Part 103: Power and Danger in the San Gabriels – Summer on the Unconquerable Mountain Range

Published August 5, 2024, Updated August 8, 2024.

Aug 06, 2024

Photo of the proposed site for the “Poly Fields” sports complex and outdoor education development on Chaney Trail in Altadena set for 12 out of 13 already developed acres out of a total 80 acre site by author (GoPro Hero 11 Black).

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By Zachary Ellison, Independent Journalist

Everyone knows the San Gabriel Mountains can be powerful. The mountains have always been a place of retreat, even if few have been privileged to inhabit them, much less for all four seasons outside of Mount Baldy Village and Wrightwood, just over the county line from Los Angeles into San Bernardino, with it’s more populous settlements such as Crestline, Lake Arrowhead, and Big Bear. The rugged, less forested San Gabriel Mountains, though, can be absolutely unforgiving, with roughly 80% of the range covered in chaparral and only 20% in pine forest. They are absolutely serious. From the winding turns of Angeles Crest Highway to the lonely, remote canyons with deep granite bowls thousands of feet below. No more is this true than in the summer, when temperatures spike.

This summer alone, the range has seen two significant fires within the country’s most populous county, with over 9 million residents, greater than 40 other individual states. Fire season in California is no joke, even if it’s on some level, naturally occurring, and needed. The Vista Fire, which scorched several thousand acres northeast of Mount Baldy and the Fork Fire off the East Fork Road in San Gabriel Canyon north of Azusa and Glendora. The causes of both fires remain under investigation. Native American tribes throughout California in times past would set fires intentionally to regenerate the earth, but now decades upon decades of fire suppression have led to an increasingly dangerous fire season. The Park Fire further north, near Chico, is now the 4^th largest fire in California history! An act of arson, with the battle ongoing to snuff out its massively uncontrolled flames.

Humans have power, but they are also far and away the most dangerous species to roam the mountains, to themselves and to other humans, as well as to the natural environment. More than rattlesnakes, bears, and mountain lions, it’s humans that trigger disaster, not nature, and who are a danger to other humans. Rarely have I ever felt fear in the forest as much as on the curvy highways, the Angeles Crest, the Angeles Forest, Big Tujunga, Little Tujunga, Mount Baldy, and others. Recently, heading to the Good Vibes Breakfast Club, which was once a Porsche meetup at the historic Newcomb’s Ranch along the Angeles Crest Highway held weekly on Friday mornings, I was relentlessly tailgated for the last five miles by a driver with paper plates on his brand new orange luxury sports car. His mouth frothing, he yelled, “Hey you, you see those turnouts. That’s you; you’re slowing everyone down," he said, shaking his head furiously at the delay.

I calmly replied to the man that I had seen him, that I was already over the speed limit, and that I thought he was “dangerous.” His face in disgust, he drove off, leaving before I could quickly summon others to caution the man against dangerous driving that has claimed untold numbers of lives. The recently sold property, iconic among motorists, is pending renovation, having recently been sold. That sports car driver is not alone in treating the highways as a Racetrack. The last time I wrote that, some scoffed, “Racetrack?” Yes, pretty much. As night fell one evening, slowly making the turns around the newly reopened section between Red Box and Upper Big Tujunga Road; a squad formation of dark compact sports cars made its way purposefully up towards the big turnout remote enough to accomplish burnouts. Three cars passed, and the fourth went around the turn over the rutted, double-yellow line.

Seeing him coming, I moved to the far inside of the lane near where Caltrans only recently completed repairs to repair an enormous landslide in an area prone to rockfall. My horn blared, and the racers sped off into the night. There’s an inherent danger to traversing the San Gabriel Mountains, one that can be matched perhaps nowhere else in the world. Recently, on one Sunday morning, July 21, three motorcycle riders alone went down, setting off a social media debate totaling 136 comments in the Facebook “Angeles Crest Highway” group, now totaling 16,500 members. Was it the gravel in the roadway to blame, or was speed the factor? Presumably everyone this time was okay, with one commenter remarking, “It seems endless and nobody seems to learn from it.” The trash too is endless, a sad sight representing what an economist would call a negative market externality, an indirect cost, that occurs when production or consumption imposes costs on third parties that are not compensated.

For several mornings in July, I joined the Takataka Club, formed by local residents to take care of the Angeles Crest Highway as part of the CalTrans Adopt-A-Highway program, which might be the most successful government-public partnership program of all time. After a slight month-long lapse, Governor Gavin Newsom has re-launched the $1.2 billion “multiyear initiative led by Caltrans to clean up, reclaim, transform, and beautify public spaces,” according to the August 3 press release. Per the Governor’s office: “The Clean California program has created 18,000 jobs and hauled away more than 2.6 million cubic yards of litter – enough to cover nine lanes of Interstate 5 with an inch of trash from San Diego to the Canadian border.” That’s a shocking amount of trash, and you don’t have to spend much time along Angeles Crest Highway to realize that it’s a complicated problem, caused in part by car-camping, illegal dumping and vending, and those who are just plain inconsiderate.

