"Forbidden Social Distancing"

14-April 2020: By this time, it had to have been at least five minutes or more, but Julie and Tahia didn’t show up.

Seeing that I still had phone reception, I texted Julie if they were coming, but they ultimately decided to stay by the car because a neighbor here told them that the trail was closed.

Julie was fearful that they might get reported to police so they stayed behind, but now that planted in my mind that perhaps there was a time limit for my exploration before the cops would show up…

With it being about a month into the shelter-in-place order along with improving weather after more rains that seemed to revive the rain totals somewhat, we knew there was a lot of potential for waterfall sightings locally in the near term.

However, the COVID-19 order to shelter in place meant that just about all the public trails leading to these waterfalls were closed.

Never mind that hiking is one of the best ways to social distance (provided it doesn’t get crowded), but the authorities want you to stay at home for understandable reasons.

Unfortunately, that also flies against mental and physical well-being, which I’m sure a lot of people are getting bored or anxious or some form of cabin fever from being couped up at home all the time.

Anyways, the only chance of visiting waterfalls while they were flowing meant we’d have to find the lesser-known spots without official parking lots.

And we’d have to do this in the near term.

Who knows when this order will be lifted (if ever)?

Without the right leadership in place, it’ll probably be at least through the end of the Trump Presidency before we even start to see any positive progress.

And even then, who knows how much damage has been done under his presidency that have dug us into a deeper hole?

As much “curve flattening” publicity that has been going around, we know that there will likely be a premature lifting of the social distancing order because money making activities (the very motivation of our current administration) are impacted.

Indeed, some people (typically those who have managed to luck into making money by plundering and exploiting Mother Earth) value commerce over lives.

In a twisted way, it was no different than when Walter White had Jesse Pinkman kill Gael Boetticher, where he had to take a life for his own economic (empire building and self-preservation) intentions.

Then, again, Mother Nature has the ultimate say on these things, and such commercial activities have been rigged to push Mother Nature to the breaking point of human survival.

I have a feeling that COVID-19 was just the next stress from overpopulation and inability to coexist with Nature, which manifests itself in things like Global Warming, Climate Change, mass extinctions, etc.

I’m thinking we’re already at that breaking point, and there will be a population correction.

So who knows how much longer we can be doing any more mental health healing activities like visiting waterfalls?

It was with all those thoughts in mind that we had to do something a little more interactive with Mother Nature albeit doing it discreetly.

We figured that hiking is the best way to social distance, but with all the trails that are closed, the only ones that you have a hope of doing are the less-popular and less-infrastructured ones.

And thus, I thought that perhaps Rubio Canyon Waterfalls would be the thing to do since I knew it required an adventure to access this, and that it didn’t have much infrastructure supporting its visitation.

Ever since Rubio Canyon was known to me when I first saw an LA Times Outdoors article about it at work back in late 2004 or early 2005, this place had been on my mind ever since I saw that article.

Unfortunately, for one reason or another (whether it was the falls not flowing or we had other travel priorities, or what), we never had a chance to visit it.

I had doubts that this hiking visit was going to happen given the uncertainty in the outcome and the chances of this being nothing more than a waste of time (or even a citation or fine).

But eventually by 11:20am, we made the executive decision to just push forward and leave home.

The traffic was light though there were still a surprising number of vehicles on the road even in these conditions.

Ultimately by about 12pm, we ultimately arrived at the Rubio Canyon Trailhead.

The first thing we saw when we turned up the sloping residential Rubio Vista Drive were a couple of people with trekking poles hiking downhill on the quiet street.

That made me wonder if people were doing this hike anyways or not.

So we eventually pulled up near the corner where the trailhead was (it was right in between a pair of houses), and then we geared up.

However, Julie and Tahia took forever to get ready so I just pressed forward first to scout out the place.

I then found the relatively hidden trailhead path, and the first thing I noticed was a spray-painted wooden board saying something about the trail being closed by COVID-19 order.

That said, it didn’t look like it stopped people because there was definitely a trail that went around it, and I’m guessing local residents would use the trail even with the closure (as well as other hikers willing to take the risk with the authorities).

So then I proceeded past the homes and then I found another signboard as a trail continued further up into the mouth of Rubio Canyon.

Looking towards the LA Basin, I got a nice view over some kind of debris or water plant (similar to what I noticed at Bailey Canyon) peering towards parts of downtown LA.

Shortly after crossing a footbridge going past a couple of water pipes, I then noticed an unsigned spur trail leading down into a narrower and bushier switchbacking path going down to the stream responsible for Rubio Canyon.

As much as I was curious about the trail going forward and further up into Rubio Canyon, I suspected that trail would eventually lead up to the Sam Merrill Trail and ultimately up to Echo Canyon as well as other parts of the old Great Incline and the Mt Lowe Railway.

By this time, it had to have been at least five minutes or more, but Julie and Tahia didn’t show up.

