Miller Peak

  This was a Mountaineer's hike. Started at end of Stafford Creek Rd, FS 9703. This road (last 3.5 miles) is extremely rough with giant potholes. Also a tree over the road. Ascended Bear Creek Trail to County Line Trail. At 5,600 left trail and ascended south by SE ridge to summit of Miller Peak. Returned down the Miller Peak Trail. Bad mosquitoes for first 2 hours and then some flies. Met 6 courteous motorcyclists. However, the motorbikes have made a mess of these trails. One muddy section was really churned up and some sections have lots of deep loose dirt (with the associated dust). Also lots of new hardening for the bikes using large loose rock which is very hard to walk on for hikers. Trails will soon need brushing and they also need work on diverting creeks off the trail in several spots. Day was hot and we were all tired at the end, but the views are spectacular and many of the wildflowers were out. On the way out we saw dozens of cars and several horse trailers at the Stafford TH, but we only saw the 6 motorcyclists all day. Stats for this trip are 12.5 miles and 3,830' gross elev. Allow about 9 hours with breaks and photos on a nice day.