(GPS: N33 42.915 W117 37.250)
In this blog I thought I would start my hike into Harding Canyon, which I refer to as Jungle Adventure #2. The previous week I did the 1st Jungle Adventure. After that I thought I would do this one so here I was again in the Santa Ana Mountains.
After driving into Modjeska Canyon and parking at Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary I was up and over the short elevation gain. Before I continued I looked back at Flores Peak. It turns out that mound of land is a Calfornia Historical Landmark (No. 225). Juan Flores and his gang fled to this peak after killing Sheriff Barton in the 1850's. The posse found him here, but Flores escaped. The biggest manhunt of that time was after him, and he was eventually captured at Santa Susanna Pass (near Corriganville).
Sometime in the future I may visit all the areas involved in that manhunt. It turns out one of them, Robber's Roost in Anaheim Hills, CA, I have been on before a few times, but it recently became restricted to the public since some idiots decided to leave their trash and graffitti there.Not too far into the hike I came across this tree. I just wonder how far this tree goes down under the ground.
I had been here a few years before this, but do not recall this tree being like this. About three years ago there was a fire in this area that kept the public out for about a year. My guess is that a lot of sediments have built up around here.
There is very little trail on this one. Basically, I walked beside the stream, crossed over it at times, crossed over boulders, and bushwacked when I had to. In the picture below this is right before the area of hiking starts to get a little more compact. It is a lot more covered by trees and the canyon walls. The stream is not very big, but here is looks really small.
The stream does get bigger and moves a lot faster. After hiking a while I moved past these rocks to see something that blended in down below. It looked like a small piece of mud.
Wait a second, let me take a closer look!
I will continue this in the next blog or two. I have the video done for the main hike, but what I decided to do is just show what I am calling the "preview" video at this point. This is footage I wanted to include on the main video, but decided against it since it slows the pace of the video down and makes it a little too long. It shows the tree and some alternative footage, so take it for what it is:
