Earlier this spring, a young woman making use of a notorious trail cut near the Mount Wilson Toll Bridge slipped and tumbled 50 feet down the hillside, becoming unconscious along the way. Firefighters were called and the person was carried out of the canyon to safety. The hiker was ultimately fine, but this was nowhere near the first time someone has fallen down one of these steep trail cuts created by those wishing to get below the bridge. The longer we wait to fix these trail cuts, the more injuries we will see.

Hikers beginning at the Pinecrest Gate are well aware that getting to the Eaton Canyon Waterfall requires traveling underneath the bridge and following the creek through the mountain gorge section of Eaton Canyon. Instead of taking the proper trail route down the right side of the fork at the end of the bridge and then making a sharp right on the Eaton Canyon Trail, hikers cut down a steep hillside, kicking up dust, trampling plants and sending rocks falling below. This behavior is so prevalent that there are frequently multiple groups cutting across the hillside at any given moment on weekend mornings.

There are several negative impacts associated with user-created trail cuts which include:

• Liability Issues: People can get hurt more easily on trails not created by an authorized trail crew who know what they are doing. User-created trails are usually steeper, contain more loose rock, and ignore poisonous plants such as poison oak. 
• Habitat Fragmentation: Trail cuts can fragment habitats, which can disrupt wildlife movement and breeding patterns. This can lead to a decline in biodiversity and can negatively affect certain species, especially those with limited ranges.
• Soil Erosion: The construction and use of informal trails can lead to soil erosion, particularly on steep slopes. Soil erosion can degrade water quality and impact the stability of ecosystems.
• Invasive Species Spread: Human traffic on trails can inadvertently introduce and spread invasive plant species. These invasive species can out-compete native plants, disrupt natural ecosystems and reduce biodiversity.
• Altered Hydrology: Trail construction can alter water flow patterns, leading to changes in the hydrology of an area. This can affect wetlands, streams and other water features within an ecosystem.

During heavy rainstorms, these trail cuts have been known to cause severe damage to the service road connecting the main Eaton Canyon Trail to the Mount Wilson Toll road, making it impossible for the Altadena Mountain Rescue Team to get equipment into the canyon. The group has even had to come out and fix it themselves during the summer of 2022. It is time to stop people from going down these trail cuts once and for all.

How We Should Fix This Problem: 

1. In order to get ahead of this problem, the first thing we need to understand is what is causing it. As mentioned above, numerous trail cuts exist in this small area because of day hikers attempting to get to the waterfall from the Pinecrest Gate. There are no signs telling them where to go, but they know they need to go inside the mountain gorge. So, they cut down these steep trail cuts destroying ecosystems along the way.
2. Next, we need to recognize that there may be no way to truly stop this. Sorry, but putting up signs telling people this is not a trail is not going to cut it. An alternative solution, one that minimizes harm to the ecosystem but still pleases the general public, should be enacted.
3. In order to fix this issue, we suggest filling all of these trail cuts with so much large compost (branches, cactus, etc.) provided by the Eaton Canyon Natural Area that any hiker intending to use one of these cuts deems it completely useless. There needs to be so much compost piled on these trail cuts that it would require a chainsaw and an hour of work to remove. 
4. Here is the problem: The Eaton Canyon Natural Area cannot do this work. Aside from the fact that this isn’t even their jurisdiction, they cannot drive their trucks into this part of the canyon nor do they have the staffing capabilities to maintain this area. The Eaton Canyon Natural Area has plenty of large compost from their numerous gardening efforts and trail work in their area that they would happily provide to the government agencies that are responsible for this area: The City of Pasadena and the Angeles National Forest. 
5. So, an agreement should be made that either the City of Pasadena, the Angeles National Forest, or the Altadena Mountain Rescue Team collect the Eaton Canyon Natural Area’s compost to fill in these areas before the start of the 2023-2024 winter rain season. 
6. The next issue is one we all have to begrudgingly accept: The installation of naturally-looking stairs in this area. Look, people will not want to walk all the way down to the fork between the connector trail and the Eaton Canyon Trail. If we do not construct proper stairs that do not erode the connector trail between the Mount Wilson Toll Road and the Main Eaton Canyon Trail, new trail cuts will form.
7. The installation of natural stairs is required to prevent new trail cuts from forming, and thankfully we have the perfect place for that. Just past one of the user-created trail cuts that is choking out an already struggling Western Sycamore tree lies a blank hillside with nothing but invasive grasses and invasive castor bean plants. We can install a 10′ wide stairway at this location to augment trail cutters and make everyone happy. This stairwell can be built by scouts or the Altadena Mountain Rescue Team. 

