"The Gathering"

27-May 2019: We recovered our car at around 1:45pm, which should give you an idea of how far down the road that I had parked.

Along the way, we saw lots of cars with purple envelopes on the windshield. Clearly, they were victims of getting tickets from the local sheriff.

It didn’t even matter that some of them had the forest service pass on their dashboards or hanging from their rear-view mirror. The cops also got them for parking over the traffic lines so trying to improvise and squeeze between the cliffs and spilling onto the local road was definitely a no-no given this development.

All this made me wonder whether the cops might find fault with the way I parked despite being so far away from Chantry Flat…

It was about 9:05am when we started to leave the house.

The plan was to meet up with the rest of the group at 9:30am at the Chantry Flat, which was the trailhead for Sturtevant Falls.

However, knowing just how bad the parking situation can be over there, I suggested that we should show up a little earlier than that (maybe around 9am) then wait for them to show up.

Well, those plans were already dashed after our late start.

Anyways, today was a rare occasion for three families to get together with all the kids.

The last time we hung out together (besides larger gatherings around birthday parties typically) was a late-Summer mid-August weekend stay in Indio.

Naturally, there was no hiking on that get-together and we spent the majority of time inside a rented our Air BnB home with swimming pool (though there were wildfires that threatened to kill the visibility and air quality).

However, we did take advantage of the New Moon and drove out to Joshua Tree National Park for a ranger-led program looking up at the stars.

It was a magical evening.

Anyways, this time around, we were doing a hike to a waterfall.

In previous efforts, Julie had organized similar get-togethers to visit Eaton Canyon Falls, Monrovia Canyon Falls, Millard Falls, and even Escondido Falls.

However, in those excursions, there was never quite the turnout that produced all three families in full.

Usually, it was me not participating since I was admittedly tired of Eaton Canyon, Monrovia Canyon, and maybe even Millard.

While we did re-visit Escondido Falls after the Woolsey Fire had passed, we only went with Wendy’s family as Cecilia’s family couldn’t make it on that day.

So with that background info, we made the holiday light drive back up to the Arcadia area, and then, we pulled all the way up to the Chantry Flat station to pick up a forest service day pass.

Not surprisingly, the parking situation was already bad. But we had been here done that before, and we knew that we had to get all the way to the pack station first to get the permits.

Then, I could leave everyone at Chantry Flat while I’d drive solo and look for legal parking knowing full well that the parking was definitely enforced here.

Despite me finally finding parking about a mile or so downhill from Chantry Flat, experience definitely paid off because we were pretty efficient about it.

There were other people who didn’t have the foresight to do what we did, and they wound up snagging the first parking spot they could find, then have one person walk up to the pack station for the permit while someone else in their “group” or party remained by the vehicle.

So it wouldn’t be until about 10am when I finally managed to park the car, which was probably about the half-way point back down the mountain.

And it took me until about 10:20am to make it back up to the Chantry Flat Trailhead.

Along the way, I got some interesting shots of the LA Basin looking back down the Big Santa Anita Canyon, and I could even hear the creek roaring its way down the canyon (so I knew the waterfall would be good).

After a little bit of delay in getting started (which I used this delay to use the real nasty toilets at the trailhead where poop was literally on the seats of the pit toilet), we finally got going at a little after 10:30am.

So the entire crew – Cecilia’s family (Jonathan, Juliann, Selina, and John), Wendy’s family (Konnor, Farrah, and Van), Wendy’s friend Teresa and her two sons, and our family – all went down the familiar paved road to get from Chantry Flat down to the base of Big Santa Anita Canyon.

Even though the weather was mostly overcast, the heat of the day threatened to break through as there were pockets of sunshine and then overcast skies again.

When the sun came out, it got warm pretty quick, and I knew that this downhill now would be a taxing uphill finale on the return.

And in our rush to get Julie and Tahia out of the car so I could go find parking while also not blocking traffic while they were getting out, we managed to forget our hats.

So if the sun would stay out, then that would be bad news in terms of possible sunburn.

In any case, I knew that once we got into Big Santa Anita Canyon, there would be sufficient shade to keep us out of the sun.

Sure enough, once we got to the bottom, the trail eventually got to what appeared to be a ford. Since I was keeping Van company in the back of the pack, I saw that some folks were stopped at this ford due to lots of water going across it.

However, from past experience, I knew that there was a bridge and they didn’t have to do this ford.

And when I saw that bridge, I told the rest of the crew about it. Only those who had rain boots on made it directly across the ford, but that wasn’t necessary.

Beyond the bridge, there was a small clearing with a trail junction and outhouse. Since I had done this hike many times before, I started paying attention to some of the other things I might have overlooked in the past.

In this case, the trail junction seemed to start an uphill trail that went up to Mt Wilson (in another 6.25 miles) as well as a long way to Chantry Flat some 5.5 miles later.

No thank you on those, especially since I knew that you could drive up to Mt Wilson off the Hwy 2.

Nonetheless, we pressed forward as our group was thinning out. Going up way ahead were Julie, Tahia, Farrah.

In the middle of the pack were Selina and Jonathan.

Cecilia, Juliann (the youngest), Wendy, and John were together.

While Konnor, Van, and myself were in the back.

We were busy chatting about random stuff (Van and I were talking about the website-related technology stuff), and we were passing by the familiar cabins which looked refurbished in some cases.

There were trees with black bark around the area which showed that there were fires around here. But how did the cabins around here survive those fires?

Regardless, since the creek was flowing quite well, I knew that the stream crossings would be a little slower going to try to stay dry.

