Like many of the canyons on the front range of the San Gabriels, Rubio harbors vestiges of past human activity: at the turn of the twentieth century, a train brought travelers from downtown LA into the canyon where they boarded a funicular that climbed the incline to “The White City” resort on Echo Mountain, there was mining too, before that. Abandoned to the inclement elements of this rugged eco-system, human endeavors have not fared well; thankfully, little remains, just enough concrete, wood and metal to remind visitors that while their ancestors may have been crazy, and ingenious enough to build a funicular on this steep, forbidding ridge, their efforts were ultimately futile.

If you follow the creek beyond the site of the funicular base, you’ll notice, clinging to the sidewalls of the canyon, sticking out of the sandy dried out creek bed, mingled in dense networks of dead branches, two networks of pipes. The old cast-iron, rusty, bent, mostly buried, useless, unless you use it as canvas for tagging, or, as I’ve seen done, if you recycle it as trail-building material. And then there is a line of white and blue PVC pipes, evidently still maintained, and still used to harvest the most precious thing the canyon has to offer–besides a cool getaway for hikers–namely water.

The pipes of Rubio
PVC or cast iron still
harvest fresh water
you can hear it flow gently
like the dripping from the falls

Meanwhile, on the Sam Merrill ‘Highway’–the gentler and much-used trail to Echo on the other side of the mountain…

Oh, there are other trails? Yes, many
i'll have to come back for that
Hi, Hi
Hi, hey
Are we almost there? The hotel? one more switchback
thanks man
Are we there yet? close, one more switchback 
great
Hi, hi
It's like you stepped up your game,...Hi...How's it going?
After a while I was like, I can't do this work...Hello...
She's just scared, here, hold on to my arm
thank you
You want to go first, I feel like we're blocking you?
Thank you...