Hunting for Hidden Waterfalls GONE WRONG - Angeles National Forest

Here's the thing. Sometimes you just don't know. I don't know how I'm gonna get back up there. Some kind of dropping. Wait, let me sample it real quick. Coyote, be infamous, he said. So today I'm out in the mountains again, San Gabriel Mountains, Angeles National Forest. I'm looking to answer the question, is it too dry for hidden waterfalls? I can check all the popular spots online. I see trip reports, trail reports, Instagram, see if people have been there, if there's water there, but what about a hidden waterfall? What about one that I've never been to before? What about one that people don't know about? How do I figure that out? Well, enough procrastinating, enough overthinking. It's time to just go look for myself. This looks pretty steep down here. This is gonna be an interesting, I think we might call this an adventure. Don't know what I'm gonna find. It has been really hot. There's no wildfire reports in this area. I'm still gonna pay careful attention because the last thing I wanna do is get trapped by a wildfire. Let's see what we can find. Okay, well, I am not off to a great start. No, I didn't wanna just show you my ass. I wanted to show you that it's already an adventure. The problem with this type of stuff is it's really hard to film and concentrate on being safe at the same time. So a lot of times the videos don't tell the whole story of how crazy it is. I mean, this is a steep drop. I don't know how I'm gonna get back up there. I don't know. Having second thoughts about this. It doesn't, I don't hear any water running. Supposedly there's a spring. This waterfall is spring fed. I found out about it on this thing, World of Waterfalls. World of Waterfalls is a website. They have like this map that you can overlay on Google Maps. And it's like the World of Waterfalls map database. And they have a couple of entries on there where it's like, forget how they label it specifically, but it's kind of like, we think there's a waterfall there. It's like predicted, like a waterfall should be there, but nobody's ever been there firsthand according to them. So I looked on Google Maps and there's like a springs supposedly in this area. So I don't know if that spring is still active, but this is pretty sketchy. This is not what I was expecting at all. But this kind of reminds me of Glen Canyon Falls when I went up to those upper tiers of that. If you haven't seen that video, that was pretty crazy and stupid, but at least I got to see waterfalls. This, I may risk it and adventure and not even see a waterfall. I've been having this problem lately where if it's me and somebody else, it's easy to like come up with a plan, like, okay, we're gonna go do this and stick to the plan. But if it's just me, I'm like, I think way too much about all my options. Like, oh, should I go look for another cave, another sea cave? Should I do this? Should I do that? And then I end up just spinning my wheels, paralysis by analysis, and getting overwhelmed by all the options because there's so many different things to explore and do. And then I start thinking like, well, what's gonna make a good video? I gotta do the best video idea. Like, has anyone else been there before? And it just becomes this whole like circle jerk, spinning my wheels thing. And then there's been times, I mean, to be honest, there's been times in the last couple months where I do that all day long. And then next thing I know, it's like eight or nine o'clock at night and I didn't do anything. That's like such the antithesis of what I'm preaching to you guys. And I'm not preaching, but you know what I mean. Like this whole adventure, like do find your own adventure thing, like this whole like overanalyzing, like I gotta get out of that mentality. So that's why today there wasn't a whole lot of planning and preparation for this. I mean, it's kind of been on my mind, on my radar for a while. I had thought that, you know, I should have waited for more rain or when it rains again. But then I was thinking, oh, it's a spring. So maybe it's year round flow, but I don't know at this point. Just came down from there, just came down that way. Now I really hope I can get back up. If not this way, hopefully that way. There's more vegetation to grab onto, maybe some roots and stuff, but no sign of water. Old motorcycle here. Somebody came over that ravine, a lot of car, maybe just from one car, but some car stuff too. No evidence of water over here. Well, we got some kind of droppings. What do you think? It's definitely not deer. Too small for bear. So it's either coyote, bobcat, mountain lion, I don't know. Wait, let me sample it real quick. Coyote. So I definitely want to get out of here before dark, because if there's a pack of coyotes, I'm sure they're going to see me as an easy target, which I'm not. All you coyotes out there, I'm like the road runner. Me, me. Well, I see further up in the canyon. It looks like there's a big drop. I think that's a waterfall. God, coming out is going to be tough. Be infamous, he said. Find your adventure, he said. Well, look at that. I found this big ass drop. So that's definitely a waterfall. There's like no water flowing. I don't know if I can down climb it. There's a little stagnant puddle down there. I'm