This August 8th I went up the top of Echo Mountain in Altadena with my friends Susan and Chris, and dropped down the other side into Rubio Canyon. Echo mountain has a certain amount of history, with the ruins of a resort and an inclined railway on the top, so its a nice hike up into it. Rubio canyon, which has a loose, scrubby drop in from the top of the mountain, was gorgeous last weekend. There is not too much undergrowth in the canyon bottom, and there are generally clear paths along the sides. We saw many deer down in the canyon, and the was a little water flow too. All the anchors are in good shape, so we didn't have ot replace any of them, and the temperature in the canyon bottom was perfect. There is some Poison Oak that we saw, but nothing we couldn't avoid easily. This canyon has some beautiful granite rappels and nice paths along shady glades near the top.