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Hiking | 9.90 Miles |
1,920 AEG |
| Hiking | 9.90 Miles | | | |
1,920 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Following a relaxing morning in camp, it was time to hit the trail for an old favorite destination. I considered starting on High Peak Road, but I was curious what remained of Big Creek Trail, one of my old favorites. I parked near Hospital Flat and saw my ancient cairn still next to the road, and started up the now mostly vanished beginning of the old logging road that is/was Big Creek Trail. The bottom 2/3 of the route was still navigable, but no longer resembled a trail. Upon reaching the big switchback, I was greeted with a massive erosion scar where the road had once been. I carefully bypassed the dirt cliff as I entered the worst of the Frye Fire burn scar. The “Tree Tunnel” was long gone, and aspens, millions of them, began crowding what remained of the trail. I squeezed, climbed, and crawled through an absolute thicket of aspens for a half mile until I reached the top end of the trail at High Peak Road. Took me just under an hour to reach this point. I miss the old days of Engelmann spruce and Corkbark fir providing a shady, sheltered feel to the top part of the trail.
I then continued up the road to its end at the top of the mountain, enjoying perfect weather, beautiful fall aspen color, and cloudless skies the whole way. The views were amazing as always. Checked out the register and roamed around on top for a bit, checking out the re-vegetation trees that had been planted up there over the years and their progress. Growth is slow, but anything is good on top of the denuded mountain.
With afternoon growing late I began the downward trek, opting to not take Big Creek Trail back and instead add some extra distance. I had not seen anyone the entire hike until I came across some random dude who was parked in the trees with his motorcycle. I think we were both surprised to see each other. As I hiked down, motorcycle guy rode his bike up and down the road for a ways several times, passing me each time, for no apparent reason that I could figure. Seemed like a weirdo. I bypassed the bottom section of the road and motorcycle guy by hopping up and over a ridge and dropping back down to the Swift Trail, which I followed back to my truck, getting there as darkness fell.
I camped out once again at Hagens, enjoying stars, a great book, and a more level tent site than the previous night.
My verdict on Big Creek Trail: it can still be used as a loop option with High Peak Road, though I wouldn’t recommend it. It will need someone to mow a path through the aspen thickets to be an enjoyable trail again. |
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Autumn Foliage Observation Moderate
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"…you never know when a hike might break out" -Jim Gaffigan |
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