This was mildly disappointing. We were on the hunt for the springs, armed with the description above and some other online and guidebook sources. No dice however, as neither in our party felt good about the options for crossing the creek yesterday.
The creek is pretty full right now. There were a few large logs across its path but all were fairly high up, and it looked like any fall would be a rough one onto large rocks and into rushing water. A lot of the other downed trees along the hike had loose, shale-like bark, and I'd already slipped once or twice clambering over them, so I decided not to risk a crossing attempt lest I lose my footing over the river. We hiked upstream quite a bit looking for a milder place to cross but never found one (a section with a mid-river island looked slightly better because it split the river's flow but not enough to risk it for me).
River aside, be prepared for a rough path with some bushwhacking and downed trees. There is a faint trail that continues past the log referenced above and supposedly leads to some remarkably large, old trees a couple miles in but at about 2 miles, near a boulder-filled valley, we ended up turning back because there were too many downers blocking the trail.
The river is nice but nothing else remarkable about this trek, so unless you're prepared to cross and try for the springs or have a great love of bushwhacking through overgrowth, I'd probably recommend a different hike.
Comments