9/1/2025 - San Olene Water Tank
It was a pretty lame hot day at work with not a ton of business. I probably only made a few cool pieces of latte art on some drinks but the vibes and mental state of the day was lame as hell. The day was a Monday which was my "Friday" for the week and it was also a holiday, yet I was working nonetheless. I usually make plans for my weekend but this time I had nothing going on. Since my weekend lands in the middle of the week on a Tuesday and Wednesday, I rarely get outside to do group hikes with my pirate friends due to them all working.
At around 2pm that day, I received a text from Dima that stated, "Camping on the San Olene Water Tank tonight." I told him I was free and tried to invite myself on the trip, in which he responded with, "No, I'm telling you this so that you get FOMO!"
I love getting spontaneous adventure propositions when I have no plans!
It was on and I began packing my bike as soon as I got home. We met at the Arcadia A line station at 8pm and then met Taco at a grocery store where we then loaded up on alcohol, snacks, and tons of gatorade. The temps outside were either in the 80s or 90s and we were super drenched as soon as we started moving up Santa Anita Drive.
This was my first time biking up to Chantry Flats and I have heard that the road is steep and hard. Before the Eaton Fire, I would regularly bikepack to henninger flats or Idlehour campground and the Mt. Wilson toll road is definitely still the hardest road I've ever biked up. I compare every ride up a road to the toll road and Chantry was easy as hell compared to that. We made it to Chantry Flat at 10:06pm where we proceeded to pee and chug lots of water from a barely running water fountain.
We hopped on the Chantry Flats Truck Trail which was very shaded (just saying this even though it was nighttime) and smelled like bay leaves for the lower section. As we climbed higher and higher, the chemicals in my brain started to dance a little bit ;) and the ride became a RIDE!
The water tank appeared suddenly and showed off a super sick view of the entire San Gabriel valley all lit up and shit. Dima, Taco, and I pulled out our snacks and drinks and just took it all in. I brought up a bottle of Soju, Taco brought some Sake, and Dima brought beer.
I took a step back in my head and really appreciated life realllllyyy hard for a minute. The fact that I was born and raised in Pasadena, and was introduced to the outdoors alongside my brother Patrick by our Dad and am now 26 years only still out here enjoying it all. Thinking about working in a coffee shop and spontaneously being able to leave my house to then camp on a water tank with two close friends. Having self aware thoughts of existence, breathing air, consciousness, this soju. Being thankful for every single life experience that put me in this moment.
I had one of the best nights of sleep on a camping trip I ever had and it was made even better due to a westerly breeze keeping us cool throughout the night. I opened my eyes to a partly cloudy sky with the sun just starting to rise to illuminate the air. This is something that happens every single day but this one was just different.
We bombed the hill, got some breakfast at Mary's Market, and went our separate ways back home.
Check in on your friends often
Use eye contact when speaking
Ask about them first
Go outside
1/26/2019 - Finding Tunnel #5 In Las Flores Canyon
As some of you might know, I love to look for lost and forgotten mines in the mountains. My biggest goal is to find every mine in Las Flores Canyon and with the help of the Las Flores Water company, they gave me a map from 1906 showing almost ever mine in the canyon. One mine that looked pretty long and was just south of the McNally mine, Tunnel #5, and has not been discovered before. Patrick Jackson (my brother) and I, started looking along the eastern wall of the canyon for a few hours and found a possible entrance.
It's interesting to me how many times I passed by this rock formation and how it never crossed me. This would be mine. That first day, Pat and I wanted to dig as far back as possible. Just to see if it goes far back. After about 10 minutes, we hit an air pocket and our shovel went back about 3 feet. It was tunnel #5!!!
We scheduled an actual digging day one week later with Will Coso. I came to the mine late that day but found Pat and Will had dug down and made the tunnel a crouching height.
6 months later, the man, the myth, the legend, Dima Kogan assisted me in the excavation. We reached a well sized room that appeared to not lead anywhere which was a bummer but in two days, we made the tunnel about 15 feet deeper.
Dima and I became disappointed that after 15 feet of digging, the room we found didn't lead anywhere. I looked at the room one more time and found some roots covered in dust and webs in the back of the room. I broke open a hole to see through and as I shined my light through, I found the tunnel continued farther than my eyes could see! This discovery was huge but we still had a lot to dig.
Day 5 of digging. Dima, Matthew, and Eli Roberts work together to move dirt in an efficient way with a sled. We notice a lot of loose rock in the room and decide it will be dangerous to continue. I took some long exposures of the tunnel through the hole and noticed that the mine turns to the right after about 50 feet or so. We put a pause on the excavation of tunnel #5 as we figure out a better and more safer way to go about this. We don't recommend anyone excavating mines without some helmets, buddies, and some self control. But this mine couldn't have been found without the help of Patrick Jackson, Dima Kogan, Will Coso, and Eli Roberts.