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Hiking to Monte Cristo
Aug. 23rd, 2014 09:21 pmI've decided to just start posting my daily photos again and then work on getting caught up as I have time... it's gotten long enough that the task was getting a bit daunting (and, I thought, would also be a bit overwhelming to folks on my friendslist).
Today, we met up with several other Geocachers at the trailhead for the hike to the ghost town, Monte Cristo, up in the mountains. The others were all biking up, but I hadn't had a chance to do my physical therapy to build up my shoulders for it, so we decided to just hike it. All in all, it took us about five hours, with just over three and a half hours of active hiking (I kept track) for the eight mile roundtrip trek. The terrain went from insanely easy (at the very beginning, I was regretting not just bringing the bikes because it was so flat and well-packed) to incredibly rough in the many areas that had been washed out (it was exactly like walking up a dry rocky creekbed). To give you an idea how bad it was, we left about 20 minutes before the cyclists and ended up arriving only about ten minutes after they did... and that was with us making several stops to look for Geocaches, which they didn't. Of course, they sailed right past us in the flat stretches on the way back down.
This post will be very picture heavy, mostly because it was so hard to choose!
Just after the first washout was the temporary "bridge" - ( a fortuitous fallen tree, positioned across the river. )
( About an hour and a half of hiking later, we got to see some of the fun old signs for the town. )
( This is the sort of sign that will make you pause before proceeding! )
( And some video of Rackham having fun with a random fellow hiker, pushing the old railroad turntable. )
( Part of the old ghost town. )
Today, we met up with several other Geocachers at the trailhead for the hike to the ghost town, Monte Cristo, up in the mountains. The others were all biking up, but I hadn't had a chance to do my physical therapy to build up my shoulders for it, so we decided to just hike it. All in all, it took us about five hours, with just over three and a half hours of active hiking (I kept track) for the eight mile roundtrip trek. The terrain went from insanely easy (at the very beginning, I was regretting not just bringing the bikes because it was so flat and well-packed) to incredibly rough in the many areas that had been washed out (it was exactly like walking up a dry rocky creekbed). To give you an idea how bad it was, we left about 20 minutes before the cyclists and ended up arriving only about ten minutes after they did... and that was with us making several stops to look for Geocaches, which they didn't. Of course, they sailed right past us in the flat stretches on the way back down.
This post will be very picture heavy, mostly because it was so hard to choose!
Just after the first washout was the temporary "bridge" - ( a fortuitous fallen tree, positioned across the river. )
( About an hour and a half of hiking later, we got to see some of the fun old signs for the town. )
( This is the sort of sign that will make you pause before proceeding! )
( And some video of Rackham having fun with a random fellow hiker, pushing the old railroad turntable. )
( Part of the old ghost town. )
