Well, I'm back. I hurt insanely. Got off to a real late start Sunday of course. Forgot the camera of course, so all I have are a few lousy photos from my cell before it died. Alder Creek Trail and Sespe River Trail are part of the proposed Condor Trail. No signs of large predators but I did catch a bobcat track. Avery chased lizards, horned toads, squirrel and quail.
First you had to park 5 miles from the trailhead and hike in. The road will probably not be open until May. Alder Creek Trail is initially in good shape and climbs from 2400 to 3700 feet, plateaus for a while then drops like a rock to 2400 ft for a couple miles, This later section is barely visible and crosses the creek numerous times when it isn't actually in the creek.
Then it meets Sespe River Trail. I take that for the next four miles. That trail climbs quickly right up the spine of a mountain until you reach a saddle. It is badly eroded and overgrown but you are rewarded at the top with a view of the Sespe River Valley that is jaw dropping.
The trip down the other side is downright dangerous, a narrow trail etched out of the side of a steep mountain flank. For 2.5 miles you have about 3-4 ft wide flat trail, frequently interrupted by talus slides. Many places you are literally one misstep from catastrophe. One such spot was worse than the rest where a landslide had taken out 30 ft of the trail. The "bypass" for this was to climb up and over the slide on a trail that was just a slightly flattened path on the talus. There was nothing to hang on to, nothing to stop you if you fell and nothing that would hold a rope. One slip and you'd inexorably slide down the steep talus slope and right over a hundred foot cliff.
Managed to make it all the way to Sespe River. Followed the trail upstream for a quarter mile until it disappeared into an area where a talus slope intersected dense wetland shrubbery. After a hundred yards of that I gave up from exhaustion and pitched second camp back where it was clear. Next day was purely recovery, texted my wife by SPoT communicator of my change of plans and then I returned a day early.
I am not going down that last stretch of trail again. Ever. That landslide is just too dangerous. I was determined enough to try it once but my survival instinct has since kicked in. It is the kind of thing one can do easily 99 times out of a hundred and then step on the wrong rock (or have gravity take THAT particular time to start another slide) and die on number 100.
I'm not young and immortal any more. Hopefully I'm not too old to learn.
No shortage of water this time of year.
First day trail camp:
One of the rarely used campsites on Alder Creek
This is what most of the Alder Creek trail looked like.
Avery on one of the better patches of trail.
Sespe River Valley
Second and third day camp at the river.
