Just a brief report here on the Fire Creek Trail and the upper portion of the White Chuck River Rd that's been closed since 2003, for anyone looking at a potential loop with Meadow Mt. (The lower White Chuck Rd is also closed at 3.7 miles due to a major washout.) Yesterday, we biked the two miles past the washout and another 4.5 miles up the closed road to its end at the former trailhead for White Chuck River and Kennedy Hot Springs. The long-closed upper road was more than 90 percent bikable on smooth packed gravel. There are some obstacles in the first quarter mile, but not too difficult to get past. The next mile is fairly overgrown, but mostly ridable on a gentle uniform grade. After about 1.5 miles, things gradually open up and the last three miles were a breeze, with only a couple places we needed to walk or push the bike. Coming back down later was a fun, easy glide. Almost no downed trees to worry about.
From the road end, the trail starts out with a short, lumpy bypass that appears to be a work in progress. However, it quickly reaches the old river trail, which is in great condition all the way to the Meadow Mt/Fire Creek junction with old weathered signs on a tree. The lower Fire Creek bridge, a little before the junction, appears solid, perhaps good as new. Beyond the junction, the White Chuck trail is toast. But we found the Fire Creek Trail to be in surprisingly good shape overall, with only a handful of downed trees to negotiate (all easy). In the last half-mile before the upper crossing, there are several old puncheon boardwalks that have rotted away, but easy enough to work around. The creek looked easy to ford at current flow, but would over-top your boots. Foot log looked too slick for my taste. We did not continue beyond and can't say anything about the condition of the trail up to the meadows. I've seen mixed reports on that.
So it seems well worth a little bit of work to recover an excellent backpack loop from the White Chuck to the high country near Meadow and Fire Mountains. And by biking the upper road, Fire Mt meadows could fit within the realm of a longish day hike. By the way, plenty of bear sign on the road, though we didn't see any. Note to geologists and FS: might be some subsidence happening at the 1999 Owl Creek bridge?? Road elevations nearby look weird.
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