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| Backpack | 5.30 Miles |
941 AEG |
| | Backpack | 5.30 Miles | 2 Days | | |
| 941 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | We were excited to do a lollipop loop from Kelsey springs TH south to Winter Cabin, then north up hog hill, across Dorsey springs trail, and back up the north-most half of Kelsey springs, but after Babes Hole the trail all but disappears. We kept at it using our gps to trail find, but once hitting the rim of the canyon, the trail became impossible to find, and the scrub oak absolutely unbearable. Frustrated and scratched up, we decided to take a break before turning back, but after our snack reassessed the map and decided to hike “the trail of our soul” rather than the marked trail on the map, and headed a half mile south along the canyon wall to Dorsey springs. This was not hiking and was in fact quite dangerous as it appears there have been some recent rock slides and the terrain was quite steep. We bushwhacked along a faint game trail and eventually made it back into the pines where we located the Dorsey spring. There’s a great campsite there, and the Dorsey springs trail looked to be in much better conditions. We camped for the night and took the Dorsey springs trail east the next morning, turned north on 538e and hiked back along the road to the Subi at Kelsey springs TH.
Definitely not the hike we planned for, as we were hoping to easily make it to the winter cabin. Next time we will head south down Dorsey springs and hog hill trails to attempt to find the cabin, and bring a machete for the scrub. This Kelsey springs trail needs a TON of work/maintenance. We are experienced backpackers and hikers and this was doable but actually quite unreasonable and frustrating.
We did some birding and enjoyed the wildflowers. Babes hole spring is flowing nicely, Kelsey spring is very very low flow, and Dorsey is dry. We carried 19 liters of water (3 ppl) and were glad we brought the extra.
Temps were beautiful in the low 50s at night. |
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