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| Hiking | 12.94 Miles |
2,390 AEG |
| | Hiking | 12.94 Miles | 6 Hrs 56 Mns | | 1.92 mph |
| 2,390 ft AEG | 12 Mns Break | | | |
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[ show ]
| partners | | Andy agreed to drive for this one because we weren’t sure of the condition of FR25, which turns out isn’t bad at all. Despite that, we opted to not drive in all the way to the Mormon Grove TH and instead park at a pullout camping area just past the junction with FR25A and get the climb up the road to Mormon Grove out of the way first thing.
One the way up FR25, we spotted one or two prospects. One had a faint trail that led partway to it and faded away quickly at a smaller prospect. The overgrowth made it hard to make anything out, which was just a filled in hole anyway. Also spotted a leftover leg from what looks like it might have been a half eaten rabbit, so it looks like signs of a mountain lion possibly.
From Mormon Grove TH we headed north on Saddle Mt Trail. At the junction with the Sheep Creek Trail, we made the unfortunate decision to try to check out the lasso loop trail to the Story Mine. The leader trail is in good shape, but once you’re on the lasso part, the trail is severely overgrown. It starts out with mostly manzanita, then the catclaw starts to pop up. Andy and Wally decided to bail once the catclaw appeared and headed straight up over the hill to the Story Mine. They said they found the mine and it wasn’t much to see. I stayed on the “trail” and fought my way through to where some maintenance was done and it became a highway again, which was maybe 0.2 of a mile. I have a track from 15 years ago when I hiked this area, and I hiked part of this but not what I did this day. At where the maintained part of the loop is, there is another road or trail that heads down the hill, I think to other mines. I remember that I could see it in the hill while on the loop, but it also looked pretty overgrown once I was next to it. I have no memory at all of hiking this 15 years ago, despite having the proof the GPS track on my computer.
After the Story Mine excursion, we continued north taking Sheep Creek, Thicket Spring and West Fork over to FR25A and then back to the car. From Thicket Spring to West Fork, I missed the turn because I turned too soon on what seemed to be an old alignment of the trail. It was a little overgrown, but not nearly as bad as the Story Mine trail. I was on the East Fork Trail soon enough and on my way.
The hike down FR25A seemed to be nicest part of the hike. It mainly follows a wash, so it was like hiking a normal trail even though it’s a very rough road. The trees had fall colors, and some parts were like slot canyons. There were also signs from the active mining days and some interesting mine shafts to explore. We saw one side by side that headed up a really steep road that branched off of 25A and a Jeep further down that was left idling while the owners walked their dog through the wash. On the last descent to FR25 I spotted a doe in the wash below and managed to get some good pictures. |
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