Hi all,
Eric and I hiked the Elk Lake Creek Trail #559 from the trailhead off the 6380 road this weekend-- went all the way out to Elk Lake and back on the same route. On the way back, we had considered taking a detour which would have consisted of taking the Mother Lode Trail from its junction with Elk Lake Creek trail at the former Battle Ax shelter site, and hitting the Geronimo Trail off of Mother Lode. The Geronimo Trail connects up to the Welcome Lakes Trail, from which point you can take Welcome Lakes trail back out to Elk Lake Creek trail and thus avoid all of the treacherous stream crossings on Elk Lake Creek trail. When I say treacherous stream crossings, I really mean it--there were four crossings that required us to take off our shoes and pants to wade across in icy waters that at times were waist deep and flowing very swiftly because of all the recent rain and snowmelt. Anyway, the point of all this rambling was to ask whether anyone has actually hiked the Geronimo Trail within the past year or two and if so, what are the trail conditions?
Thanks.
My daughter an I hiked the very bottom section of the trail last summer, from Elk Lake Creek to the old mine location (about a quarter of a mile). The trail in that section was in reasonably good shape, however there was some down wood. I'm guessing that farther up the trail it would get considerably worse, but if anyone knows the condition I'd love to know, since I'd like to hike this trail as well some day. I know it is STEEP, but it sounds interesting.
I was up it in 03'. Very steep, pretty easy to follow, very steep, not terribly interesting but it gets you up the ridge in a hurry. Did I mention steep?
It seemed like it has received enough traffic to keep it alive. But it's been a while.