DESTINATION Generic 92 Photosets
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| Hiking | 0.70 Miles |
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| | Hiking | 0.70 Miles | | | |
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| no partners | | Growing up, the initial hiking that I'd ever done was while I was hunting and fishing. For years, there was a trail that followed Bear Creek, which is the creek that my family's hunting camp/cabin is located adjacent to. This trail would go for miles up the creek, giving access to dozens of fishing holes and other hunting trails. It was never maintained by anyone, but only created and maintained by the foot traffic of everyone who would hunt or fish along Bear Creek. On our last day in camp before we made our way back to Pittsburgh (and eventually the AZ desert heat) I decided to take the family for a walk along this trail.
Where we started behind our camp, which has been extensively cleared by our camp neighbor, who decided to "extend" his property right up to the shore line of the creek, even going to the extent of adding a bench. From there, however, the trail quickly fades and is mostly overgrown. We were able to follow what was left of the trail up to an old foot bridge that crosses a tributary of Bear Creek. That footbridge used to be in good shape, but now all that remains are the two side rails that have nails in them. We made our way across that and the trail was pretty much gone.
We bushwhacked our way to just past where I knew the old suspension bridge is that we used to cross Bear Creek when we hunted. The trail used to go right to the bridge, but now it's completely gone. Only the decades of my youth that I spent there enabled me to instinctively know right where we were. It was odd to be thrashing thru brush in what used to be a meadow and knowing almost exactly where I was without even looking at my GPS.
The old suspension bridge has had time take quite a toll on it. the cables and some pallets are still there, but the tension on the cables is gone as the supports on each shore line have severely deteriorated. It was kind of sad to see a big part of my childhood in such disrepair.
from the bridge we picked up what seems to be a newer trail along the creek back to the footbridge and made our way back. We walked down a little farther from where we started along the creek, only to find that the trail had once again faded in that direction. we let the kids play along the shoreline for a while then headed back to camp and eventually back towards Pittsburgh. It's been very nice driving and hiking out here in cooler and greener surroundings, not looking forward to the 110+ temps next week. |
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