Personally, as an outdoorsman, I’ve now, for several years, decided to stop just walking by the litter as much as possible. It’s a mindset. Working along the highway, you find cigarette butts, Starbucks cups, beer cans and bottles, diapers, condoms, tampons, food containers, fruit debris, and even one morning, an entire set of the game Uno from Mattel, once branded as a “Show ‘Em No Mercy” end game. This summer, with even more free time on my hands, I’m on a mission to clear the Arroyo Seco and Eaton Canyon regularity in a desperate battle to put a check on the littering and, with any luck, inspire a few people along the way. I’m not the first or last to do this, but the point is the same. We need less people littering overall, more professional enforcement, and even more people cleaning up safely!

Recently, I was thrilled to attend the re-launch of the Raptor Rescue Center at the San Dimas Canyon Nature Center on July 20. When the non-profit previously offering such efforts was unable to continue due to a lack of funding, County Supervisor Kathryn Barger stepped in with the $200,000 in operating costs needed to keep the operation going. As she released the ceremonial first red-tail hawk to be rehabilitated at the refurbished facility, tears were in the eyes of attendees, and as we finished, the Supervisor gave me a proud nod. If you find an injured hawk, owl, falcon, vulture, or kestrel anywhere in Los Angeles County, the number to call/text is (626) 559-5732 for assistance in conjunction with County animal control. Giving a second life to a much needed program, the only question I had was when the aging nature center there too would be given new life (put it in your cell and satellite phones!). Sadly, outdoor education efforts in Los Angeles County are not always what they should be in this day and age.

For example, the Chilao Visitor Center, high up off Angeles Crest Highway, has now, for two years, had its main walkway broken due to snowfall. It’s not the fault of the forest service, which operates under a reported budget of roughly $30 million dollars a year is on a shoestring budget, but to get more philanthropists, and more citizens with much needed skills involved. So if anyone knows a good carpenter with some free hands on their time, headquarters is found in Arcadia on Santa Anita Boulevard. Still none of the struggles, whether snow or fire, has stopped brave Angeles National Forest volunteer Nel Graham who staffs the center on Saturdays and Sundays from 9:00 am – 3:00 pm. Recently, Nel was delighted to see the return of the Angeles Crest 100 Endurance Run, writing online, about the course ran from 1986 onwards, excepting 2023 due to landslides and fire: “I can't help but be blown away by their achievement.”

I was on hand to see the end of the grueling race, which runs from a spaghetti dinner the night before in Wrightwood to Altadena within 33 hours to a finish line at Loma Alta Park. Ever since the Bobcat Fire as Nel told me one afternoon, there are no more working call boxes along the Angeles Crest Highway, and from the La Canada Flintridge side up the High Country closing in on Wrightwood, the number to call if you need a tow (including with AAA) is for La Crescenta Towing, phone number (818) 330-1702). Reportedly, they know the campgrounds up there so well that unlike so many others, they don’t ever get turned around. A friendly reminder to always have a full gasoline tank when entering the mountain along with extra fluids, food and warmth in the winter months. In summer, you might consider devices for shade! Thankfully, the race, considered one of the most exacting ultramarathons has aid stations along the route.

As I watched the last of the runners cross the winners line, the grueling nature of the endeavor of running, not driving, across most of the San Gabriel range, even for the most elite athletes. Dirty, tired, and some bloodied, the last finisher, a firefighter, had to be carried across the finish line, treated in the medical tent and transported. Watching the scene, one young man asked me, “Is this real?” The look on Altadena Mountain Rescues faces when I asked them about the last three stragglers only confirmed the dangerous nature of the ultra-marathon race, which for many years was ran in October instead of Augusts. Soon along with Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Special Enforcement Bureaus helicopter team and Pasadena Fire, they would be dispatched to rescue via hoist one of the three outstanding runners being searched for by so-called trail sweepers as the award ceremony unfolded.

One runner’s name was called who had not quite finished. He saddeningly had to concede that he had not made it to the finish line, I told him he was still a champ. The truth about danger in the San Gabriel’s is that we as a community have the power to manage it. Beyond search and rescue, (SAR) in acronym, we as individuals and as a society have the power to uplift. The government alone, much less the California Highway Patrol or the U.S. Forest Service can’t make the changes we want to see happen; it’s an everyone together type of deal. In recent years, such races have become controversial, and especially after the 2021 Gansu ultramarathon disaster in China during which 21 out of the 172 runners died from hypothermia. This year, out of the 198 qualifying runners in the Angeles Crest 100, 78 dropped out before nightfall principally because of heat exhaustion. In the Gansu case, the organizers were prosecuted receiving prison terms between 3 and 5 ½ years, with one even committing suicide.

