike through brush, bugs, and rocks with very little water play. As we finally came out of the slog I found two tennis shoes laying on the ground. They looked new! A few feet later we came to another slide, about 10ft and a couple of guys were below it. One of them asked

"Hey Could you do me a favor?"
And I respond to the bare foot man "Toss you these shoes?"
"Yup"
And down they went. It turns out that they had hiked up from the bottom of the canyon and couldn't pass this slide. So he did the smart thing and figured he could climb it bare foot. Not wanting to leave his shoes behind he tossed them up the waterfall and then couldn't climb it and was left barefoot. That would have been a long 3 mile hike back to the trail head.

We started running into more and more people that hike up and around the waterfalls and are there to play on the slides/jumps. We got lots of looks, questions, and comments as we passed them all. We eventually came to about a 10ft jump that had a few college kids daring the one person that climbed up it to jump. Showing them how it was done I took the leap and found the water was only about 4ft deep!!. Landed with bent legs and no injuries. Patrick followed and we left the college kid still up on the side, still being dared by his friends to jump. We later met them at the trail head and turns out they did it multiple times.

Where there is people, there is this crap as well..... So sad that a lot of the lower sections had all this sh!t on it


Finally we got to the second to last falls. Very mossy, slippery into a pool about 7ft deep.

My ugly mug


Patrick in the 7ft deep water


The last falls dubbed "Eaton Falls" was a very interesting rappel, about 50ft. Normally I am used to rappelling into brush, water, uneven rocks, snakes, bees, and stuff of that nature. This rappel was into bikini clad college girls sunbathing on the rocks below us... no pictures for this. After getting off the last rappel, to the applaud of the large crowd there we packed up our gear and finished the last 1/2mile hike back to the car. GREAT DAY!!

9miles
2100ft elevation
5 rappels
lots of slides and jumps!

[2065toyota]

[jman]

Very cool! That'd be a fun one. I'll have to pass this on to my brother.

[Slot Machine]

This rappel was into bikini clad college girls sunbathing on the rocks below us... no pictures for this. After getting off the last rappel, to the applaud of the large crowd there we packed up our gear and finished the last 1/2mile hike back to the car.

Man, just when I was starting to get the impression that Utah canyons were better...

Nice TR!

[Steevo]

So what were the water temps? We are going to do Little Santa Anita this weekend with the kids.

[Eric Holden]

Didn't break out the thermometer but in the heat we have been having and considering Little Santa Anita doesn't really have any swims (Except that first fun slide that catches everyone by surprise) you shouldn't have a problem with water temps. I did this canyon which is about 1000x more water play then LSA in just my quick dry pants and quick dry undies, neoprene booties, and rash guard, I was never cold.

But as always, Your Results May Vary. I always carry a fleece jacket just in case. I had to pull it out one time as a buddy of mine was getting cold feet. We took a break to warm him up and put the jacket around his feet.

[dougr]

Nice, thanks for the TR. Going this weekend in a group of 4. Me leading, 2 vets, 1 noob. Sounds great, looking forward to a hot day and some hot girls at the last rap.