Cascade Canyon
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| | Difficulty:3A I (v3a1 I) Raps:3, max ↨140ft
Red Tape:No permit required Shuttle:None | |||||||||||||||
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| Condition Reports: | 28 Aug 2020
"We hiked to the indicated drop in point shown on the map and confirmed by GPS. No trail or path was observable and we scoured the area for at least 1 |
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34.2119, -117.6613
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Introduction[edit]
Cascade Canyon shares its upper trail head with Stoddard Canyon. It's an excellent canyon for advanced beginners looking for a short canyon with long, low-angle drops. Were it not for the hard landing most of these rappels would be fun sierra slides.
Approach[edit]
Trail head[edit]
CA-210 to Mountain, turn north toward Mount Baldy
You'll pass through two tunnels. Pass "Hog back" on the right hand side, come down a hill and turn right at the bottom onto Barrett Stoddard Truck Trail.
Park one car here. Don't leave anything valuable in the car, consider leaving your car unlocked or the windows down.
Shuttle[edit]
The shuttle is optional and is possible but not recommended without high clearance. A carefully driven Subaru would be fine. Skipping it adds 0.8 miles and 190ft of elevation gain.
There's a nicely graded, single lane, dirt road with two stream crossings, neither are typically deeper than 6-8 inches. You should know the location of your vehicle's air intake since intaking water will destroy your motor.
Take your other car up Barrett Stoddard Truck Trail. Bare left at the first fork and right at the second to avoid a private driveways. Once in the shade of canyon and trees, you'll cross two streams, pass Davian Grey's Fairytale cottage on the right and quickly arrive at a locked gate. Park to the right of it, leaving as much room as you possibly can to access the driveway above or the gate.
Continue on foot, past the gate, to the drop in: 34.2151, -117.6648
From the drop in, you'll hike through copious white-thorn bushes for the first 200 feet, head southwest down the shoulder of a ridge until you reach the canyon proper. This faint trail down the ridge will plant you directly at the first drop. Careful about getting "cliffed out" in this area.
Descent[edit]
R1
60' - Canyon right, big honkin oak tree.
34.2140, -117.6669
It appears that local hikers have a way to avoid this drop. I couldn't see how.
R2
~100' (70',30' multistage rap) - Big pine tree, canyon left, through a puddle to avoid poison oak and slightly around corner.
Roughly 34.2141, -117.6673
There's a bit of poison oak immediately below this drop. It could probably be removed since there's not a lot and it's a nice rap point.
R3
~120' (30' slope, 70' slide, 20' drop)
34.2147, -117.6681
There is one bolt at the rappel. I would suggest using the dead fell tree as a backup.
Exit[edit]
You'll finish off the canyon near a small abandoned dam. There's some optional SRT if you climb up to the door at the top of the concrete structure. I'd rig low to the three railings and pad the drop nicely. If the water is low, you could attempt the duck under in the river. I haven't attempted any of this yet however, no clue what's in there.
To exit the canyon, head toward the road / hillside you saw on the way down the canyon. You should find an old paved road. Turn right and follow it up the hill to your car. When you're nearing the car, there's a waterfall in the river down below, observe the chalk marks and natural colored anchors on wall across from the falls. Summer sport climbing fun.
Red tape[edit]
Beta sites[edit]
This is the only beta known to the editors for Cascade Canyon
