Hiking to Monte Cristo
Aug. 23rd, 2014 09:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fenchurchI'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. If you look closely, you can see a hiker just reaching the far end of the log. The water was surprisingly deep, so this really was the only dry and safe way to get across.
The entire hike was just that insanely beautiful, BTW. Hence all the photos!!
About an hour and a half of hiking later, we got to see some of the fun old signs for the town. If you hadn't guessed, it was a fairly remote mining town.
This next sign is the sort that will make you pause before proceeding! Not that it kept us away, but you definitely want to think twice about going into an area with a sign like this. I should note that the ghost town is NOT off limits to visitors. It just does have some dangers and they want to make sure people are aware of that.
And some video ofrackham having fun with a random fellow hiker, pushing the old railroad turntable (he's the one in the red).
Part of the old ghost town. It was just the perfect day to do this... clear skies, sun shining, but still not too hot.
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. If you look closely, you can see a hiker just reaching the far end of the log. The water was surprisingly deep, so this really was the only dry and safe way to get across.
The entire hike was just that insanely beautiful, BTW. Hence all the photos!!
About an hour and a half of hiking later, we got to see some of the fun old signs for the town. If you hadn't guessed, it was a fairly remote mining town.
This next sign is the sort that will make you pause before proceeding! Not that it kept us away, but you definitely want to think twice about going into an area with a sign like this. I should note that the ghost town is NOT off limits to visitors. It just does have some dangers and they want to make sure people are aware of that.
And some video of
rackham having fun with a random fellow hiker, pushing the old railroad turntable (he's the one in the red).Part of the old ghost town. It was just the perfect day to do this... clear skies, sun shining, but still not too hot.
