Re: Middle Fork of San Joaquin Trails...

I've taken two hikes into the Sierra National Forest and both involved trails that were being allowed to disappear. The first was from the Granite Creek Trailhead down the south wall of the Middle Fork of the SanJoaquin to the bridge at Cassidy Crossing, or Lower Miller Crossing. The trail disappears once you reach the rim of the canyon. It's steep and not too hard to intuit where the trail goes. However, there is a book out about the Theodore Solomons trail, a lower parallel trail to the John Muir Trail. It's also called the California Riding and Hiking Trail. I may have not understood the book, but I don't think a horse could get up and down the canyon walls. The hike up is the same - the trail hasn't been maintained in 10 to 20 years. I spent an hour looking for where the trail left the river to head up the wall. I hiked for three or four miles on trail that came and went before turning around.

The meadow on the south side of the river is gorgeous - the perfect camp spot, or quarter mile of potential camp spots.

On the way back I thought I'd cross the river at Miller Crossing, upstream of the Cassidy Bridge. The map has a trail going from a junction near Rattlesnake Lake along the canyon rim to a trail descending to Miller Crossing. The trail disappears in a small flat of big trees and big fallen trees, and doesn't reappear til the canyon rim and the trail down. I saw more bear scat in the half mile hike through Cassidy Meadows after the big tree forest than I'd ever seen. There were at least 50 piles of poop, and probably lots more. I don't know why as I didn't see anything for a bear to eat.

Even though the trail was non-existent, or I'd totally lost it, the route was pretty obvious from the map. When I reached the little stream the trail was supposed to cross I was jubilant.

The trail down from the rim is totally treacherous, and again, more intuited than visible.

THERE IS NO BRIDGE at Miller Crossing. There is a little cart that slides back and forth on a 3/4" cable from 10' high platforms. I think it's for the water people - there's a shed on the north side. The trail up comes and goes, but is hard to lose. Once up on the rim the trail appears again.

Here's a link to that trip. It's long, so beware!

http://jjolson.org/MiddleForkSanJoaquin2010-2.htm

Jeff...



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 07/31/2012 09:55AM by Jeffrey Olson.

Interesting trip, thanks for posting! The area across the bridge from Cassidy Crossing certainly looks like a real nice campsite (did you see signs of usage there? it kind of looked like an impacted site), though I have the same feelings toward Poison Oak as you do.

The flat area just east of the Cassidy Bridge is sandy, flat, and well-shaded with giant pine trees and Maples. I think at the height of the flood - 100 year storm is my guess - the flats get washed. This is not true for the Crossing upstream - Miller Crossing. There are two well-established horse camps at least, with shelves and benchs and fire pits and garbage...

Jeff.