Scores of hikers have responded to the announcement that local trails in the area have been opened following closure prompted by the Station Fire and the winter's heavy rains.

One of the most accessible and popular local trails is the Upper Arroyo-Gabrielino that starts at the end of Altadena Drive, across the arroyo from JPL's parking lot. This trail, one of those the Forest Service recently opened in the region, the trail goes to the Paul Little Picnic Area.

But hikers are finding it difficult to reach the campsite with its picnic table and toilet facilites due to a bridge that the storm took out and which also suffered damage as a result of the Station Fire last year.  A still rapidly running wide stream of water must be breeched to continue beyond the bridge.  Attached to fencing blocking the pathway is a road-closed sing.  Yesterday, a women's hiking group, an  Arcadia-based group of senior men hikers, joggers and bikers all deemed it necessary to turn back at the bridge. 

The senior men, who hike in our mountains each week under the name Arcadia Ridge Rovers, were stunned at the damage left behind by the flooding in the canyon.

"It is hard to believe that the roads we used to walk and trails we used to follow have been obliterated by the flooding.  There are signs everywhere that water overflowed the banks," Ken Mallory, a founder of Arcadia Ridge Rovers, said.

The first part of the trail is a roadway.  As you proceed into the canyon, some of the campsites operated in the 1920s, the so-called Golden-era of hiking in the San Gabriel Valley, used to have small roads leading to them.  While those roads were previously only remnants, this year's storms removed even those segments leaving only a stony pathway through the bottom of the arroyo.  Then, too, many segments of the former trail now end in a chaos of rubble, tree twigs and stumps piled high, most pushed together by a raging torrent of water and held at bay by a larger tree—in some cases, large trees felled by the rushing water.  Other areas show signs of water having surged over the banks, carving new mini-canyons.  Throughout the canyon, trees burnt by the Station Fire that burned from Aug. 26 to Oct. 16, 2009 can be seen, but bark has protected most of the sycamores and oaks.  There are several spectacular native old- growth oak groves along the pathway that appear more singed than burned.  Still, the skeletons of trees poking through the forest are a potent reminder of these treacherous fires.

The canyon is more alive today than hikers recall of the recent rash of developments that have brought about change.  Birds are everywhere chattering among the trees with abandon; wildflowers are in glorious bloom; the stream cascades along, water bouncing over newly placed boulders with a pleasant roar.

"I can't believe how everything up here has changed.  Trails are gone," a mountain biker said, appraising the current situation. 

Some local trails remain closed, and others are only partially opened.  Upper Arroyo/Gabrielino is open to Paul Little Picnic Area, at least to the Road Closed sign and beyond if you can cross the streambed.  With the stream still strong, crossing on tree limbs stretched across the water may require the balance of a Cirque du Soleil acrobat.