Hike 78: Sturtevant Falls

Short hike on Monday, August 2. I had a slightly longer ambition when I started hiking, but my already late start was made later when I got stuck behind a truck that was repainting the limit lines on the road up to Chantry Flats. We chugged along at a leisurely 5 mph or so nearly the whole way up.

Chantry Flats is reached by taking Santa Anita Avenue north of the 210 freeway. As you leave the residential section of Sierra Madre, there's a gate that is locked from 8pm 'til 6am.
I've never paid much attention to how long it takes to get to the top, but I would suspect it's 10-15 minutes normally, and probably took about 30 minutes yesterday.

Once started, it was hotter and I was already starting to crave lunch. By the time I got to Sturtevant Falls, I was definitely ready for lunch. So I just walked right back to my car. The incline at the end made me feel like I had at least accomplished something that day.

Because of the shortness of this hike, I think this may be the day I took the fewest pictures on a hike: Just 13. About six of those were of the falls. Two were of the slow-moving painting truck and the stupid silver Honda Civic hybrid (silver, CA license #5ADV108) in front of me. During the long drive up, I got to watch one of the stupid punk kids open a door and run out and grab one of the cones that were placed to keep cars off the newly painted line, and saw another punk kid toss out a small plastic wrapper. I just don't understand the rationale of people who toss trash from a moving car. It actually takes more effort to toss something out than to just leave it in your car and wait until you stop. Morons.

Another stupid picture was of the distance sign at the bottom of the first incline, where the Lower Winter Creek trail splits off to the north. The "1" of the 1 1/4 mile indicated for Sturdevant Falls is worn off, which explains why a couple of young but somewhat overweight men were huffing and puffing and wondering why, after having walked another mile or so past the "1/4 mile" sign, they STILL hadn't reached the waterfall.

Finally, there's the picture at Fiddler's Crossing. I didn't remember having to go under this tree before, so I took a picture, in case it's a change since last time.