Re: san gabriel river?
Skipper said:
Thanks for the information. Do you know how long the hike is to get to the uncrowded/untrashy areas? approx.? Sorry ...never been there. I want to spend the day there. Do I need a weapon? ...lol.
I live in Corona so the drive should be about 45 min.? Then park to hike about 45 min.? like say almost to the top?
Thanks again.
I've always dredged there, but if I was to detect, I would go to the end of East Fork rd. take the trail at least a half mile up the canyon before thinking about turning on the detector, because of trash. The further you go, the less trash, most people stay close to the road. The "best" known area is the "Narrows" I would guess about a 5-6 mile hike. Don't pass up the hillsides and side canyons on the way, I know of one guy who found a fair amount of small nuggets detecting in the old river beds up on the canyon walls.
I have seen a few guys come out of there with a lot of gold, but they spend days, weeks up there. One guy lives up there somewhere on a "glory hole". comes to town occasionally to sell his gold to a friend of mine. No idea where tho.(I wish)
I feel much more comfortable carrying a weapon. Just make sure you are well trained and familiar with it.
I would give yourself a little more time getting to and from there, traffic and winding road will slow you down a bit. I usually pull a large camping trailer from the I-5/91 and without traffic, an hour or less pretty easy.
If you want to camp, about a mile before the end of the road is the Oaks Picnic area. You can camp across the road from there, on the side of the road, or along the creek for that matter. There are usually a few campers, mo-homes, and tents there, mostly prospectors.
Sorry for rambling, hope I covered some of it.