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| Hiking | 8.64 Miles |
2,329 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.64 Miles | 5 Hrs 42 Mns | | 1.81 mph |
| 2,329 ft AEG | 55 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | McFadden Horse Trail was indeed steep. The first part of the trail was an old jeep road, so I figured steep would have limits. It did: upper limits! And where the eroded gullies left sloped road edges, there were horizontal slopes in addition to the vertical slope! Views were good, however, and I’m not saying that the difficulty rating was in error.
Reaching the top, the ponderosa pine forest was a great reward, and after a quick side trip to the high point, views got really spectacular with cliffs and Elephant Rock.
I don’t remember flies and gnats during this part of the hike. Maybe the views were just that good. Or maybe I’m getting used to flies this time of year, especially on this hike when they seemed more attracted to @john10s for a change. At least on the first half of the hike...
It was great to linger at the point and ponder the many unanswered questions Elephant Rock brings to mind. But we eventually began retracing our steps with our next goal being Elephant Rock Arch.
The farther we ventured back into the ponderosa pine forest, the worse the flies became. These weren’t just any flies. I didn’t spend much time looking at them intentionally, but they were probably at least four times as big as houseflies and had a dull green face. When they started biting (only me), I couldn’t ignore them any longer. They were oddly intent on biting just one of my upper arms. Close to being driven to distraction, and with plenty of forest left, I stopped to dig out and don my long-sleeved shirt and gloves. Relief. Until one painfully bit through a glove. Luckily it happened only once.
My best guess is that we’d encountered some type of horsefly. Sorry, entomologists, but I wasn’t honoring them with photos.
Out of the forest and down the switchbacks, the flies let up. We could enjoy the algal stromatolites when we got to that area, and even linger long enough for my search image to develop. Then I could spot them even embedded in the road with only their top surface exposed, with telltale concentric rings.
We drove to the trailhead for Elephant Rock Arch. With the lack of trail and just enough undergrowth, it soon became apparent that we wouldn’t have enough time to reach Elephant Rock Arch. I cast my vote for stopping at the steep valley. I found some information online about that valley. It has slopes of even 24%. I could have sworn it rivaled Half Dome’s 45%! |
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