Today I found the Southern trail head for the Dry Creek Trail. I wanted to go to the highpoint of the trail but the snow was too deep and the crossing of Le Bar creek looked dangerous. The log book was empty, not many people go up that way.
I started at the wild life gate and Le Bar horse camp and I biked until I hit snow at 1,800 feet. I mostly pushed my bike up the hill and did very little actual biking on the way up.
At 1,800 feet I ditched my bike and started hoofing it. I should have brought my gaiters, my feet got soaked. I also should have brought my snowshoes. Postholing is so exhausting!
The trail head for the south entrance was only 100 feet from where I had turned my vehicle around when I was looking for the trail head a few years ago. The register was empty, no one else had signed it. I also noticed that the forest service spelled a word wrong in the title of the trail.
Once I got back down to my bike I was able to coast most of the 4 miles back to my car. I only went 13 miles including both biking and hiking but I am totally wiped out from the post holing.
My planned route
My route
Elevation profile log
Time to get off the bike and hike
The seldom seen south entrance to dry creek.
Empty log book.
Too steep and snowy to get up and down the bank at Le Bar creek so I turned around here.
Postholing almost to my knees
Tea bags make great lunch break foot warmers.
Scuba gloves work well for hiking
My bike waiting for my return
Sweet light on the way down
Looking back toward Dry Mountain
On my way back to my mercedes
I met two forest service workers who passed me in their forest service truck, as they went up the road and again as they went down. The driver was an older man and he kept giving me warnings such as I was going to see snow and the weather was going to get bad. (He told me that the snow level was 3,800 feet!) The passenger, on the other hand was a younger guy and he cheered me on. The goals of the forest service have changed over time!
13 miles with 1,800 feet elevation gain.
More on my blog.
I've yet to find that TH....I guess I haven't looked too hard, but it still evades me.
Ok, so park at LeBar, walk/ride the 23 for....how long? and then where is it?
I've yet to find that TH....I guess I haven't looked too hard, but it still evades me.
Ok, so park at LeBar, walk/ride the 23 for....how long? and then where is it?
Can't be done in a Subaru. Even my Jeep struggles to get to the trail head because the road up has extreme waterbars. Go to the Lebar Horse camp trail head and through the gate on the road above, then go left until you see a road to the right that goes up hill, follow that road until you get to a 5 way intersection, take a slight left (not the hard left) and continue on past the water bars from hell, until you find a water bar that is too big to be a waterbar because it is actually a road block. About 500 feet past the road block the "trail" starts. The first mile or so of trail is an old logging road with more giant water bars. I did not make it off that road because the snow was so deep.
I had a good chance of getting hurt whilst trying to descend into Le Bar creek in the deep snow so I turned back there. My dog ran ahead and went down the bank to the creek and she had some trouble getting back up.
I saw mountain lion tracks up there.
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