Melmont Ghost Town, Carbon River to Ipsut Falls — Friday, Jun. 6, 2025

We biked the Melmont Ghost Town / foothills trail from Carbonado to the Kolish Rd bridge, then biked onward to the carbon river entrance and then Ipsut creek camp. On the way back, after retracing our steps to the Kolisch Rd bridge, we opted for the forest road in to Wilkeson.

We wanted to scout this route ahead of our summer plans for a 3-wonderland run/hike. We want to start and finish near Mowich so that we can stay in hotels both nights — the national park inn at Longmire and then the crystal mountain hotels (via a car shuttle from White River). This was a great plan until the Fairfax bridge was closed. Now it is a more intimidating plan, with an extra 17-20 mile bike ride at the start and end of our trip.

The foothills trail from Carbonado to the Fairfax bridge is in excellent shape.  Low-skill mountain bikers like ourselves had no issues. The next two miles after the bridge had a few muddy areas that some of us chose to walk while others rode. The final 1.5 miles got a bit more bumpy and twisty and awkward, and I was definitely walking my bike more than riding it. We took an hour of moving time to get to the Kolisch Rd bridge. 

The empty carbon river road was smooth and fast on our mountain bikes, with two rolling hills. the closed portion of the road after the gate was  surprisingly well maintained for a road that last saw private cars in 2006. There were a few clear re-routes due to washouts but the re-routes were plenty wide and had several inches of fresh gravel. It took about an hour to ride from Kolisch Rd to the campground, “without really pushing the pace,” but we are a few 40-something dads who were pretty fit in our younger days, so likely still at the stronger end of the spectrum. 

riding back down from the campground was a breeze. We made it to the Kolisch bridge in about half an hour. 

The forest road is an interesting alternative to the foothills trail. It has a rather smooth surface of hard packed gravel. A cx or gravel bikes would be totally fine, and some folks (you know who you are) would be happy enough on thicker road tires or touring tires. The trade-off is the elevation gain. The bridge is at 1425 feet of elevation, the highest point on the logging road is about 1950, then Wilkeson is down at 850. The 9ish miles took us about an hour on our mountain bikes, not pushing the pace, but it would surely be a lot slower in the other direction with double the climbing. The foothills trail option gains merely 200 feet. 

In spite of all that vert, we will likely choose to take the forest road again when we run the wonderland this summer. The extra time and extra fatigue feels like less of a tax than the mental energy and crashing risk of a bunch of aging dudes bumping awkwardly along a “mildly technical” trail before running/hiking nearly 40 miles. Woo.