Just back in from four days in Bull of the Woods Wilderness. Took the loop described in Backpacking Oregon, from Pansy Lake to Twin Lakes to Elk Lake. Had a great time until we hit the junction of 559 and 558, the Battle Creek Shelter (now gone). We thought we'd take a "short cut" and go up trail 557, the Geronimo trail. This is in the area that was burned out two years ago. We went about 1.5 miles or so up the slope (passing the remnants of the old mine), and then we lost the trail. There were a bunch of burned trees down, and the ground itself was burned up. So we had to turn back. We continued on 559, but went more than the 1.1 miles from the Battle Creek ford without finding where we were supposed to ford Elk Lake Creek. Again, lots of downed trees and fire damage. We finally tried a likely spot but didn't find a trail on the other side. So we camped at the junction of 558/559, and the next morning we hiked out on 558. This trail was also damaged, but there were some pink ribbons to make the trail in the most burned out spots. So we made it our OK.
Anybody have any recollection of markers around the Elk Lake Creek ford on the west side?
I hiked down to Welcome Lakes last weekend, and the trails in the burn area can be a little sketchy, especially if you haven't been on them before. I also hiked down the Geronimo trail (down, not up like you tried) before the fires, and parts of it were rather faint even then, so I'm kind of worried that it might be lost after the fires. As far as the area to ford the river, it was pretty apparent before the fire - I think it is a little more than 1.1 miles from the jct with 558 to the ford section. The map shows that ford as being in a very wide area of the creek - after that ford, you do it twice more I think. I wonder if it is still messed up until the end of the trail. The fires definitely damaged the trails in that area.....
How was twin lakes? Was it impacted by the fires much?
I think Rob is right about the ford. You probably didn't go quite far enough. I have hiked the Elk Lake Creek trail several times since the fires. Although there is some burn damage along that segment of trail, the location of the trail is still sufficiently apparent in most places. Just as the trail approaches the location of the ford there is some significant burn damage with down trees and burned snags obscuring the actual trail just at the point where you need to turn toward the creek and the crossing point. This could cause some confusion if you're not familiar with the area. But if you were to venture much farther downstream you would be up against a steep rocky slope that would make further downstream travel difficult on that side of the creek.
Here's a photo to give you an idea of the topography at the ford, looking downstream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19191522@N06/2969779993/sizes/l/in/set-72157608346885793/
Here's a photo of the trail approaching the creek on the west side:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/19191522@N06/2970622956/in/set-72157608346885793
And the trail on the other side of the creek on the east bank:
From my somewhat limited experience hiking these fire damaged trails, I think that is the biggest issue - the trail will be very apparent, but then there will be some downed/burned trees across the trail at one point and it makes the trail hard to follow at that point, especially when there is a group of trees there. One tree is usually easy to step over. At any rate, you need to be very aware of the trail when hiking these burned areas.
Doug, do you have any other photos of the burned Elk Lake trail? After seeing Welcome Lakes, I'm curious to see the upper park of Elk Lake creek. Amazing to see how much the fire consumed....
Rob,
There are some photos of the 2010 fire damage on my flickr page. http://www.flickr.com/photos/19191522@N06/sets/72157625344283420/
The last 20 or so photos in that set are of the Elk Lake Creek trail. There was some additional fire damage along the trail in 2011 from the Mother Lode fire, but not a lot. I haven't hiked the upper end of the trail from Battle Creek to Elk Lake since the fires, but it's my understanding that the 2011 fires didn't affect it.