No one needs to be prosecuted, or even fined. The number one goal for first responders in the San Gabriels is always saving lives. As CNN recently headlined, we know that “Heat is testing the limits of human survivability.” For those suffering from heat stroke, there should never be any hesitation to call for emergency assistance, and cooling must occur both internally and externally. It’s no different than summer football practice, and these rules apply to everyone in the Southern California mountains, and not just elite endurance athletes. People will never stop entering our ranges, much less the most desolate parts of the San Gabriel’s, so how do we keep people safe and alive? One of the best answers remains satellite technology, now commonly available at REI from brands such as Garmin. For less than the cost of car insurance, you can literally save your life, or that of someone else with the push of an SOS button. This feature is now common on many newer model iPhones as well, but technology should never be an excuse to push the limits any further than they need to be pushed.

All this makes me wonder, why on God’s green earth would Pasadena Polytechnic School want to test the limits of development in the Altadena foothills on Chaney Trail, a narrow one-to-two lane roadway with a blind turn from Loma Alta Drive. The elite private school is in a multi-year effort to build a new sports stadium complex and small outdoor education in what’s designated as a high-risk fire zone. The community group Altadena WILD has formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit to oppose the controversial development, which it contends would damage the valuable natural environment on the site of a nursery that has been in operation for nearly 90 years. Pasadena Polytechnic will soon resubmit plans previously deemed “incomplete” by the County of Los Angeles later this month. Asked for comment, John Bracker, Head of School, thanked me for reaching out before referring me to the Poly Fields website and noting, “That’s the information we have available to share at this point.”

In a world of climate change, with increasing risks and stressors on firefighting families, you really have to wonder about such planning, and especially since there may be less higher-risk alternatives for development sites close to main school campus opposite of Caltech. I have no hatred for Poly, in fact, I even was blessed to spend several summers learning on its campus as part of the Summer Enrichment Program, but I have to question the wisdom of this planning. Poly plans to bus athletes to the facility if it were to ever be built, with its webpage showing a large field of thirsty green grass nestled against chaparral ridgelines. I’m not sure how many first responders have either been injured fighting fires this summer already, whether from flames, smoke or heat, but you don’t have to be CNN to know that in a state with a more than” 600% increase in wildfires” this is a pretty penny now and pound foolish later.

The San Gabriel Mountains will never be tamed despite all of our modern technology from race cars to personal locator beacons. The ancient, and largely unmapped history of the Chumash, Tataviam, and Kizh-Gabrieleño peoples who used them for hunting and gathering, worshipping the bounty they provided in both good times and bad were far wiser peoples. When we fail to learn from them, fail to honor their past and present life, and ignore the lessons they seek to share, we jeopardize the future fall all of us. Recently, picking up trash along the Arroyo Seco (dry river in Spanish), the Hahamonga, as the Tongva called it living just above the modern Devil’s Gate Dam, I ran into a Native man. “I was fired from my job he told me,” hunting pack on his back, dog off-leash in front, and he realized the task I was doing, bringing joy to his face even in a down moment. I hope someone will give him another job, and that the disrespect of our cherished lands will stop. Racetrack or not, we must do better as a society on their lands.

The danger of our ignorance is that it will disempower future generations. Once the keystone species are lost, the oak tree, the Joshua trees abutting the north flanks in the High Desert, we will not bring them back so easily as the California Fish and Wildlife Department has by science done so in the Arroyo Seco. An estimated 4,000 rainbow trout now inhabit the stretch from the ancient site of Hahamonga on the Arroyo Seco up to the Brown Mountain Dam. A few are above the barricade. The agency recently celebrated the largest graduating class in its history in Paradise, 54 new wardens in total, up north in Butte County. A town which only recently burned down in the 2018 Camp Fire with a great, tragic loss of human life, now in re-growth.

One day, at the popular Switzer’s waterfall, I spotted a small fish in a pool. I pointed it out to a woman as picked plastic water bottles out; she didn’t believe me! As Los Angeles Times journalist Lila Seidman recently wrote about the species: “Though the trout currently inhabiting the Upper Arroyo Seco aren’t protected by state or federal regulations, they could be — if they were able to reach the [Pacific] ocean.” In which case they would become steelhead trout, which were once so plentiful they could be picked out of the area’s waterways as easy as we now do discarded human-made objects. Let’s hope that one day this happens to with all possible chagrin to real estate developers and outdoors enthusiasts alike. It’d be like a dream!

Link: Angeles Crest Highway Facebook Group Post

Link: Over 20 communities become first to earn new Clean California designation

Link: New raptor rescue helps owls, hawks, and other birds of prey fly free in LA County again

Link: Chilao Visitor Center

Link: Nel Graham Facebook Post AC 100

Link: Angeles Crest 100

Link: Pasadena Man Rescued After Suffering Heat Emergency During Ultra-Marathon

Link: Race organisers of deadly 2021 ultramarathon in northwestern China sentenced to jail

Link: Heat is testing the limits of human survivability. Here’s how it kills

Link: Best Satellite Messengers and Personal Locator Beacons of 2024

Link: Introducing Poly Fields Webpage

Link: Altadena WILD