Above the Bridge to Nowhere 5/19
Posted: Thu May 21, 2009 11:09 am
Me&TDR went out for an ambitious plan to tackle S.Hawkins and beyond from Heaton, but ended up on a BridgeToNowhere trip.
We departed from the river at 1pm upto just west of Airplane flat(or 800ft). Since we found a benchmark, I guess we didn’t think to pull out a topo, but were were did not get to the flat at 3414ft.Would have required bushwacking to get there…FYI
It was pretty obvious given everything..the heat,pack weight,conditioning,etc that we would not make the next 2 1000ft pushes as planned.The next push(another 1000) was steep, but not too steep.
Thus we went to check out a trail that connects to the southwest(aka Devils Gulch) ridge We got disconnected due to the trail falling away and I descended down the main gully..a garbage,dirt place.TDR came down the southwest ridge to meet me at the bottom of the 2006 firefighting switchbacks.
Then we hiked upstream to catch a break in the canyon just downstream of the bridge.After that we went back up the trail to the bridge….thus we got to see the bridge from above,from the bottom and from level ground.
The sun was setting so we headed back, arriving just before darkness.
Misc: We encountered the same trail crew that we did on the Bear Creek trail. The story on that one was two teams departed from both ends of the trail to meet halfway. The conclusion was an Air5 ride. Thus they will tackle Bear Creek after the East Fork.
No parking signs from Cattle Canyon til the East Fork parking lot.
New bridge across Laurel Gulch: smells and looks good. I do remember how it wasnt level though...I think there were some stones place for footing/steeping to get on top of it, but sort of forgot the details on that one.
Waterflow: Less than last July?! All indications its going to be a miserable summer.
We departed from the river at 1pm upto just west of Airplane flat(or 800ft). Since we found a benchmark, I guess we didn’t think to pull out a topo, but were were did not get to the flat at 3414ft.Would have required bushwacking to get there…FYI
It was pretty obvious given everything..the heat,pack weight,conditioning,etc that we would not make the next 2 1000ft pushes as planned.The next push(another 1000) was steep, but not too steep.
Thus we went to check out a trail that connects to the southwest(aka Devils Gulch) ridge We got disconnected due to the trail falling away and I descended down the main gully..a garbage,dirt place.TDR came down the southwest ridge to meet me at the bottom of the 2006 firefighting switchbacks.
Then we hiked upstream to catch a break in the canyon just downstream of the bridge.After that we went back up the trail to the bridge….thus we got to see the bridge from above,from the bottom and from level ground.
The sun was setting so we headed back, arriving just before darkness.
Misc: We encountered the same trail crew that we did on the Bear Creek trail. The story on that one was two teams departed from both ends of the trail to meet halfway. The conclusion was an Air5 ride. Thus they will tackle Bear Creek after the East Fork.
No parking signs from Cattle Canyon til the East Fork parking lot.
New bridge across Laurel Gulch: smells and looks good. I do remember how it wasnt level though...I think there were some stones place for footing/steeping to get on top of it, but sort of forgot the details on that one.
Waterflow: Less than last July?! All indications its going to be a miserable summer.
oh, and of course, thanks for the pic of the rattler 
