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| Hiking | 11.15 Miles |
1,354 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.15 Miles | 6 Hrs 38 Mns | | 1.96 mph |
| 1,354 ft AEG | 56 Mns Break | | | |
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| no partners | | Parked at Sheeps Crossing and headed down to the water. The trail was relatively easy to follow, but rather wet and muddy given all the recent rains. This is a beautiful section of trail very close to the river. Didn't see any people until after the first fish dam waterfall at 2 miles in. The waterfalls are delightful! As is the hike alongside the creek. Past the waterfalls, we started to see more and more people and lots of dogs. The trail was also even more muddy due to heavy traffic. The trail was somewhat rocky between the waterfalls and the Greer trailhead.
From the government Springs TH in Greer, we walked up to the East Fork trailhead and crossed the river which is quite wide at that point. We did manage to rock hop across. The trail then heads up. It is wide and well maintained with lots of signs at junctions. In contrast to 95A which is overrun with people, we saw no one on East Fork. Upon reaching the the top, we jumped one gate as we were unable to open it. The trail continues on flat across the mesa top. When we hit the four wheel drive road, my hiking buddy was pretty much done hiking  , so we opted to take the 4WD road (as marked on the topo) to shave off some distance as it intersected with the trail later on. There is a game camera strapped to the tree at the Junction of the trail and the 4WD road. We continued on enjoying the solitude and beautiful cool weather. We hit another gate shortly before our intersection back with the east fork trail. We hopped this gate, too, as it was inoperable. We then met with our first set of MANY cows. All the cows are currently on this trail. . I don't mind a few cows, but really, the trail from here on out was overrun with them, which was disappointing. :/. On the 4WD road almost back to the trail, We passed a bunch of cows and a mean looking bull, but we walked by without incident. The cows and calves moved out of our way and over towards the bull. I was done walking on the old road, and I was happy to see the trail again. It is nicer on a single track, of course. Sadly, we went a short distance on the trail before coming across a massive amount of cows. About 50 or more. A few too many for me to feel comfortable walking through. :/. They were right in the area where there is a spring. The spring is unnamed on the map, but it is the spring between developed spring and spruce spring. Given the cow infestation, we sadly detoured off the trail again and back to the 4WD road. It was nearly cow free, but every so often, there would be 15 cows or so, in groups. We did see our only people since the government Springs trail head here, 3 mountain bikers on the road. We continued on hoping to jump back on the trail at the next intersection, but it was not to be.
At the next intersection of trail and 4WD, the trail goes down into the meadow. And... Wait for it... Hundreds of cows!! Alas, we decided to not wade through the cattle, and instead continued on the 4WD road towards the Winn Campground. This is not a 4WD road usable to the public, we did pass a gate to keep cars out of the wilderness closer to road to the Winn Campground. Eventually we dumped out on the road (going to Winn CG) and headed out to connect with the railroad trail. The railroad trail was simply a connector between sheeps crossing/95A trail and the east fork trail/97. The railroad trail is very underwhelming. It is mostly right next to the road. One good thing - no more cows, ha!!
Right next to sheeps crossing we cut out two meanders by taking the road back to the car, as my hiking buddy was beyond done at this point. :/
I enjoyed 95A and would do it again despite the mud, rocks, and congestion. East fork I would do again(and stay on the trail the entire time!!) if I could be sure the area wasn't overrun by cattle. The cows really took a lot out of the experience! . Oh, well! It is never a bad day when you are out hiking!! The area is beautiful with meadows and forests, and the weather was amazing, if a bit hot on the afternoon (85F!). The railroad connector trail is seriously boring, and I would avoid it in the future! |
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Wildflowers Observation Substantial
Lots of wildflowers still, but starting to wane. |
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Route Editor
Route Scout
Route 
to the right (I spotted it on the way back) as you come through the gate after passing under 273 except that I was filming and looking straight ahead. Anyway, after we set up the Baldy shuttles and I got the group photo of the gang before they headed up West Baldy Trail, it was time for me to hike. (Kathy was initially going to take me up the east side as I think the elevation gain is less but because of the late start and unstable weather, I decided it would be best to pass).
on this West Fork Trail stuff so it's no wonder nothing was matching up not to mention that there was no trail numbers anywhere. I knew I was on a grade as I headed up the trail.
. Previous to getting in this area, the wind had been blowing pretty good. The Knoll has beautiful newly leafing aspens. (There are two cinder pits in the Knoll which looks like they can be accessed from FR 112 from 273. In fact, if you look at the topo, there seem to be other cinder pits in this area). Eventually off to your right (N) you pass Bull Pasture Spring where it looked like there were some sort of troughs. Mind you I didn't know the name of any of this stuff as I was somehow trying to figure out where I was 
other than just on a Trail per the several carsonite signs I passed indicating as much.
). I was going to try and hike without stopping for a break but decided I would pull over at a rock or log in this one protected section to rest for 5 minutes. A little further down the trail I stopped to enjoy this one section where the birdies seemed particularly active 
. As I got closer to the TH I spotted this carsonite sign off to my left that said TRAIL... imagine that! I couldn't believe that I didn't see that 
.
? I quit fussing and just waited for the storm to pass. I did shoot some video and pictures during the event and worried 
that my buddies on the mountain were getting pummeled.
but that's when I think my body thermometer went on the blink permanently (mid 90s). I was glad when the Mount Baldy hikers showed up and hadn't experienced the weather I had here.
