A run totally off my radar, Eric roadside scouted a few sections of Malibu Creek on Monday including a neat bedrock gorge section and reported back that it looked great. Apparently Malibu Creek has a very different much lower rate of fall following rains compared to most SoCal rivers and so we put together a foursome of Eric, Keith, Gavin, and myself to check it out Wednesday. It seemed rare and worthwhile enough that I rallied to restructure my work week to make it happen. Keith and I carpooled from Redlands, battling the morning traffic width-wise across Los Angeles for over 2.5 hours. Thankfully Gavin and Eric arrived early to set our shuttle and so we met them at our Piuma Bridge put-in, 5 miles upriver of the Pacific Ocean. I did not know what to expect and so got worried when I walked underneath the bridge to find a channel with a mere trickle in it; thankfully it turned out the water was in the furthest channel initially hidden out of sight. It took much longer than it should have to get ready and we finally pushed into the river around 11am.
It started initially as a class II bash through confined vegetation obstacles, then some flow joined at the confluence of Cold Creek a few minutes on. Some sort of concrete weir was passed and then soon the sandstone boulders began. There were some interesting sections with quick blind turns around car+ boulders and some scouting and portaging the more choked sections. At the flow we had things were mellow and fun, low stress as we worked our way down. It was just a beautiful pleasant day out.
Bedrock became more prominent, improving the quality of the rapids considerably and starting the best quarter-mile section. The scenery and whitewater unburdened my mind.
We could see the sandstone walls closing in to a narrows downstream with an excellent drop-pool section including a single fairly clean 8-foot falls. This reach was truly spectacular and I felt a long way away from southern California, let alone Los Angeles. Just before the last pool at the end we stopped for lunch to savor this spot a little longer, only a mile into our 5 mile run to the sea. Healthy looking dudleyas hung from cracks in the towering cliffs. The sandstone had some nice tafoni in places.
The next mile was a mix of vegetation and smaller boulder slaloming, overall decent quality but with few standout features. The 100-foot tall Rindge Dam announced itself very clearly. We found the bypass trail on river left easily enough and I took care to work my way down the muddy trail dodging boat puncturing yuccas and poison oak. The spray and winds at the base of the dam raged impressively.
Oof. The mile below the dam was thoroughly choked with rocks and logs which slowed us down and caused light despair at our rate of forward progress. We pulled out the hand saw a few times to clear some channels and a couple other times I lifted branches to allow the hardshellers passage. A straining branch caught Eric and forced a swim; we spent probably 20 minutes trying to find his paddle when it miraculously appeared braced against a rock downstream. There were a few good moments in there amongst the jank.
The vegetation chokes became less frequent but also the creek gradient notably dropped too. The canyon began to open up and before too long we could see fancy homes and palm trees. We passed underneath a low bridge then under Pacific Coast Highway, then riffles into the coastal lagoon and river mouth. I was happy to avoid dealing with saltwater on all my gear but the others paddled straight into the ocean and played in the waves for a bit. It was a beautiful clear day with Palos Verde Peninsula and Catalina Island visible on the horizon.
We walked the beach trail about 10 minutes back to the parking lot. All in all it was a great trip. It took us a little over 5 hours to go 5 miles but I really enjoyed the run. The highlights were the fantastic bedrock gorge section and fighting through the vegetation ended up being worth the novelty of paddling all the way to the sea. Thanks to Keith, Eric, and Gavin for an awesome day out. It was refreshing to see that there was still some more to explore in southern California.
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