Goin' Native - Part II

Not to be deterred, we returned on 11/08 to investigate the "lost trail" and circumstance for our critical six mile sidetrack of the previous week...

(S. Zagorce Image)

What a spectacular rugged mile and change of small creek fishing

We backtracked the route, out and back, from the near trailhead (skid road) the entire distance to termination/intersection at the primary creek. We'll consider it an honest mistake on our part, having not ventured into the area in over thirty years. The trail junction at the creek was pretty much un-recognizable because of brush overgrowth and a large deadfall tree crossing/blocking the convergence. We'd walked right across it our prior incursion of the previous week. For the distance the trail was heavily washed and overgrown, with many blocking windfall trees and deadwood. The route was obviously long untravelled. The local four-wheelers and off-roaders are usually reliable for keeping most of the local trails passable. This particular rugged trail they had apparently long ago written off, having established a bit milder by-pass that we stumbled upon along the way. 

Was a great opportunity for gear testing. Gave ZMan an ideal situation to test out the "breadcrumb" function on his Garmin wristwatch. Simply put a navigation tool that tracks the path you've travelled and accurately retraces/guides your return back. Most impressive tool. Was spot on. We're gonna' have to pick one of those up. Even if we never used it, it's too cool not to have. Muscle Girl Sarah additionally had an equally adept GPS mapping function on her phone. For marking a few waypoints for later mapping, I carried an original model Garmin eTrex "yellow". Hadn't powered it up for probably ten years. Established satellite lock short of two minutes and carried on as if brand new. Not bad for a twenty-six year old device. In the event of EMP detonation, I also toted the "old dad" standby Silva magnetic compass we've had forever and localized USGS topo quad. We were loaded for grizzly bear. Very seldom get a chance to employ all the available technology, so was lots of fun.

Out and back: 4.5 miles

Relief: 1,200ft

Total relief: 2,400ft

Time: 2.5 hours

Returning via this route the prior week would have extended our trek to just over two miles; say a total loop distance of just over six miles.