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Well, we attempted to hike to the Bridge to Nowhere.

The Bridge to Nowhere is a bridge that was built in 1936 in the San Gabriel forest. Basically, it was part of an extension of highway 39 (Beach Blvd, which goes all the way up into Asuza). It was to be an alternate route to the high desert. Shortly after construction of the bridge, however, the road to and from the bridge was washed out by a massive flood. So now there stands, 5 miles deep in the hills, a large stone bridge with no roads.

It was a J hike. J. Demars (Mike), Jason, Jason, John, and Josh. Mike and the Jasons planned to spend the night at a campground just past the bridge, while John and I were day hikers, and heading back the same day.

This was the best hike I have ever been on. There were several river crossings in which the water went past our knees. We stopped at a nice shaded, sandy spot overlooking the river to have our lunch. There weren’t very many hikers for quite awhile… but there were plenty of people in the river panning for gold. As well as a few adventurous fishermen.

About three hours into the hike John and I thought it would be a good idea to turn around. If it was really going to take us three additional hours to hike back we were sure to be late for other plans that night. We said goodbye to the three J’s and headed back.

The hike back went by at a much faster pace, and the trail was much easier to find. We probably only crossed the river three times, as opposed to the eight or so crossings on the way in. The three hour hike in turned into a one hour hike back.