Once this work is conducted, six large and ecologically destructive trail cuts can be made mostly obsolete. Would-be trail cutters would be much less likely to attempt to make new trail cuts, runoff during our rainstorms would stop eroding the connector trail so heavily, and the hillside ecosystem beside the bridge could bounce back.

We cannot approach this issue on offense, we must take a defensive stance to protect our local natural area. 

On Sunday, August 20, 2023, Tropical Storm Hilary made landfall in Los Angeles County, California with sustained winds of 40 MPH, gusting to 50 MPH. The storm is the first tropical cyclone to make landfall on the west coast of the United States since 1939. Hilary brought damaging flash floods to the Coachella Valley, burying some neighborhoods in mud and debris. Rainfall totals of up to 11″ were reported on the eastern slopes of the Peninsular Range, a part of Southern California that is normally very dry and cannot handle such high rain totals. In the Transverse Range, however, the storm was mostly beneficial having interrupted a much warmer than average July-August period with soaking rains.

In Eaton Canyon, light to heavy rainfall fell for about 24 straight hours from 7 AM on the 20th through 7 AM on the 21st. Eaton Dam picked up an incredible 5.75″ of precipitation, bringing the 2022-2023 water year total to 49.20″ of rainfall. This makes summer 2023 the wettest summer in at least 116 years of weather record keeping in Old Town Pasadena. Up at Camp Hi-Hill behind Mount Wilson, the area reported 6.52″ of rainfall for the storm, one of the higher rain totals in the Angeles National Forest. Henninger Flats reported 5.88″ of rainfall, while Inspiration Point reported 5.12″.

Rainfall rates peaked at 1.08″ per hour during the dusk hours on the 20th as the remnant eyewall moved through, and then again at 1.32″ per hour around midnight on the 21st as the back side of the system arrived. These rainfall rates were, while high, nowhere near what is required to get significant flash flooding in the park. On December 14, 2021, a thunderstorm with rain rates of 2.52″ per hour hit the canyon, sending a decent flash flood down the park. That particular thunderstorm’s small size and quick departure prevented it from causing catastrophic flooding in the canyon, though it left nearby Rubio Canyon severely scarred. Park-altering floods in the canyon occured in 1938, 1943, 1969, 1980, and 2005. 

All of this tropical rain will delay the wildfire season in Southern California for several more weeks if not a couple of months. With El Niño taking shape down in the equatorial East Pacific, the 2023-2024 winter is likely, though not guaranteed, to be wetter than average. This is fantastic news for the 23-year long megadrought inflicting the Western United States.

The bad news is that visitation rates will remain elevated in Eaton Canyon as we can now forget about the creek drying up later this autumn. Most of the water that fell with Tropical Storm Hilary is still underground in the upper canyon, and it will slowly drain over the coming weeks and months. Littering rates will remain elevated as autumn waterfall chasers continue to rush the canyon. 

Here are some notable changes in the park caused by Tropical Storm Hilary: 

1. An Eaton Canyon Nature Center staff member and a volunteer were there to witness a ~500lb boulder fall 30 feet off a sandstone cliff along the west bank trail the morning after the storm, proving just how dangerous the park can still be even if the flash flood threat is gone. The rockfall occured about one tenth of a mile past the first crossing.
2. A new ~3′ – 4′ waterfall has been built by the small flash flood that did come down the canyon on August 20th. It is located directly underneath the Pinecrest Gate, with tons of sand and silt getting backed up behind it. A waterfall has existed in that exact location in the past, but it was bypassed by the creek during the December 14, 2021 flood when several logs blocked water flow. Now, those logs are gone and the waterfall is once more flowing. We won’t share a picture of it. Go have a look yourself! 
3. A large collection of logs and other flash flood debris that served to catch trash floating downstream from the bridge area is missing, having washed away during the small flash flood. This will allow trash to flow into more inaccessible places for cleanup crews. Bummer.
4. Hundreds of new western sycamore saplings growing alongside the wash in the canyon survived the flash flood, keeping hopes high that a new generation of that species will flourish in the canyon. It has been 18 years since the last generation of western Sycamores successfully took hold in the canyon. Western Sycamores need two wet winters in a row with a cool summer in-between to survive infancy. Climate change has made too many summers in recent years too hot in our area for any saplings to take hold. Throughout the entire park, there are just 3 western sycamore saplings under 6′ tall.  Summer 2023 certainly hasn’t been cool, but thanks to Tropical Storm Hilary, water will not be a problem for these new trees. 

Tropical convection building over the mountains on August 19th

An image of the rock that fell onto the west bank trail 

A wet canyon, near where Moist Canyon joins the main wash

A highly unusual sight in August… to say the least! 

I think the canyon might’ve liked that!