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| Hiking | 7.60 Miles |
1,263 AEG |
| | Hiking | 7.60 Miles | 4 Hrs | | 2.03 mph |
| 1,263 ft AEG | 15 Mns Break | 18 LBS Pack | | |
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| partners | | Saturday had been a full day of heavy yard work, with Tracey using a pickaxe to expand eight citrus tree wells as well as trimming and fertilizing so she wanted a hike to balance that mostly upper body use by a good leg workout. A hike that would fit the bill was Gold Ridge from Deer Creek but with my left knee giving more than a little bit of trouble lately the long descent on the return trip gave me pause.
But it got me looking for something in the Shake Ridge area. So having hiked South Fork and Deer Creek trails only once each (2009 & 2021 respectively) and hiked toward Shake Ridge along FR 1438 from Clover Well a few times in the last 3 years, I sketched out a rough plan for a loop of sorts which would start at Deer Creek TH and take in as much of the length of Shake Ridge as possible.
Looking at Sat view, both the ridge I planned to ascend from Deer Creek and Shake Ridge on the way back down appeared to have faint two-track 'trails' for much of the way so route-finding should be simple.
We began under a haze-obscured sun at 50° and no wind so no need for extra layers. The first part of the hike is somewhat boring so the knee pain on the first two descents had my full attention... thinking, what was I thinking? and how well is this going to work out?
But no matter, let's get on with it.
Although I had set a waypoint at about 1.25 miles to leave Deer Creek Trail and seek a way across the dry creek bed, I knew we'd simply continue until finding an opportune moment... like a good spot to pass through the tight barbed-wire fence. And opportune it was... a small washout that passed under the fence allowed us a tight but doable passage.
Once through the fence we crossed the creek to an opening which appeared to have been cleared by the lease-holder. Although there was an ATV there, it appeared it had not moved for some time. With some fresh new fencing, we were posed with the dilemma... to begin the ascent to the ridge, which of two fences should we try to pass through? Seeking a weak point toward the East brought nothing but thicker brush, so it meant dispensing with packs and sliding under the shiny new fence. But what would we gain by going this way, as it appeared we'd still need to go through a second older fence?
Too late, Tracey was already through so I had to follow. We got lucky! Unseen from where we passed under the fence, was a wide open gate and plenty of cow paths heading in the general direction of the planned ascent route. But the first thing we encountered was a calf sitting still on the ground, like VERY still. So much so I initially thought it was dead, until I saw an eye-blink. We gave it a wide berth so as not to alarm it, but it payed no attention to us at all.
Now, because there were so many cowpaths it took a little bit of route-finding to get past the thorny vegetation... oh yeah, I hadn't given thought to bringing the larger shears. Having ripped a finger open while trimming cat's-claw on a previous hike, I decided I would do none of that today, my trekking poles can handle this.
The first 50 feet heading up toward the ridge was a bit sketchy as the cows don't seem to mind and angled path as much as I, but within minutes it leveled side-to-side it was easy enough. Along this part we saw a Bronco 4x4 at the end of the two-track, and just before reaching it Tracey let me know 'there were people here' and as I glanced down through the brush I saw two hunters sitting down, scanning over Deer Creek. Not sure if they saw us or not and we just continued past the Bronco, which had top and bottom back hatches open.
Now on the two-track trail it was a matter of a steady but easy ascent to Forest Road #415, where we hung a left heading toward Shake Ridge. Forest Road #415 was in great shape, with some very recent erosion control. Along the way cattle which had been watching us for 10-15 minutes would scatter every which way before we reached them. As we approached the end of Forest Road #415 it became obvious the FS did NOT want any 4x4 traffic to continue the last 1/4 mile, as the was a huge berm, followed by a number of deep holes. Although the plan was to climb the next 150 yards before turning left to follow the two track down Shake Ridge (as shown on Sat view), no big deal, we just followed a cattle/game trail across a short section of the slope, effectively 'cutting the corner' saving us one STEEP climb.
As soon as we reached where I expected the two-track to be, we were greeted by nothing but torn up ground, with alternating holes and berms. We skirted the worst of it and eventually we reached the old two-track had been graded a dozen or more feet wide... and then it dawned on us this had been graded as a (last?) line-of-defense fire break during the Y-Bar Fire back in August 2024. So, of course we took photos of the area where Y-Bar burned on the lower slope of Mazatzal Peak.
And so, for a good portion of our descent down Shake Ridge we had a veritable highway to hike down. Until the final descent... which is where no amount of planning via Sat View could provide anything concrete. Yup, going straight South down in the direction of the Davey Gowan gravesite to Deer Creek was almost a cliff, so that was out. From what I recalled on Sat View the slope toward the SW had more distance between topo lines, so that must be the choice.
I had a few second thoughts as there were no obvious cowpaths/game trails heading either way, but we were pretty much committed at this point, so onward-and-downward it is. With maybe 100 feet left to descend finally one narrow track appeared, it had to... any cows descending would have to follow along the fence that appeared. Although we followed a couple VERY sketchy switch-backs we reached the bottom of the drainage feeding into Deer Creek. And wonder of wonders, with a nice large boulder providing the way, passing OVER the fence was child's play... it looks like even cows may have been using it as well.
Ok, now down in the dry Deer Creek, we didn't care for climbing through 50 feet of who-knows what to reach the gravesite, or even Deer Creek Trail itself, we stuck to the creek bed for a half-mile or so before getting close enough to the trail to connect with it. Eventually after a few failed attempts we reached the actual trail. But, by sticking to the creek as long as we did, one of the high points for Tracey was encountering two piles of bear scat, which she dutifully photographed to send to a coworker who is also a scat-freak so-to-speak.
The rest of the slog back was just that... a slog. The knee was complaining on both ups-and-downs, and especially when stepping up or down on/from the large rocks on the trail. But no matter, it was a great day to be out on the trail.
The most drama of the day was during the drive back home. Still early enough for those who cared (not us), or even knew about some stuper-big deal sporting event to get home to view it, the traffic seemed not only far more than expected, but traveling far faster (80-90) than usual, and in a much more aggressive manner... tailgating, weaving back and forth through slower (70 mph) traffic. It behooved me to be more focused on traffic coming up from behind than what was ahead and still had a few close encounters as they cut back so close in order to pass the next vehicle which was in the 'passing' lane. At least we got home safe. |
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