Carne Mountain — Monday, Oct. 14, 2024

The Road

Big thank you to the crews that made improvements to the road. I drove it before a month and a half ago and it was high clearance only, now I think any sedan should be able to make it with careful driving. Much smoother and faster drive now.

Parking

I saw reports about parking being out of hand here. And while I came early on a weekday I saw some lingering aftermath from the weekend. Namely one Subaru literally just parked in the road, no effort to even be on the side. This is dangerous, and also don't be shocked if your car gets scratched up if you park like this. People need to be able to pass safely. If there is not room to park you need to go elsewhere, the road is not parking.

I arrived at the trailhead at 6:15 am. Only 5 other cars in the lot. One other person arrived at the same time.

The Trail

The trail is surprisingly easy for the gain, it does not feel like 3500 ft of climbing. Nicely graded. However there are a few parts of the lower trail that are eroding. Some work to shore up some areas is needed, as it's easy to slip and plants will get damaged if this continues without support.

I got to the summit and had it all to myself for an hour before others arrived. The views are amazing and the changing clouds made for great photography.

On the way down I encountered maybe 40-50 people. All seem to have arrived around 7-8 am. Not too crowded, especially compared to the weekends from what it seems.

Back at the lot there were cars parked ¼ mile down from the lot. Again, please use the lower lot parking and do not block the road. The road edge is soft here and passing can be made dangerous if there is not enough room.

Also please observe good driving etiquette and use the turnouts to let cars pass. I was stuck behind a car that refused to pull over despite going extremely slow because they had to negotiate potholes, they had ample opportunities to use many safe pullouts to move but refused. This backs up traffic on these dirt roads. Why do you have a subaru if you are going to drive it like it's a low riding sedan? Please learn forest road etiquette and observe it before driving a road like this.

This is probably the last week for colors, it looks like the weather is changing so I wouldn't expect the larches to be good next week, the wind was already blowing away the needles.

Overall great pretty solitary experience at this trail.