Conditions:Mouse Trap Canyon-20210323124712

Latest:	9 Mar 2021 (4 yrs, 3 mos ago)

Reported by:	Willie92708 (1000 reports)
Quality:	Great
Waterflow:	Dry
Wetsuit:	None
Water temperature:
Difficulty:	Special challenges
Time:	5 hours

Team: 3 people

Trip report URL:

Comments: One team member had a "special challenge" when the dirt and rocks under his feet gave out on a steep part of the ridge approach, and he slid down 30 feet to shallower angle terrain with some plants. He got a bit scraped up. We chose to climb the ridge on the DCR side, instead of the beta's DCL approach, because we wanted to check out the higher part of the canyon's North Fork before R1. That fork has only one short crumbly downclimb where we used a handline. Overall that approach is fine, just pick a good line to zig-zag up the steepest part.

The canyon itself was really great! Almost no nasty brush; just some large dried weed balls at the bottom of drops; one bit of PO in the North Fork (totally avoidable); and nice spring grass growing all over. Most of the drops are cairn anchors, some with fresh webbing, some not so fresh. We replaced some webbing. 2 anchors have cheesy sub 500 LBF hardware store rope, both on short slabby drops; held up to bounce tests, but still crappy. At least one rock cairn is rather wimpy; will not hold abusive rappelling, and all should be treated with care.

This canyon reminds me more of a DV canyon than a SoCal canyon. It lacks trees and brush that obscure view (see pic), anchors are mostly cairns, rock is a mix, and it's bone dry. We did not find any dead rodents, but we did find bones of a deer.

All condition reports

Date	Quality	Waterflow	Wetsuit	Difficulty	Time	Team	Reported by
9 Mar 2021	Great	Dry	None	Special challenges	5 hours	3 people	Willie92708 (1000 reports)
Comment: One team member had a "special challenge" when the dirt and rocks under his feet gave out on a steep part of the ridge approach, and he slid down 30 feet to shallower angle terrain with some plants. He got a bit scraped up. We chose to climb the ridge on the DCR side, instead of the beta's DCL approach, because we wanted to check out the higher part of the canyon's North Fork before R1. That fork has only one short crumbly downclimb where we used a handline. Overall that approach is fine, just pick a good line to zig-zag up the steepest part. The canyon itself was really great! Almost no nasty brush; just some large dried weed balls at the bottom of drops; one bit of PO in the North Fork (totally avoidable); and nice spring grass growing all over. Most of the drops are cairn anchors, some with fresh webbing, some not so fresh. We replaced some webbing. 2 anchors have cheesy sub 500 LBF hardware store rope, both on short slabby drops; held up to bounce tests, but still crappy. At least one rock cairn is rather wimpy; will not hold abusive rappelling, and all should be treated with care. This canyon reminds me more of a DV canyon than a SoCal canyon. It lacks trees and brush that obscure view (see pic), anchors are mostly cairns, rock is a mix, and it's bone dry. We did not find any dead rodents, but we did find bones of a deer.
10 Jan 2016	Good	Dry	None	Special challenges	4 hours	3 people Brand new to Advanced	Fitbiker1031 (8 reports)
Comment: started off early in the morning. game trails are tough to spot out, and the one we chose ended up dwindling into nothing. so we had to make our own trail on the side of the mountain. canyon had alot of fun repels including a 130 ft repel. canyon is best to be run on a cooler day due to no shade, nor water. also 8 of the 9 repels are dead men in the course of waterflow, so if the canyon does get a good flood, they are all gone. just plan accordingly.
28 Feb 2015	Great	Dry	None	Advanced	4 hours	2 people Expert	Estunum (34 reports)
Comment: First documented decent. Canyon is great and has anchor challenges as the vegetation is minimal. More than 75% of our anchors were deadman anchors. Beautiful canyon. Approach is grassy, but fairly easy to follow existing trails, just stay on track! There is a large network of trails and it could be easy to get on the wrong one.