A long hike in the middle of November.
- November 17, 2020
- Team: Craig
- Hike
- splattski 2015 (McCrae cabin, no TR)
- splattski 2018 (Cannon Ball Mountain)
- splattski 2020 (Rapid River)
- splattski 2020 (Blue Gulch- McCrea Place)
- Class 1, 16 miles, 7 hours car-to-car
Note: click images to see a larger version in a new window
We had gone skiing the day prior, up to the reservoir and around Jug View. But with warming weather predicted, Craig suggested Rapid River. Only I bit at the invitation, so we were off at just after 10, one other car in the lot. Note the peculiar angle to Dakota's leash. |
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Once down in the canyon, the wind wasn't as strong- although we could see trees swaying above us. One weird weather thing was the occasional blast of much warmer air. But we were mostly focused on the scenery. And Craig's hunt for elk. |
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There they are now. Craig's constant glassing of the slopes above us paid off. Note that this was shot with a very high-power zoom. No matter. Craig joked that he'd seen his elk and was ready to go home. |
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Ignoring his jest, and not much longer and we were at Second Bridge. |
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We barely paused at the overlook of Third Bridge. Craig hadn't been up the West Fork, so I put him in front for some new scenery. |
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Well, him and the dogs. |
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There are a few sections with some pretty extreme drop-offs. Then we paused briefly at the Jones grave site. |
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And then had lunch overlooking Potters Flat. With snow evident on the trail, we weighed our options. Okay- we'll walk to the end of the flats, then turn around. At the end of the flats, a lone trail runner appeared heading down. Craig recognized her from a hike on Granite Mountain a few weeks prior, so the two of them struck up a conversation. She was ebullient in her praise of the trail and McCrea cabin, so plans were changed and we kept going up. |
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Shortly after we noticed some bloody snow on the trail. |
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Right next to the trail, I believe this is a mountain lion kill. We nervously searched the trees around us, then called the dogs in before we proceeded. Surely our trail-runner friend looked tastier than us old guys? |
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We still had a mile to two to go, but finally got to the cabin. Right about here the pups flushed out a whitetail buck that ran right by us as he did a downhill evasive maneuver. Then we inspected the cabin (full of packrat poo) and the various rusting stuff laying around. I wonder if future generations will inspect MY trash for clues to how I lived? |
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| Looking back down the valley, the changing light (and Craig's glance at his GPS) reminded us that we had a long way to go in an ever-shortening amount of time. Better beat feet! |  |
On our return, I paused only briefly to take these few photos. |
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More gorgeousness. |
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The traditional upstream view from second bridge. A few miles now to get back to the truck. While walking those miles, I was thinking what it might be like to walk some of the trail's cliffy areas in the dark.... We made it back to the rig before dark, but just barely. 15 more minutes and it would have been headlamp o'clock. |
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