OPEN? Yes open, not just another tease or bit of misinformation. I went up Sunday to check things out. Because of being up until 8 am Sunday morning, thanks to Calico don't you know, I got a late start. I finished airing down just before 7pm at the staging area just across the T6 crossing.
Heading in, the area is still a mess from the beetle abatement but once you get down near the creek the effects of the fire is what you notice. The Aspen along the banks appear to have not taken to much of a hit, at least in this area. The wild flowers are heavier than they were prior to the fire, a couple of more seasons and they will have taken over the forest floor.
The trail shows the effects of the fire two ways. One is obviously the damage to the plant life, which in turn has allowed for run off to make its mark on many areas of the trail itself. The first turn after the crossing has more loose and/or taller rocks having caused traffic to hug the outside line :cough pansies:. Unlike before the rocky area extends another 35+ yards beyond the face climb on the back side of the bend.
http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a90/TBentley/DSC03002.jpg
Looking down to the creek near the top of the first ridge.
There are many new ruts running down the trail
Exiting ruts have grown, some (not shown because of darkness) have grown enough so swallow some rigs. There are turns that have had the down hill half washed out completely.
The main attraction, the "waterfall" still has the same two primary lines. The bottom of the climb, down at the turn has many more exposed rocks in various flavors.
As you can clearly see in the photograph below,if you choose to dogleg right to left midway up the climb to the rock face, there in a new and improved canyon to get around or through.
I got as far as the two rocks, shown just to right of center in the above photo when I had to rethink plan. I'm not exactly sure which, I rolled one up into my PS front brake line. I really didn't notice until I went to back up to try to get a little more to the right. The floorboard will surprise the snot out of a brake pedal, in the rocks, on a hill, in the dark, alone.
The inner fender offered up the second clue as to where things went awry.
It turned out that the hit only spun the brake line and retaining nut on the caliper. I was able to spin it back and retighten things without having to replace the copper washers; yes I had spares, I'm not entirely stupid.
After getting back down onto a flat area, I was able to get the line bled out (into a container), MC topped off and be ready to hit the trail again. After ten minutes of one on one debate with myself, consultation of my passenger, the map and GPS it was decided to turn around return another
day for an assault on the hill. I was back on asphalt, reconnected and aired up by midnight; not bad, all things considered. Oh, there was also a brief conversation with a Sheriff who for some reason, looked at me rather strangely, hmmm, go figure.
:dunno:
TIM