![]() Crossing Deep Creek was a thicket of brush and downed trees. The trail through the meadows often disappeared. On previous trips, this section was the most difficult to navigate. Remember this cairn at Kneeland/Mikes Cabin jct? I decided against that, and took Mikes Cabin Trail back over to HCNRT. From far away, I could see that it was untouched, at least the trees were. My original plan was to do an out and back to Somers Point to see any fire damage. Remember the note from Barry Gibb at the spring? Remember this shack from previous trip reports?: Anecdotal testimony from other people say they drink it untreated all the time and have never gotten sick. Research was found noting that contaminants can still be in the water. On a side note, I always treat water while backpacking, even if it comes from a piped spring. The Snake River several thousand feet down there: Wallowas from the junction with the Windy Ridge Trail: I’ll try and update the TR with identifications. Some other ones will peak in a couple weeks. The early wildflowers were at their peak. Temperence Creek seeping out of the ground at Warnock Corral:įor a stretch, the road was the dividing line: I was glad to have slept in the car that night.ĭue to being blocked by mud puddles, I had to walk almost a mile on the road to get to Warnock Corral. The next morning, the temperature on my car showed 37 degrees. A Forest Service employee at the Joseph office confirmed disturbed forests are prime areas to search for mushrooms. In fact, on the drive out, I saw a guy walking through the burned forest with a mushroom satchel. A brief conversation with a person in a truck led me to believe many of these people were mushroom hunters. Something noticed on the drive up and back was that I saw many times more parked vehicles and people camping than I have ever seen before. This time, due to recent thunderstorms, the mud puddles were way bigger than those previous trips. On previous trips, I had been able to make it to Warnock Corral, and a little more. They were too deep for me to chance it, so I did a 10-point turn, and parked off the side of the road and stayed at Hotel Subaru for the night. I got out and tested the depth with my hiking poles. There were some very large mud puddles in the road. That is until about a mile before Warnock Corral. It was passable in a Subaru or high clearance vehicle. No snow or downed trees were blocking the way. Once at the turn-off to Hat Point, the road to Warnock Corral was as rough as it was before. Wildfires burn uphill way more than downhill. Maintenance vehicles were parked on the side of the road on the way up, and maintenance was being done when I was leaving.Īfter Hat Point Road passes Memaloose Airstrip, for a few miles Summit Ridge was the dividing line between what was burned and not burned. Previously it was full of potholes and rough and rocky. Last year, before the fire, maintenance had been done, but even more had been done since then. Surprisingly, the road was in the best shape I have ever seen it, at least up to the turn-off to Hat Point. Some areas along the road survived, but those were few and far between. The road went in and out of areas that were decimated. At first I was encouraged by looking over at Grizzly Ridge and seeing minimal damage.Īs I drove higher, with the road meeting Grizzly Ridge, things changed. It didn’t take too long driving up Hat Point Road out of Imnaha to see evidence of the fire. I also want to do a couple short excursions on ridge trails west of Summit Ridge, for some preliminary intel. My plan was to replicate parts of this trip and this trip. ![]() My observation was that the Double Creek Fire was a lot of both, but more often burning everything. ![]() Sometimes wildfires burn everything everywhere in its path, while other times it skips around, creating a mosaic pattern. I was anxious to go out and see for myself just how much burned, and how badly. Many of the places I have hiked over the years were in the fire’s path. ![]() It was active from August 30th into October, until the rain and snow stopped it. Last summer and into fall, the Double Creek Fire burned over 170,000 acres in the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area.
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