I wasn't able to get out on Friday but that allowed me to get a longer hike in on Sunday. I have always wanted to loop up Trail Canyon and come back down Gold Creek road but both trails have seen better days. With the repairs done on the connector trail from Gold Creek Saddle I knew that this loop was manageable. I began up Trail Canyon a little after six which turned out to be quite nice as the trail to the falls was virtually empty. I met one fellow coming up from the falls who asked me how the trail was above the falls where I gave him a more optimistic view then what I encountered.
The trail above the falls until New Tom Lucas Camp has always been the best part of the upper trail as it seemed hikers would go up here semi-regularly. Unfortunately this is no longer the case a combination of lots of growth from the rains and infrequent use makes this section quite challenging. You are pushing through growth from almost the beginning. From here to Old Tom Lucas you first encounter the stiffiest brush to get through but the trail is pretty evident. Once you switchback the canyon gets a bit more manageable. There is still plenty of unavoidable poison oak and stinging nettles to deal with. The meadow where Old Tom Lucas is located in has plants that grow over your head over six feet high. I didn't even realize I had passed the campsite because I couldn't see anything. These rains have a done a number to the growth in this canyon.
Finally you get to leave the canyon and start to switchback up to the ridge. Unfortunately this section is not much better and you will be pushing through whitethorn, avoiding yucca, and getting flowering plants pollen and petals all over yourself. I had parts of my shirt yellow from pollen. I finally connected to the Condor Trail with a sigh of relief. It had taken me 3.5 hours to go six miles and two of them were on good trail.
From here I connected to the fire road and made the sharp left hand turn on to the ridge on 3N32 fire road. I decided to skip Iron as I had been up there multiple times. The fire road is more like a trail and I saw large bear prints in numerous places. I finally circled Iron and got to the turn off for Tin BM which was my excuse for doing this hike. The firebreak up the east side has some brush but it was short and manageable. The BM is supposedly on the west bump even though the east bump looked higher to me. I could find no sign of it. Coming down the west side was a bit easier and I saw that the bear was also a peakbagger and had come to the summit as well with lots of prints around.
I got to Iron Mtn Saddle and got to check out the trail work that Sean & Co. had done. This section of trail does not appear to have gotten any foot traffic. There were already weeds growing in the middle of the trail in many spots but fortunately no brush. The narrow part had some minor wash outs and slides but nothing that is of too much concern, it appears to be holding up well. The north ridge to McKinley appears still viable as a way to get to the summit. I had thought of doing Peak 5,240 from Iron Saddle but was concerned about descending to this saddle and my concerns were well founded that whole north ridge is covered with brush. The west side of McKinley is quite nice with a few stands of pine surviving. The west ridge is the main way most people hike McKinley and I could see my first evidence of people using the trail here. The side trail to the spring appears to be non existent and my view of the slope is that it would be a steep endeavor to get down to the creek regardless.
I made it to Gold Creek Road and the saddle. The fog had been lingering at about 3,500 feet but as the day wore on started getting higher up the mountain and I was fortunate to get the cooling air at the saddle and for the remainder of the hike. There had been a flat about a half mile from this saddle where some entrepreneur had gotten permission/paid the Forest Service to put some hives for bees. Apparently he has now gone full hog on using this route for his bees. At both water towers there were hives set up and at the two spots where there were flat pull outs he has place for his hives. The original location is covered with hives and the wind was blowing off the fire road into the hives. Getting through that section I was pummeled by bees all over my body as they tried to get back into the hives. The noise and quantity of bees was overwhelming so I tried to run through the section without getting stung. I got through with one bee stuck on me that I finally released and remained unscathed from the bee swarm. These sections could potentially be dangerous for hikers and bikers, if the wind is blowing the wrong way, it feels pretty irresponsible but a paycheck is a paycheck.
The fire road is long and winding but finally I made it back to my car. The whole outing was 7.5 hours with 3,900 feet elevation gain and about 17.5-18 miles. No pics, too much fog and haze and this area isn't very picturesque anyway.
