A hike to Bridge to Nowhere

November 23, 2014

I hiked to the Bridge to Nowhere with thirteen friends from the Foothills YMCA GONE program. We started at 8:20 a.m. at the San Gabriel River East Fork trailhead, and hiked toward Heaton Flats Trail Camp.

The weather was a bit cool at the beginning of the hike. It was windy along the way in the canyon, and warm in the sun. As it was November, many dried up Yucca could be seen along the trail. I loved being in the deep canyon where I was completely surrounded by mountains, with just a little patch of blue sky overhead.

From the campground, we started hiking uphill, and soon we encountered our first of many river crossings. I was happy to see water in the river, although it was not deep. I kept my boots dry for the most part, balancing on rocks during crossings. After about 1.2 miles we entered Sheep Mountain Wilderness.

We arrived at Bridge to Nowhere after 3 hours of trekking. It is a beautiful arch bridge which was happily occupied by many hikers and bungee jumpers on sunny Sunday afternoon. I had not eaten before the hike that morning so I was happy to refuel with half a sandwich, a bar, some tangerines, a sweet bun, and some trail mix. After 20 minutes of rest, we were back on the trail, heading out.

I hiked with Stella most of the way. Sue and Paul stayed closed to us on the return hike. We were thankful to have Claus guiding us since the trail does break up. Would I hike this 10 mile, 900-foot gain trail again? Most definitely.