Eaton Canyon to close risky waterfall trail

Officials plan to announce a new way to tackle the problem of hikers making their dangerous way to Eaton Canyon’s second waterfall.

The National Forest Service will soon install new signage on the way to the waterfall, saying that the trail is closed and warning hikers graphically that they will not only be fined — but risk injury and death.

The signs are the latest in a several-year campaign to put a stop to inexperienced hikers taking the unauthorized route to the waterfall.  In recent years, not only have several hikers died, but many more have been injured or gotten stuck on the narrow ridge, putting search teams at risk and running up the estimated $5,000 expense of a helicopter rescue.

Sherry Rollman, public affairs officer at the Angeles National Forest, said that the closed area will be limited to two trails to the falls — one that most daredevil hikers take, and another trail, a back way that is not as widely used.  “We are going to be closing the upper area, and the upper trail to the falls — only the upper area,” Rollman said.

“They are user-made trails, not Forest Service trails, and unfortunately the top one is extremely steep and dangerous, and there have been deaths.”

The sign posting comes after years of problems with the site, and many meetings with the multiple jurisdictions that are responsible for the Eaton Canyon area, which include the Forest Service, the LA County Sheriff, the LA County parks deputies, and the Pasadena Police Department, as well as county and Pasadena city fire departments and County Supervisor Michael Antonovich’s office.

Installing signs represents a reversal for the forest service: as late as last year, according to an article on Supervisor Zev Yaraslovsky’s website, the forest service refused to agree to put up signs, believing that it would make the service liable for making the site safe.

The problem area is on Forest Service land, but Rollman said the new signs would not just be set up in Forest Service areas.

The signs warn that hikers are subject to citations and fines if they go into the closed area.  The fines, which haven’t yet been determined, will provide an incentive to stay off the trail, Rollman said. “There are consequences.  Before if they were rescued, they didn’ t get into trouble.  If they did get into trouble, they fell off and died.” The thinking is that the possibility of a fine may stop some trouble before it starts.

Some signage was put up in 2011, but Rollman said it proved to be ineffective because it didn’t highlight consequences.  Now that the unauthorized trails are closed, the signs point out that hiking up the passage not only risks fines, but a graphic of a falling human figure outlines even more serious consequences.

Because it is a public health and safety issue, and because it’s not a Forest Service trail, the trail can be closed without going through hearings and public meetings, Rollman said.  She also said that canyoneers — technical climbers who specialize in tackling canyons — have said they want to be exempt from the closure rule, but Rollman said that, as for now,  the area will be closed to everybody.  “We don’t have that tool [exemption] in our toolbag, and the death and the dangers far outweigh [granting exemptions].”

The warning signs will be installed soon, she said and will be accompanied by a public awareness campaign.

Rollman estimated that there have been five deaths in the area since 2011, the last one a 17-year-old Alhambra High School student who fell in 2013.  “I hope [the campaign] is successful. I hope next year, there are no more.”

What do you think of the idea of signs?  Too little, too late, not enough, or about time?  Let your neighbors know in the comments.