Sure enough, after getting past some of the trailside cabins (where I’ve noticed any reference to Tom Bombadil’s Castle was gone and was replaced by a “Private Property” sign), we then had to get past Fiddler’s Crossing.

That was the first of a handful of crossings where lots of people seemed to have difficulty trying to stay dry.

Some people did come prepared with rain boots and were able to plow right through the creeks.

And in a couple of instances, some people with the rain boots still tried to rock hop even though they didn’t need to.

I had Gore-tex boots on so I was fine mixing up a combination of rock hopping and getting through the creek in some of the very shallow (less than ankle deep) parts).

Eventually at 11:45am, we finally made it to the Sturtevant Falls.

Unsurprisingly, there had to have been at least 30 or 40 people or more here. Apparently, Memorial Day itself meant this place was packed. I guess not that many people went out of town judging by the attendance here.

Anyways, we did one more stream crossing right across the base, and then we could finally enjoy the waterfall.

It was actually quite chilly here as the temperatures seemed to have dropped around the waterfall.

It had flowed quite well (better than all the previous times I had been here), and thus all that spray seemed to have had a cooling effect.

My nose was running a bit, and even Tahia refused to play in the water because it was too cold for her. She was oscillating between shivering when not moving, then messing around with the other kids.

So we easily spent another half-hour or so at the waterfall, but now it was getting uncomfortably late in the day as Julie wanted to have lunch at a reasonable hour.

Since she wanted to eat paleo stuff at the Culture Club 101 closer to Pasadena, that meant that we had to start heading out at 12:15pm.

It seemed like more people were coming in at this time, which was amazing considering how many people were already here!

In any case, we went back the way we came, past the familiar cabins, and even taking some time to make more photos since we were now looking the other way as opposed to the way we came in.

Eventually at 1:10pm, we climbed up the paved ramp at the end towards the First Water Trail junction. Even though the sign showing Hermit Falls piqued some peoples’ interest, I knew from experience that it wasn’t an easy waterfall to visit.

Plus, Tahia took her time because she kept pointing out dogs every time she saw someone walking a dog on the trail. She really wanted a dog for herself, but Julie and I knew better.

For sure she wouldn’t take care of the dog as she still hadn’t shown enough maturity and sense of responsibility to properly care for one. Besides, it would add yet another constraint for us when we had to go traveling internationally.

Finally at 1:20pm, we made it back up to Chantry Flat. We saw a couple of sheriff vehicles parked by the gate.

I’m pretty sure they were here to write tickets.

Anyways, it took some time to return to our cars. We actually returned with Wendy’s family up to their parking by the pack station, where they drove us down the road to our parked car.

We recovered our car at around 1:45pm, which should give you an idea of how far down the road that I had parked.

Along the way, we saw lots of cars with purple envelopes on the windshield. Clearly, they were victims of getting tickets from the local sheriff.

It didn’t even matter that some of them had the forest service pass on their dashboards or hanging from their rear-view mirror. The cops also got them for parking over the traffic lines so trying to improvise and squeeze between the cliffs and spilling onto the local road was definitely a no-no given this development.

All this made me wonder whether the cops might find fault with the way I parked despite being so far away from Chantry Flat.

Fortunately, I didn’t see our car with a ticket.

I guess I did the right thing by having the willingness to park further down the mountain for a legitimate spot instead of saving a few steps with a makeshift and sketchier spot.

Regardless, we all then drove back down the mountain then took the I-210 west towards Hill, I believe, then we headed back towards the foothills until we arrived at the Culture Club 101.

By the time we got there, it was about 2:10pm. So that meant that the place wasn’t too busy.

We wound up spending the next two hours eating here. The clerk behind the counter was patient with us as we were trying to figure out what to get.

Our family managed to clean out all the legs and thighs of their rotisserie chicken. They also had a bolognese with zucchini spaghetti, but we don’t do that anymore given the lectins in zucchini.

The lady also gave first-time customers a free kombucha drink, and she even let me sample different ones.

When we were done with the late lunch, Tahia also convinced me to buy this $18.50 chocolate mousse yogurt except after only one bite, she didn’t want anymore. What?!?

If not for her, I would have gotten the coconut vanilla bean one.

We also picked up a small vanilla bean coconut ice cream, which was kind of like the Rebels one but didn’t have some kind of gum compound that would consistently give me heartburn.

When all was said and done, we probably spent close to $100 here on just our stuff alone.

The rest of the crew were surprised at what you could do with clean ingredients without all the non-compliant stuff you typically get at most establishments when you eat out.

Eventually at 4pm, we were back in the car as we all went our separate ways.

For our family, the day wasn’t over yet.

Fifteen minutes later, we went to the REI in Arcadia since it was the last day of their Spring sale, and we wanted to make sure we had gear that would last us for the all-important Scandinavia trip coming soon.

Given how busy it was over there, it took a bit of time to pick up some replacement hiking boots as well as a possible replacement day pack.

When we were done doing that, then we decided to go back to the Santa Anita Mall at about 5:45pm for some quick Hainan-style chicken rice near the Din Tai Fung there. Given that it was getting late in the day, Julie had no desire to go home and then cook something.

When we were finally done with this dinner (which followed our late lunch so we were quite stuffed and Tahia was still fighting off her cold that had persisted over the last couple of weeks), then we finally drove home in relative holiday light Monday afternoon traffic on Memorial Day.

Finally at 7:20pm, we were finally back at home. But all we had time to do from this point forward was to get cleaned up and get ready for the shortened workweek (though it won’t be shortened for me since I expect to work into the next weekend).