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| Hiking | 8.00 Miles |
1,250 AEG |
| | Hiking | 8.00 Miles | | | |
| 1,250 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Too many things to do Saturday morning and early afternoon, but I still wanted to get into nature and some cool air this weekend, so I decided on heading over to the Blue. Car camped at the Red Hill TH for the night before heading over to the P Bar Lake TH to hike early Sunday. Got woken up at around 3:45am from a slight movement of my truck, followed by the sound of some heavy steps right outside. It was pitch black, couldn't see anything but I'm assuming it was an Elk since the steps sounded pretty heavy. Laid back down and in the distance I heard some wolves howling (which is awesome to hear). Got up at 5:15 and it was freezing pumpkin cold; 45 degrees out and I left my windows cracked.  Before heading over to the other TH, I decided to do a quick mile hike up to the wilderness boundary on the Red Hill trail.
Red Hill Trail - Trail was in pretty good shape up to the boundary, one small section of light overgrowth as you got closer to the ridgeline but nothing horrible. If some maintenance isn't done in the near future on the bottom section near the TH it is going to turn into a Black Bear Raspberry diner. Currently just off trail but starting to encroach. Made it back to my truck and headed over to the P Bar Lake TH.
P-Bar Lake - My original plan was to hike the P Bar Lake trail over to Grant Creek and take it down to Moonshine Park, but things changed. The P Bar lake trail is in great shape, very small minor deadfall especially after you finish the initial climb and get closer to the junction but nothing major.
Foote Creek - Once I got on the Foote Creek trail from the P Bar Lake junction here came the deadfall over and over again with some taking me on a detour through New Mexican locust jungles. A ton of them looking pretty recent. No overgrowth issues on this one, the Locust is just off the trail though so it could get overgrown pretty quick without any type of use. I thought about continuing on Foote Creek past P Bar Lake but the trail disappeared into overgrowth and deadfall shortly after, so I decided against it.
Grant Creek - Quick break at P Bar Lake (still not sure why they call this a lake) and started my decent down the Grant Creek Trail. Initial part of the trail is good, then starts getting a little cramped but not horrible. As the trail turns to the left and goes into the steep drainage part it gets really bad. I ran into a Locust jungle that I could not see through and with the descent just starting not knowing if the rest of the Grant Creek Trail was gonna be the same, there was no way I was gonna fight it, so I turned around and headed back to my truck. Pretty disappointed on this one as I have been wanting to get into the Moonshine Park area for awhile now.
KP Rim - Decided to drive over and hike the KP Rim trail. The trail was good for about a tenth of a mile. Once the climbing started it thickened up and then turned into a Fern and Locust jungle. Had a good size tree blocking about halfway up and the only way past it was to get on all fours and crawl underneath. I pushed through the jungle hoping that it would give me some awesome views on top of the rim but no dice, so my blood donation was all for not. This trail is currently inhabited by thousands of grass hoppers who get pretty pissed off that you are disturbing them so they jump right into you; eyes, face, doesn't matter, they are just trying to piss you off. 
It was a little warm in the sun (77 degrees) but it felt awesome to be back out in the Blue again enjoying the trees and the tons of Elk and deer. Did not see single person the entire day! Can't wait to get back out there again. |
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Wildflowers Observation Light
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P Bar Lake |
1-25% full |
1-25% full |
| | | I would not even think about filtering from this 'lake'. Barely any water and tons of animal tracks and scat. | | _____________________
Hiking is just walking where it’s okay to pee.  |
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