... this other ancillary Beartrap Camp about a 100 yards north/downstream of the main camp. The next day we went back out to the trailhead and called it a good backpacking trip (even though the county health department had closed the restaurant at Camp Scheideck near the trailhead and so we could not get the customary burger and fries).
We camped in the main Beartrap Camp. This ancillary Beartrap Camp about 300 yards south/upstream of the main camp has been recently rescued from the brush and fully rehabilitated into a larger camping area than shown here, as has ...
As we hiked down to Beartrap Camp, this brush encroaching over the trail was representative of numerous sections where it touched both shoulders as we walked. The trail was still, however, always easy to find.
... a view over Beartrap Creek and its canyon, which we then headed back down into.
... the trail that took us back up to the ridge separating the drainages and which provided us with ...
... a tributary's well placed rocks a little north of Haddock Camp and ...
... less of a flow (of course) back up at Haddock Camp, ...
Piedra Blanca Creek had a good flow at Three Mile Camp, ...
... Three Mile Camp (5900') where we had lunch. Then we began retracing our route back to our camp.
... in the first mile and a half before ...
... we continued down the trail, finding two blowdowns across it ...
We headed down the trail along the headwaters of Piedra Blanca Creek to ...
... Haddock Camp (6120') where some sawyers have cut down hazard trees and made some nice wilderness chairs for campers. After a break ...
... looked ahead into a burn area at the top of the Piedra Blanca Creek drainage.
... we reached the top (6262') and ...
... over the beginning of a washout, ...
... through a narrowing canyon until ...
... up through the pines, ...
... a long steep climb ...
... we left the riparian area for ...
We had this look up the canyon wall not too long before ...
This was the worst of the low hanging branches that will impede those riding stock on the trail, but there was also a lot more of it that will be a serious nuisance for any riders south of Beartrap Camp.
Beartrap Creek still had a good flow well up the canyon, although obviously much lower than it had flowed during the winter storms.
About two miles upstream from Beartrap Camp, the trail runs in the creekbed for about a quarter mile and it was strewn with logs, branches, boulders and washed/rutted out sections (and the latter factors will probably prevent travel by stock).
Beartrap Creek continued to have a decent flow as we hiked toward its headwaters.
About a half mile from the camp was this little slide area which was representative of several small sections of trail: soil regularly slides there and it has recently done so, but the trail is still usable.
In the morning we headed on a hike up the trail and soon found these two blowdowns across it. Between Beartrap Camp and the top of Beartrap Creek drainage, we found ten blowdowns of various sizes and some of the photos are included here.
