Hike 2015.010 -- Rubio Canyon

Hiked Sunday, February 8. 3 miles. Yeah, I'm still falling behind on my posts. I was hoping to do better, this year.

This day was a short hike, just trying to squeeze a little walking into the weekend. With the not-so-distant rains, I thought maybe Rubio Canyon would be interesting.

Instead, the lowest of the falls was essentially dry, which meant there was no need to continue to the upper falls. Instead, I turned around, and returned almost back to the trailhead (on this day, I hiked from the lowest access point, where Rubio Canyon Road transitions to Loma Alta Road.

The small cabin near the start appears to have crumbled a bit more. I've seen this cabin for years, but don't know if it has any historical significance. It would appear not, as there have been no attempts to arrest its decay.

From the cabin, I continued along the road, around the gate, and came to where a much larger water structure used to be. Now, it's a smaller structure with a pipe coming out of it, and the bridge that links it to the road is in danger of collapsing.

Continuing upstream from there, in maybe 1/10th of a mile, there are soon three splits: Right heads up the hill, on what soon becomes a very narrow climb up the ridge. Left heads up to join the "main" Rubio Canyon trail, that started at the "corner" of Pleasant Ridge and Rubio Vista Drive. I took that direction first, walked along that trail for about 1/2 mile, crossed the pavilion area, and continued to the aforementioned dry waterfall.

Then I returned back to this split area, and headed up the river bottom, which is the third option. It continues for maybe 1/5 of a mile before reaching a place where a rope hung down, to assist a climb out of the ravine and to the right. I climbed up the rope, but this trail seemed to lead nowhere. So I descended and returned the way I came.

As I descended, I noticed that the rope was laying in a bush of poison oak. I rinsed my hands as soon as I got to the bottom, and washed it with soap and water numerous times when I got home. No ill effects in the days since then, so, "Yay!" ;D

Somewhat photogenic collection of live oak along and around the canyon; took several photos here. And that was it. I sort of wanted to hike more, but with the poison oak exposure, I also wanted to get home to wash off any resin I might have picked up, so that was my day: A short three miles. I hope to get more hiking in this weekend, though the weather is iffy.

Two more short hikes to blog, still, as well.