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I just went to Fossil Springs for the first time this weekend. We backpacked in from the hilltop and shuttled a car so we could come out on the Flume Road. It seems that there is some disagreement on how long each of these trails are. On the Fossil Springs trail description it says its 4 miles one way from the hilltop, it also says that the Flume Trail is longer but flatter. The Flume Trial description, however says that it’s only 3.7 miles to the springs. When hiking it – it seemed that the Flume Trail was indeed longer but I could have just been hotter and more tired. Does anybody have a reliable source for the true distances for each of these trails?

yes something seems rather incorrect on one or both of those pages

I'm looking into it...
currently waiting on the TOPO! CDs to copy over to my harddrive, somehow I deleted half of them

BTW...anybody know when they're blowing up the dam?

Here's a couple of articles on decommissioning the plant.
http://www.sw-center.org/swcbd/Programs ... creek.html

http://www.aps.com/my_community/StoryAr ... ve_18.html

One article said only the top 6 feet of the dam will be removed - that should make a pretty spectacular waterfall.

okay that's the last time I mess around with the TOPO 3.3 upgrade

here's the best I've figured out

Flume Trail -
Listed as 7.4 RT on HAZ
It may be 7.6 after reconsideration but that isn't much difference

Fossil Springs Trail -
I'm less sure on this as I haven't hiked the trail
So here's what I can see
Listed as 8.0 RT on HAZ
a basic plot on TOPO! comes up with 3.8 miles one-way
two trips logged with GPS
Kip 4.5 miles
Tim 4.3 miles

seems to me that the Spring Trail is longer
I'm not exactly sure why Dakota says the Flume is longer
she does mention it was long ago when she backpacked it
so maybe she didn't dip through the creek and went all the way down to the Power Plant (which you're not suppose to do now, as it clearly states CLOSED to Public)
that would have added some distance - upto a half mile but still...

I'm guessing it just seemed longer?

anyhow, if anybody has any great sources for concrete data I'd like to get the data correct

Steve Krause's "Streamside Trails" says it's only 2.5 miles
but that's to the springs and I think the TH was inset further in when the book was wrote, but that's just speculation at best

The Flume trail is currently closed while they remove the flume and buildings surrounding it. The Fossil Springs trail from the top is still open.


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