Arctic Mine

 On the way to the trailhead, our carpool just missed hitting a young bear which was loping across highway 20.  Quite an amazing sight!

camouflaged

ball mill

Twelve of us hiked up the Arctic Mine for the first time since June of  '09...you can check the old posting and see if you were there.  This time the weather was a lot cooler but other than that, the hike was similar.  Arctic Mine is accessed by Maybert Rd in Washington.  Some of us parked at the Gold Quartz picnic area and we hiked up the dirt road from there.  At Canyon Creek the bridge was out just as last time and just as last time John and Frank (this time) made a bridge over the boulders with a heavy plank that was lying around.  After we crossed, we pulled up the plank so no one could disassemble the bridge.  Arctic Mine is at the head of the canyon and made a good place for lunch with its Canyon Creek view and the steep black high rock outcroppings that narrowed the canyon.

After lunch a few of us decided to explore up further.  The trail was on an old steep road.  We went up fairly high, almost to a pass that would take us to Bowman Lake, many miles away.  The rest of the group went back to the creek where some reconstructed the bridge and thankfully left it there for the rest of us.  We all returned to the cars at about 3, having hiked 7 or 8 miles.

walking the plank

Next week there will probably be two hikes.  One will meet at the usual place at 9 and possibly to Rice Crossing.  The other will meet at our house at 9 and go out by Colfax to the American River.  The hike will be steep with a challenging river crossing (plank with no rails) at one point.  I have included Frank's description:

Ellen and I have hiked most of this, but not all. On the attached map (Canyon Creek.JPG) there is a road going to point #2. We have hiked most of that during the winter with snow on the ground. We have hiked from the end to point #1 when we realized that things didn’t look familiar so I turned on the GPS and found us way off course. We turned back and walked across the Gravel Mine where we really did not belong. Looking at the little GPS screen we did not realize how close we were to the road. This is a fascinating hike with a number of slot canyons deep pools and waterfalls. I have not been all the way down to the American River because it was VERY hot the day we hiked this. When we first cross the Canyon Creek a 2x12 crosses a narrow canyon with rushing water below. For many, this is a very scary crossing. I’ve also attached a land ownership map showing what land is owned by the BLM (yellow) The following two links describe this trail much better than I could.

http://northforktrails.blogspot.com/2007/10/visits-to-canyon-creek-and-giant-gap.html

http://northforktrails.blogspot.com/2004/12/return-to-canyon-creek.html