The site has been VERY quiet lately. I thought I would post something about my recent trip on the Dickey Creek Trail. My first visit since they extended the trail by decommissioning the road about a half mile from where the trailhead used to be. The trail on the newly decommissioned road isn't too bad.
A couple of notes:
- The really steep initial descent has been improved significantly with the addition of new steps. The steps are rather high, but it helps quite a bit when going up and down those steep hills. There are still a couple of hills that could benefit from steps, but it is a big improvement over what it used to be.
- We went down to the creek crossing - I noticed a definite blaze on the north/west side of the creek and a visible tread continuing down the creek past the current crossing point. Does anyone know if the trail used to cross the creek farther upstream? Maybe I will spend some time with the historical maps and see if I can see anything.
It was a BEAUTIFUL day in the woods. My fear is that we have lost the higher elevation trails to the snow this year. I can't complain - it is almost December and we desperately need the snow.
Hopefully everyone else is having great adventures out there!
Not that I'm tallking to myself or anything, but I looked at some old maps, and the only difference I see is the trail crossing Dickey Creek much farther down on the earlier maps. Looks like the trail was built in the early 30's. Looks like the initial route crossed Dickey Creek about a mile further downstream from where it does today. That would be quite the ford - I'm guessing that is why it got moved upstream at some point - the '38 maps shows it crossing downstream, but the '46 map shows it crossing at its current point.
I would still love to know what those blazes headed upstream of the current crossing were for.
The first time that I ever hiked the Dickey Creek trail I walked right by the creek crossing and followed the trail you're talking about instead. I think it petered out before too long, or maybe it became obvious that it wasn't the correct route because of lack of maintenance. That was well over ten years ago so I'm a bit fuzzy on the details. But I do remember mistakenly thinking that the trail continued upstream on that side of the creek, and that the trail toward the creek led only to a campsite. That doesn't help you much in figuring out the original purpose of that old trail.
I haven't hiked Dickey Creek since the trailhead was relocated. I intended to do it last year during the summer, but when I got to the trailhead there were so many cars parked that I decided to go somewhere else instead. I used to like that trail for the solitude it provided, but it seems to be much more popular these days. At least in the summer. I'll bet it wasn't crowded when you were there the other day.
It was very weird because I definitely saw blazes there. Oh well, maybe I'll never know - maybe they intended to cross upstream but then changed their mind? Who knows - maybe someone does.
I didn't think there would be ANYONE up there, but there was one truck at the trailhead and while I was getting ready, another truck came down the 164 spur (the road directly opposite the trailhead now) - they just headed out - I think they were just looking around. I met the guy in the truck almost at the creek crossing and he had camped at Big slide lake the night before. He said there was really no snow at the lake, however he saw snow on the peaks. I'm guessing that has changed by now. That creek crossing would be pretty fun too - the creek was running pretty high and fast.