Hiking, the Hard Way

Her I am getting ready to head out on my latest hike with my trusty companion, Pepper, 150 pound Labrador with Rottweiler and Mastiff on his dad’s side.  He also had growing pains when a puppy and has not grown completely out of it yet, but he does not hesitate in coming along and it good for him as I have not been able over the last couple of years to excersize him properly.  Little did we know that this hike was going to be almost as bad as my walkabouts in ‘Nam.

At any rate the trail starts to the left at the first hair pin to the right of the Noon Day Trail.  About one quarter of a mile from where the Noon Day takes off from Champion Creek Road.

Here is a section that looks easy and is the start of the trail.  The trail is not an improved trail and does not get any upkeep from the Forest Service.  It is also not on any maps that I have found.  You can see the log across the trail and it only gets worse.  At the far end of this one you can see some stuff we have to climb through.

 

This next one is some of what we were experiencing and this not the worst section.  You can see more of everything we climbed through by clicking on any picture which will take you directly to the complete album.

Leaving the Bohemia Mines area we passed over Champion Saddle and on down Sharps Creek which is other wise known as Hard Scrabble Grade.  If you travel into this area please make sure your car (better SUV) is in good shape, tires are good and have standard emergency supplies available.  If you are going down your brakes will get hot and going up, engines will get hot as well.

Where does the trail end up at?  The trail stays pretty much level, and ends up at Grass Creek about a 0.7mi from where we started.  Took us a little over an hour to make it that far.  It is an old miners trail that probably went on up the river to other mines, but due to the building of Grass Creek road on the other side of the river there was no way to tell which way it went.  On our side of the river the trail went no further.

Back to the beginning of the trail where it takes off from Noon Day Trail which is designated a jeep, atv, horseback and hiking trail on its own.  We are at this point about a quarter of a mile from Champion Creek Road.

Champion Creek and Champion Mines

On our way home we stopped to look at the Champion Mine and here are some concrete piers that held the stamp mill equipment that serviced the mine.

More pictures of the mine area where the Forest Service is reclaiming the land.  A hard thing to do as the water coming out of the mine has arsenic in it which leaches iron out of the ground and also the iron work used in the mine making everything it touches look rusty.

Up above in this picture are two mining shafts from the Champion and actually two layers (galleries) above the main entrance which you can see just barely off to the right.  I met the last care taker of the Champion mine before all building were torn down, circa 1964, and he mentioned that their were something like 7.5 miles of tunnelling in the Champion Mine.  Can’t get their now as the water comes in faster than you can pump it out.

As with all of my posts here please click on any picture and you will be taken to the full album.  Please leave a comment impressed or not.

Thanks for Looking,  Ken