West fork San Gabriel River to Bear Creek to West Fork of Bear Creek

Stats:
10-15 Miles rt ( depends on how far up the west fork we go)
1000' gain ( approximate )
Difficulty:
On a scale of 1-4, I would give it a 3, only because of the fact that the Bear creek trail is not maintained and the fact that we will be leaving the creek to a place where there is no trail.

Description:
Bear creek skirts the eastern edge of the San Gabriel wilderness. It is a beautiful canyon with lots of pools to swim in, however there is lots of poison oak. For most of us who have done the trail, its hard to recognize that there is a side canyon coming in from the west, even though it empties into one of the best swimming spots on the creek, but I did notice it one day and decided that I wanted to see what is up there, so I went back and went about a half mile in before running out of time, but found a beautiful canyon that I want to see more of. According to the topo, the canyon forks and the right fork leads to falls, dont know if we can make it that far, but this is an opportunity to see a part of the range that not too many people visit.
This hike is very brushy with lots of poison oak, if you have a good machete, I would be grateful if you take it on this hike.