{"article":{"id":224400,"heading":"Fire In The Hole -- SoCal Hiking Trail Gets Fixed","author":"Fredric L. Rice","created":"2009-02-04 10:03:29","modified":"2009-02-04 10:03:29","last_modified":"Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:03:29","article":"

On 31\/Jan\/09, work was done on the Upper Bear Creek Trail in the Angeles National Forest, the trailhead of which is located along Highway 39 (Azusa Blvd) 18 miles North of Azusa.

The hiking trail is a much loved trail which has been closed due to a dangerous gap in the trail. Since the gap crosses a sheer cliff face, blasting was needed to be done to carve out the cliff face so that a tread could be established.

For a video of the two blasts which used 935 pounds of explosives to carve out the cliff face, click on:

http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZWMGNiGRBUg<\/a>

For a detailed write-up of the project complete with links to that video and to another video showing the many photographs, click on:

http:\/\/www.crystallake.name\/twork\/31jan09\/31jan09.php<\/a>

Upper Bear Creek Trail's trailhead is located just a few hundred feet from Coldbrook Campground at a place called the Valley of the Moon where a large parking lot is located. Further up Highway 39 some 10 miles or so is Crystal Lake Recreation Area which may re-open as soon as this September if Caltrans's schedule holds.

Please feel free to email me with questions about hiking, camping, biking. and climbing in the National Forest in the canyons around and above Azusa.

If you would like to volunteer to perform hiking trail maintenance and other forest projects, email me and I will send you details about where and when we plan to work next.

<\/p>\n","contact":"feedback@crystallake.name","link":"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ZWMGNiGRBUg","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/plain","summary":"Upper Bear Creek Trail in the Angeles National Forest has been closed due to a gap in the hiking trail which made using the trail dangerous. Saturday the USFS, the Bear Divide Hot Shots, and the San Gabriel Mountains Trailbuilders blasted the cliff face at the gap so that the trail can be re-established and get re-opened.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/","filesize":null,"article_url":"\/news\/2009\/02\/224400.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}