Stone Canyon Trail to Lukens Update
Prior to the Station Fire this trail had been maintained by Matt Maxon where apparently it had fallen into disrepair prior to his involvement. Some of my favorite quick jaunts were zipping up Stone Canyon in the early 2000s and running down. It allowed for a sub 3 hour hike with over 3,000 feet elevation gain within a half hour of my house. After the Station Fire the trail has fallen into such disrepair and brushiness to make it an unpleasant experience. I have avoided the area partly because of this and being so disappointed in its shape and remembering how nice the trail used to be. It had been a while since I had gone up so I decided to do a loop via Grizzly Flats. The last two times I had been up here the first third of the trail had been worked but nothing after that where the real unpleasantness had been. Imagine my surprise seeing the entire route cut and more importantly the tread of the trail fixed. It has been over a decade since the trail has been in as good shape as it is currently in. The work had just been completed in February and it is so great to say one of the best trails in the front range is now in such great shape. To make a day even better the route from Grizzly Flats to Big Tujunga has also been worked with all the brushiness cleared even though the tread is still slumped but still awesome. I'll be back here a lot now, thanks to the crew they did an awesome and a real professional job.
Went up yesterday and yowzer, the recent trail work done is awesome. The trail is back to being in the shape it was 20 years ago. It may actually be better then before in certain areas. There were a couple of problem areas on the trail notably when you first left Stone, when you entered the canyon next to Stone and the final switchback leaving that canyon. All those areas have been reworked in a way that I've never seen it. Also on the top where there used to be a rocky straight up steep trail, new switchbacks have been create to moderate the climb. The trail is pretty much runnable on the way down unfortunately my knees refused to agree to that abuse. The only bummer is the mountain bikers have discovered the route and are starting to create grooves in the trail in some of the tight spots. I only saw two mountain bikers the whole day other then the couple vaping weed by the creek.
