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| Hiking | 11.36 Miles |
2,336 AEG |
| | Hiking | 11.36 Miles | | | |
| 2,336 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Lower Copper Mountain Points Canyon > FR693 > FR236
naming ref: [ photo ]
Just below the second good parking spot on FR236A there's a signed FR667 (definite HC in a handful of spots, not van friendly unless someone moved a few rocks) that heads towards Greenback Creek and a quite nice large shaded campsite. A trail continues on to a gate, which leads to the nearby tank, then cow paths to FR236 (4WD) through what looks to be an old orchard and some catclaw.
We followed FR236 up past a little pullout with a few fire rings and nice views, and cut off of it when we crossed the dry creekbed of the lower canyon. This provided a quite nice HC 2WD route.
The creekbed itself was quite possibly the most pleasant of the rocky creekbeds in the area - wide and shaded with very few obstacles and stable rocks that weren't too big or too small to keep a nice pace. I assumed it wouldn't be interesting down low, but the original plan was to ridgewalk ~5100ft on the way back down for variety and it'd make things more of a loop.
After a while of this it opened up (as seen the day before from the side of point 4) into a surprisingly interesting set of pools and cascades. Obstacles were trivial and bypasses plenty due to the open nature of the area. Many cow paths on either side of the creek, but we mainly chose to hike up it for interest.
It did tighten up again (as seen before) and while it was a bit denser than the initial lower section with some brushing past of trees it was never a terrible bushbash like the upper canyon, shifting between more and less open sections of boulders and slickrock.
The first major obstacle was a waterfall (with a fascinating frozen rooted tree perched alongside it) downstream of the fork - the southern side looked like it'd require some actual climbing so we made our way up some loose broken shelves on the northern side. Aside from dodging cactii this was straightforward, and once gaining the ridge just above the falls it was easily traversible and then droppable (I took a more direct route, S cut a little downstream and went above the ledge then dropped down to it later).
The top of this was an extremely pleasant long set of cascading slickrock - perhaps my favorite "mellow" section in the area! We reached the fork earlier than anticipated and decided to take the northern route as it had running water and seemed like it'd be more interesting. After some truly stunning pools it shifted to mediocre slickrock, then bushy rocky sections, then the slickrock would come back, then it'd get bushier. As we slowed down to a typical off-trail pace for the first we re-evaluated options - going back down some of the bush seemed demoralizing, so we'd take a look at the cut over to the southern fork (some old mining roads) and if that looked crap just take FR693 to FR236 and back.
The middle of the canyon got that level of bushbashing where you look at the creek and the sides and it all looks bad, but there'd be small breaks of open areas. Just as this got to be a bit much, it opened up into a section... full of class 3 pourovers. This was much appreciated, and they provided interesting vs obnoxious obstacles. This faded, then was replaced by some of the most frozen areas we'd encountered yet, which slowed navigation down but created a really interesting atmosphere. A few sections would have created a lugue effect where one could slide 30ft or so then drop down a falls! At this point our faith in choosing this route was rewarded, though we were keeping an eye on the time.
Like all good things, this once again faded to brush, to be replaced by a handful of valiant class 3 obstacles. Once overcome the creek was a very pleasant slickrock... with impenetrable scrubby forest on either side. While satellite after the fact shows the other (southern side) of this to be far more open (with a few obvious spots to aim for), it would have been a bit of a gamble given the time. And we were also tired of bushbashing. So we continued up the creek. Which of course descended into bushbashing hell for a short while, with marginally better game trails on the north until it opened up again and we followed it to FR693. Whew.
While this was a long looping way back, it was also simple and we'd never been up here, so it worked out. FR693 itself was a bit soft, and the trees were definitely closing in for a jeep (you'd want to trim a few spots) but it was in great shape for being formally abandoned. At one point the eastern side of the road had been carved out by a drainage making it rather lopsided for a jeep, but it didn't seem anything massively out of the norm.
Reaching FR236 we went to the Dupont Cabin. The two main rooms were in good shape, the open (stable? wood shed?) was collapsing a bit. Lots of random condiments and whatnot stashed in ziplocs and the trail register stashed around, along with water bottles (good idea) and cans of mouse feces covered food and some chips & cookies they had tried to get into and would soon. A couple from WI that had signed the trail register 3 days earlier had also graffitied a piece of lumber and propped it up inside... once we left we both independently thought we should have hidden that somewhere as to not encourage more poor behavior. The carpeting inside was a bit gross, but no signs of vandalism, some trash strewn around, left in the fire pit, on the side of the road etc. Was a bit much so we just left it, but it seems like locals must come up and clean the place regularly. It was nice being in a proper pine forest for a while, with a high canopy and nice duffy floors. 
The hike down was uneventful, though it's clear why we found nearly a dozen pieces of OHVs/ATVs - some large rocky obstacles, and a terrible section of petrified baby heads on the drop down into Greenback valley, though that was made up by the gorgeous evening views of the 3 plateaus stretching in front of us. Dusk approached, but we had layers and only turned on our headlamps when we cut off FR236 towards the tank/orchard again. I took the wrong cowpath out from the tank, but looked up and saw I was heading N judging by hills around me, turned around, and used my phone as a compass to get me back to the gate. ^^;
A great loop - not sure our giant FR exit was necessary, but it was the right call (doing XC in the dark over rocks when it's in the 20s seems like when accidents will happen) and felt better than just hiking up and down it. |
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