going to scope it out, see if I can down climb it and get back up. And I'll tell you why in a second. There's good news. There's bad news. There's better news. The good news is I was able to down climb the waterfall and I will be able to get back up. It's not as big as I thought. I thought I read it was like 60 foot or 80 foot or something like that, but maybe that's further down. I'm not going further down. I saw webbing at the top up there, which means somebody repels this or has repelled it. There's this little puddle over here. So I'm going to rinse off. But before I do, the reason why that's good news is I didn't bring any water with me. How do you like that ----? Stupid, stupid move. Left it in the car. In my overzealousness to get this party started before dark or get out of here before dark, I forgot to bring water. How does that saying go? Please do as I say, not as I do. Stupid move. I'm lucky I found water. I was kind of assuming I would because it's a spring, but obviously the spring's not flowing. This is some old ass, you know, puddle water. Luckily, I think I have my water filter. I really hope I have my water filtration with me. Sometimes I make mistakes, guys. I'm going to dig this puddle out a little bit and quench my thirst. This is the thirst of an adventurer. Also the thirst of a dumb ass. This is definitely the nastiest ---- I've ever put through this filter. This may prove too much for this water filter. Okay, well, I don't know. I don't even know if I should drink this. It's clear, man, but it still smells terrible. Nothing floating in it, but. All right, the taste is not good either. So smell and taste, it's clear, but I'm not risking it. Man, that was disgusting. I'd rather drink my own piss than drink that water after it went through that filter. All right, whatever, time to focus, climb out, get some water in the car. So maybe some pre-planning and some overthinking is good, or maybe not overthinking, but like any thinking. Like I think today I went in the opposite direction of overthinking it and overplanning it. I went way under, just eager and stupid and almost having to drink diarrhea puddle water. God damn. So the last question of the day is, should I go back the way I came or should I follow this back up? On the one hand, I know what I'm getting into. On the other hand, it could be easier, but it could be harder. So many mosquitoes. I'm glad we don't have malaria in Southern California as far as I know we don't have malaria. I thought I had malaria once. I'm definitely sometime gonna make a video about when I thought I had malaria in Nepal. There's like some interesting circumstances surrounding that, but right now I'm trying to get out of here without dying. I got about an hour, hour and a half left of daylight, so that's cool. Here's that fork where I came from. Came from up there. The other option is over here. I gotta say, the way I didn't come from is looking a lot more enticing right now. So I'm gonna at least scope it that way a little bit. Because going back up that way right now seems pretty daunting. So if I can get out with a more gradual elevation change, that might be the way to go. Black irrigation tubing and a shovel. So that means either currently or at one point there was an illegal marijuana grow operation here, probably not anymore since there's no water. I mean, the good thing is it's not active because I don't want to get shot. This just keeps getting better and better. Well, remember, I told you there was supposed to be a bigger waterfall? I found it. Man, that's a sketchy climb. That is a sketchy climb right there. I think I'm gonna try and go up the side here because there's no way I'm going up this. Probably like, I don't know, 50, 60 feet, something like that. This is the waterfall I was looking for. This is upstream of where I ended up. Jesus, I am running low on energy. I'm gonna try this a little bit. And if that looks too loose, I'm just gonna go back the way I came, making progress. And all I can say is I'm glad I did not try to climb that waterfall because it looks like further up there's like another gigantic cliff three times the size of that waterfall. So if I had made it up that bigger waterfall, I would have been totally ledged out because that's like maybe 100, 150 feet right there. It does not look like an easy climb. Nice views of the valley over here. I think I got maybe, I don't know, I thought, actually, when I saw this clearing coming up, I thought this was the road, but now I think the road is like up there. So maybe like, I don't know, 100 feet up. This isn't as loose, there's more vegetation, more rocks and stuff. I hear motorcycles, so yeah. Right about, I don't think that's it right there. I think that's a false summit, but just a little bit further beyond that. So according to this, I've only come halfway from that waterfall to where I parked. I'm only halfway there. God damn, oh man, that sucks. Stays like this, sometimes I think I should just be a food vlogger. What do you guys think? I got this bag of ice to cool down my core temperature and also rinse off the dirt and hopefully some of the poison oak. Get out there, find your adventure. Don't be stupid like me, but be infamous. When you're sliding into first and you feel a juicy burst, diarrhea. Infamous.