Seeing that I still had phone reception, I texted Julie if they were coming, but they ultimately decided to stay by the car because a neighbor here told them that the trail was closed.

Julie was fearful that they might get reported to police so they stayed behind, but now that planted in my mind that perhaps there was a time limit for my exploration before the cops would show up.

So I pushed forward by going down into the stream of Rubio Canyon.

By the time I made it down to the last switchback, I noticed yellow police tape so clearly there have been people setting things up to let people know that the hike was closed.

That said, when I went past the yellow tape, I did see one hiker going further downstream to the right towards another yellow tape set up as it went into the debris plant.

He looked like he knew he was trespassing but pushed forward anyways as perhaps he concluded his hike.

Regardless, I then went upstream as the hike immediately became pretty much a stream scramble with some semblance of a trail every so often.

There were lots of deadfalls and overgrowth, but it wasn’t anything terrible from what I could tell.

I did notice there was one other person without a shirt in the canyon who appeared to be sitting down and maybe having a moment of meditation or something.

When he saw me approach, he asked if I wanted to come by, but I told him that I’ll just go around him.

Neither of us had a mask on, but I was totally geared up in long-sleeved Les Stroud shirt and long pants with hiking boots as well as a hat.

And on a hot day like this, I was already sweating bullets.

After maybe a couple of minutes, there was some kind of remnants of a wall, and I wondered if it was the bottom of the Great Incline for the “White Chariots” back at the turn of the 19th century.

Continuing on with the stream scramble, I’d continue over more minor cascades while also encountering loads of water pipes along the way.

This made me wonder whether all this water diversion was permitted for the plant down below or if someone decided to set these things up on their own to get their own water.

Regardless, I would imagine that Rubio Canyon has such a small drainage that any water diversion that went on here must be short-lived every year.

Continuing on with the stream scramble, I passed by one small water slide and then I followed a trail on the east-side of the stream bank, where there appeared to be a trail leading down from the right.

That kind of suggested to me that there might even be another access point into Rubio Canyon.

Just opposite this trail junction, I noticed that there was a side gully that apparently was supposed to support a waterfall called Maidenhair Falls.

However, it wasn’t flowing during my visit so I didn’t linger for it. Besides, it was probably only 15ft or so.

The stream scramble continued to get narrower and more overgrown with more stream crossings along the way.

Diversion pipes seemed to be a persistent sight throughout the scramble, and I even noticed more than one of them.

Eventually, I regained some semblance of a trail, which eventually got me to what appeared to be the remnants of the Rubio Pavilion.

I believe this pavilion was the actual base of the “White Chariots” Great Incline that would eventually hook up with the Mt Lowe Railway.

Given the ruggedness of this canyon, it made me wonder how ambitious (maybe foolishly) this grand project was to have an incline lead up to an accommodation right at the summit of Echo Mountain.

I recalled reading a sign about it when I pursued the top down view of Millard Falls, but now it was becoming apparent to me how ambitious of an undertaking this must have been.

Since this took place right around the late 1800s and early 1900s, I’d imagine that the belief in industrialism as well as the European example (especially in Switzerland) must have inspired this project.

It would have been a means for the wealthy or those with the money to actually stay up by Echo Mountain and get a regal view back into the Los Angeles basin.

But it turned out that a combination of self-inflicted calamities and Mother Nature would eventually do in this project to the point of abandonment.

Since the abandonment of the project, there were other episodes of mismanagement of the canyon that ultimately resulted in a massive landslide that actually covered up the Rubio Canyon Waterfalls.

And it wasn’t until heavy rains and a flash flood washed away enough of the debris to start revealing the Rubio Canyon Waterfalls once again.

That was when I chanced upon that LA Times Outdoors article about it, and then had it in my mind that it would be cool to see it one day – 15 years later!

Anyways, I did see old photos from Dan Simpson’s Hiking Site about how there used to be stairs bringing you up to each of the Rubio Canyon Waterfalls.

Now, I was quite well-aware of how even witnessing these waterfalls now required quite a bit of risky scrambling on cliffs to access.

In my mind, I was only intending to see the lowermost of the Rubio Canyon Falls, which were the Ribbon Rock Falls and Moss Grotto Falls, but I held out hope that maybe I might be able to scramble up to Grand Chasm Falls and even Thalehaha Falls.

But I’d have to see for myself how dicey of the scrambling I’d be faced with for those other waterfalls.

Anyways, past the foundations of the Rubio Pavilion, the faint trail eventually rounded a bend where there was another trail that continued up Rubio Canyon past a dead-fall tree.

The other trail looked like it led up to a degenrating scramble possible ascending the old Great Incline, but I didn’t pursue that too far since I knew it detracted from my primary goal – the Rubio Canyon Falls.

So continuing past the deadfall, I did more stream scrambling as I increasingly found myself bouldering over and even within the stream.

After rounding a bend I finally started to see the pair of waterfalls comprising the base of the Rubio Canyon Waterfalls.

