Conditions:Black Star Canyon-20250610033742
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...additional reports
Latest: |
31 May 2025 (7 mos ago) |
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| Reported by: | Willie92708 (1017 reports) | |
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| Quality: | Good |
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| Waterflow: | Very Low |
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| Wetsuit: | None |
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| Water temperature: | ||
| Difficulty: | Special challenges |
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| Time: |  4 hours
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Team: 1 people
Trip report URL:
Comments: My "special challenges" was to restore the direct hike-up trail from the Black Star Canyon Falls sign. MTB riders have restored most of the trail, but not the steep direct climb finish. That was not part of their effort since they drop down from a much flatter trail that leads off in the wrong direction for hiking up. Look at the satellite view and it becomes clear.
Since it was HOT, I jumped in the pothole inside the cave which is 5 feet deep! (see pic). Also, I found pools along the creek to stay cool and wash off any poison oak that I might have bumped on the creek exit hike.
All condition reports
| Date | Quality | Waterflow | Wetsuit | Difficulty | Time | Team | Reported by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Great | Moderate Low
| Rain jacket
| Normal |  5 hours
| 4 people Brand new to Intermediate | Ecila805 (1 reports) | |
Comment: Come after rainfall for a good time! There was enough flow in the R1 for a newbie and just enough fun for everyone else to make it worthwhile. We opted to start with the 65ft bonus rap, and noticed there was no webbing. We found some traces of some hardware store cord, but nothing else. We built a new anchor, DCL using two branches, (see image for reference). Once we got to the canyon floor here, there were a lot of leaves and branches, and just general post rain debris. Nothing too dangerous, but more of a 'watch your step, it could be deep or slippery'. At R0, we looked for either of the webbing options, but there was no webbing to be seen. We weren't sure if someone had come recently and cut them. We used option 4 of the bolted chain to rap down. At R1, you guessed it, no webbing. We just thought it was a little weird for there to be no webbing since Willie was coming up here so frequently. Maybe it's what was mentioned in the beta that hikers come and cut webbing. We went through about 60' of webbing and two quicklinks, so please keep this in mind. We built a new anchor using the center boulder, but there was a huge freaking tree branch, (too big to move), in the pool before the waterfall that gave us pause if the rope or block would get stuck when pulling. This rap had a good flow, got soaked, didn't have a wetsuit, so make sure your hood is up. It is also SUPER easy to rap down into the cave if you're not paying attention. I was able to stem at a point to move more DCL to avoid the cave. Rope was pulled successfully without incident. Little trace of poison oak leaves in the creek on the hike back to the cars, but saw the branches!
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| Ok | Dry
| None
| Special challenges | 3 hours
| 1 people | Willie92708 (1017 reports) | |
Comment: Since I was trying to take it easy on my tweaked left knee, I biked to the sign, hike up the steep trail to the road, rappelled the canyon proper, and hiked carefully back down the creek bed. Within 500 feet of reaching my bike, something changed in my knee, and it was not good! The canyon proper was bone dry, but there still is a little water downstream of the main drop.
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| Ok | Dry
| None
| Normal |  1 hour
| 1 people | Willie92708 (1017 reports) | |
Comment: The canyon proper was still dry, even after all the rain on 14 OCT; there were signs of puddles that had already dried up. I biked to the sign, climbed up the creek and canyon, jogged down the road and the steep trail back to my bike, for a 1.7 hour "run". Jogging back to my bike likely was the cause of injury to my left knee that did not seem like any issue at the time of this run but became a major issue 2 weeks later. Just don't know, but GFotF and rock climbing in the next days caused the initial injury.
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| Good | Very Low
| None
| Special challenges | 4 hours
| 1 people | Willie92708 (1017 reports) | |
Comment: This trip finished up path access to the NEW R0 and thus completed the new Bike and Hike version of running Black Star (special challenges). The water flow is really getting low at this point (see pic). Lots of people were at the main falls on this Saturday, but not super crowded by any stretch.
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| Good | Very Low
| None
| Special challenges | 3 hours
| 1 people | Willie92708 (1017 reports) | |
| Good | Very Low
| None
| Special challenges | 4 hours
| 1 people | Willie92708 (1017 reports) | |
Comment: My "special challenges" was to restore the direct hike-up trail from the Black Star Canyon Falls sign. MTB riders have restored most of the trail, but not the steep direct climb finish. That was not part of their effort since they drop down from a much flatter trail that leads off in the wrong direction for hiking up. Look at the satellite view and it becomes clear.
Since it was HOT, I jumped in the pothole inside the cave which is 5 feet deep! (see pic). Also, I found pools along the creek to stay cool and wash off any poison oak that I might have bumped on the creek exit hike. | |||||||
| Good | Low
| Rain jacket
| Special challenges | 4 hours
| 1 people | Willie92708 (1017 reports) | |
| Good | Low
| Thin wetsuit
| Special challenges | 3 hours
| 1 people | Willie92708 (1017 reports) | |
| Good | Very Low
| Rain jacket
| Normal | 5 hours
| 2 people | Willie92708 (1017 reports) | |
Comment: The canyon was "Normal", but the extra time was spent on a BIG "project". R-bonus still has the cheap Home Depot rope for the anchor. R0 webbing is gone. R1 only has bolts for fixed gear.
| |||||||
| Great | Moderate Low
| Thin wetsuit
| Special challenges | | Willie92708 (1017 reports) | ||
| Ok | Dry
| None
| Normal | 2 hours
| 1 people | Willie92708 (1017 reports) | |
| Ok | Dry
| None
| Normal | 2 hours
| 1 people | Mikeatran (90 reports) | |
Comment: Canyon conditions were pretty good. R0 was intact with red webbing off of the tree dcl. It might be spicy for some folks to downclimb from the split shown in the map to approach R0 so take it slow as it seems pretty exposed. Main rappel was set up with a toggle. Ended up bringing 2x 200’ to run the canyon. Used the barkless tree as my anchor for an easier toggle pull. Exit hike out was fine; some hand lines throughout and it’s helpful to have the track to get back into the creek to follow back up to the bike. Ended up guiding a couple out to the fire road which ate some time. Canyon is completely dry but likely to change in a few months (hopefully).
Took the long bike ride up; fire road is in good shape, but with a heavy pack and using an untuned bike along with it being a hard tail kinda killed my back. Would recommend full suspension if you’re carrying a lot of rope and gear. A little over 2 hours car to car; definitely a strenuous ride more so with the weight of the gear, but doable for those with ghosting skillsets and any kind of mountain bike (as the ride is non technical).
| |||||||
| Ok | Dry
| None
| Normal | 2 hours
| 1 people | Willie92708 (1017 reports) | |
Comment: The water flow has completely stopped (see pics), except for the tiniest flow in a few spots. The pothole at the bottom of the main chimney is still full of water though. Also, I need to replace the R-bonus anchor, because I forgot my 100' pull cord so I untied that webbing to add to what I had to have enough pull material.
| |||||||
| Good | Very Low
| None
| Normal | 2 hours
| 1 people | Willie92708 (1017 reports) | |
| Good | Low
| Rain jacket
| Normal | 2 hours
| 1 people | Willie92708 (1017 reports) | |
