Took Ollie out for a stroll yesterday.  We started at the Cripple Creek Trail where it crosses the 4635-140 spur and headed toward the meadows.  It had rained and drizzled overnight and during the morning so the brush was laden with water and by the end of the day my boots were quite squishy.  I tried to get Ollie to go ahead of me, but he wasn't a very good brush drier.

We were soon at Cache Meadow and met a young lady of perhaps six years and I assume her father at the 517 junction.  They had planned on backpacking overnight but instead had car camped at the Trail X trailhead due to the wet weather and were exploring the area.  We bid them farewell and headed over to the trail junction where the Cache Meadow sign is located.  Didn't really see any remains of the old burned cabin, but it could be I wasn't looking in the exact spot where it used to be.

Next we headed east on the abandoned trail that goes to Shellrock Lake.  It was pretty easy to follow until we got near the Shellrock Lake Trail where a timber harvest had disturbed the old tread and blazes.  Shellrock Lake had a couple of groups camping and enjoying the lake, but it wasn't warm enough for them to be swimming at that time.  We passed two different groups of three backpackers each headed up to Frazier Turnaround and points beyond.  However we turned back to the southwest when we got up to the old road.  I couldn't imagine that road as a trail so after a bit we headed up to the abandoned trail on the ridge and followed the phone line up to the summit.  The old trail is pretty overgrown, but some sections of tread remain.  We poked around a bit at the top checking out the rock platform and various metal artifacts left from the days of the fire lookout.

The phone line continued down the other side of the hill and we found some more blazes.  It's a gentle slope on that side and I lost the blazes after a bit.  After ambling over to the old road we were at the point were the trail resumed back to Cache Meadow.  Saw a little bit more phone line and an insulator support wire up on a tree heading back to the meadow.

At Cache Meadow we took Trail X this time.  It was in pretty good shape, but had a few logs across the trail.  Ollie had a drink from the lake, and I took a look at the wooden rafts near one of the campsites.  We headed out to the road and met up again with the young lady and her guardian at their campsite.

After backtracking a bit to the 702 and X junction, we found and enjoyed some ripe huckleberries along a very brushy section of trail.  There was a pile of bear scat on the trail so it appears the bears are enjoying the berries also.

I decided to explore a bit more of the Cripple Creek trail, so we followed it down to the 4635 road before turning back up the hill back to the truck.  I really liked the section of undisturbed trail right above the 4635 road.

It was an interesting day exploring some trails I hadn't seen before.

Here's a link to the pictures from our outing:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/sQT6Ffh3C9qFybY99