The time was now about 12:50pm when I showed up, so I ended up spending about 50 minutes to do a little over a mile of hiking (more like scrambling so it was slow going).

The waterfalls were totally bathed in the sun, and there even appeared to be some kind of interesting rock up atop the cliffs further upstream of the falls.

It was a nice sight to see the Ribbon Rock Falls and the Moss Grotto Falls, and soon after I spent time documenting this experience, I started to explore around for a possible way to climb past this falls.

I could see straight away that scrambling immediately past these waterfalls were way too vertical to attempt.

However, I did notice a gully off to the east side that looked quite doable.

Upon looking at the Dan Simpson printout, I saw that you do indeed have to go up that gully and then scramble to the left to try to get up a high outcrop before dropping steeply down into the gorge right above the Ribbon Rock Falls.

When I made the scramble, it wasn’t bad at first, but then when I had to deviate and climb up to the outcrop, the “trail” got even steeper and dicier.

I even managed to get punctured by what might have been agave plants and I ultimately made it up to the outcrop with a nice view back down the canyon towards the Los Angeles Basin.

However, in order to proceed to check out the Grand Chasm Falls, I saw that there was a seemingly steeper gully that I had to descend in order to even get to the top of Ribbon Rock Falls.

On a day like today when I was worried about being reported by the authorities, I couldn’t leave Tahia and Julie sitting for too long.

So I ultimately decided to abandon the attempt to scramble down to the Deep Chasm Falls, but at least I knew where it was.

If there ever was a way to shortcut this cliffside scramble with rock steps or something (there used to be metal or wooden steps going up past this pair of falls), then that would have been a convenient way to experience the Deep Chasm Falls.

But alas, it just wasn’t meant to be.

When I scrambled back down to the gully, the thought did cross my mind to continue up this ravine and maybe check out the Thalehaha Falls Overlook, but I just didn’t have another hour of scrambling in each direction in me.

So I retreated back down to the Ribbon Rock Falls and Moss Grotto Falls again hoping that maybe I might partake in the sketchier adventure “one of these days”, but just not today.

It was about 1:15pm when I declared defeat and continued may downstream scramble back to an awaiting Julie and Tahia.

Again, it took some time to get downstream through the same bouldering and overgrowth obstacles.

Along the way, I noticed some wildflowers as well as lizards and even a fuzzy worm that I hadn’t noticed on the way up.

By about 1:25pm, I made it back to the dead-fall junction by the Rubio Pavilion, and five minutes later, I made it back to the Maidenhair Falls.

By about 1:40pm, I got past the foundation wall, and ultimately by about 1:50pm, I made it back to the parked car where Julie and Tahia had moved it to under a tree for some shade.

I was a hot sweaty mess, but since we were looking for a late lunch, I waited to change out of my shoes for when we’d get around to the Urban Plates in Pasadena.

Julie would call in the order, and we’d probably have to eat in the car.

So by 2:10pm, we made it to the Urban Plates, and we did what we had to do to have our late lunch in the car.

Eventually, we took off some time around 2:45pm, and then we ultimately got home at around 3:35pm.

Thus, we ended off this unexpectedly adventurous day where I felt like I needed this time back in Nature since we had been missing it ever since the COVID-19 order.

However, for Julie and Tahia, it was probably more of a waste of time for them. That said, Julie knew that I needed this so she was happy that I got to do it.

That said, as much as I wanted to go back and write about this experience, I knew that it was probably going to have to wait since we didn’t want to start people on doing unsanctioned things and possibly making the problem worse.

This is what responsible blogging is supposed to uphold, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before someone’s going to post Instagram photos or a write-up or something irrespective of what restrictions are in place.

I know it’s only a matter of time, but I also know that there’s not likely a near-term end to the pandemic (unless they prematurely lift the restrictions and we’ll get a second wave and/or a mutation of the virus).

Indeed, this is where we have to take ownership of the voting choices we make and the people we listen to (which sadly is nothing more than the voices of the rich who got rich in the first place mostly by negatively impacting the earth and its checks-and-balances).

Something’s gotta give, but given how we responded to the prospect of Global Warming and Climate Change, which was made known since the 70s (possibly earlier), I really don’t have faith that we’re going to now respond appropriately.

Heck, with COVID-19, we have to get our act together in a shorter time frame for correcting the root cause (which again, is all related to the things we do to cause mass extinctions in the name of economic “growth” in the first place).

I’ve come to learn that the root cause of all our ills boils down to an economic system where you get rewarded for being or behaving like a**holes to other people or to Mother Nature, or to both.

I have my doubts about this root cause being corrected, but clearly Mother Nature is finally pushing back in a way that the economic activities must grind to a halt, and it’s all coming to a head.

We’ll see what happens next in this slow moving train wreck, but it’s like as Elliot Alderson (or Mr Robot) said in the show, “Exciting time in the world right now… exciting time…”