Gary-Summer: May 8, 2019 - Azalea Trail to Park Ridge Lookout

Wednesday, May 8, 2019

May 8, 2019 - Azalea Trail to Park Ridge Lookout

Title: May 8, 2019 - Azalea Trail to Park Ridge Lookout
Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's : Flowers and Plants

Trail head: S outh B oundary T rail H ead

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking

Trail: Azalea Trail

Destination: Park Ridge Lookout

Distance: 5.50 miles

Start Time: 12:02

End Time: 6:05

Travel Time: 6:02 (0.91 mph)

Moving Time: 4:35 (1.20 mph)

Elevation Rise: 1,474'

Descent: 1,306‘

Maximum Elevation: 7,538'

GPS Track s

Description:

We sort of doddled around this morning. While we left earlier than yesterday, it was still 10:15 by the time the garage door closed. Sherri is driving and we are heading towards Grant Grove. The idea is to go up to Panorama Pt and hike the Park Ridge Trail to the Lookout.

But first we stop in Dunlap, but the coffee place at Clingman’s Junction is closed. So we continue on up and stop at the Visitor Center for a bathroom break. Sherri also gets some info about backpacking into Paradise Valley. Does not look promising.

So we continue on, but the gate to Panorama Point is closed. But this does not stop us, only delays us. We go to the trailhead at the South Boundary Trail. Across the highway is Azalea Trail. This goes up to the top of Park Ridge where we can follow a trail to Park Ridge Lookout.

We get our boots on and start hiking after 11:45. Right away we get an inkling of what we are facing. Much debris covers the trail. Also some branches which needs to be gotten over or gone around. But all of this is pretty passable. The trail goes up a ways, hits the the top of a little rise and descends slightly into a little soggy meadow. This is just the start.

Little unnamed creek

After about half of a mile, we leave the Wilsonia area and continue our climb. There is a little unnamed creek which will eventually flow into Sequoia Creek over Ella Falls and into Sequoia Lake. This creek we will follow for a a ways as we climb Park Ridge.

Considering my last two years of hiking, anytime I climb, I get out of breath and fatigued, I am doing OK today-definitely better than I have been doing. Still not what I visualize myself when I walk. Sherri later on makes a comment that “the natural order of the words has been restored.” I suppose by this she means that today I am walking pretty good, or Sherri is struggling. Because we have not had lunch and will not have it until we get to the top of the ridge, it may be more that Sherri is losing energy at a faster clip than I am doing.

Gary going over log

The path is going upwards, more than I really remember. But by taking it slowly and taking lots of breaths, I am doing well. When following the creek, we seem to be free of snow. But there are trees to climb over. After we climb away from the creek, we start hitting patches of snow. For the most part, the trail is pretty easy to follow, even covered by the snow.

Sherri and a patch of snow

When we got to the top of the ridge, there is a trail junction. We stopped there for our lunch. We needed it-at least I devoured my sandwich. Then it is off, going along the Park Ridge Trail. Not sure if this is a good choice or not. Depends on how much snow there is. If lots, it will be easy to lose the trail vs the road which will be easy to find.

As it turns out, my apprehension is overblown. Yes, there is patches of snow which we are wandering through, but between seeing the trail on the dirt between patches and the ski markers, we keep pretty much on the trail’s route. Some of the path is on a good slant. If it was icy or slushy, we would have gone skidding. But the snow is pretty firm and holds us.

Sherri and Gary

In a short ways, we start our final climb to the lookout. The road is mostly covered with snow, but not deep. It is good to get back to Park Ridge, even if it is just to look from the outside. The lookout is still shuttered and waiting to be occupied. But that may not happen until well into next month.

Almost to the lookut

Park Ridge Lookout

The Road

After munching on a Clif Bar, and taking a few pictures, it is time to start heading back. It is getting a bit late and the clouds are billowing around us. So if something breaks loose, we do not want to be out, particularly in the dark. We will go back via the road till the junction for two reasons:

To get a feel for the condition of the road, and
Just because it gives us a different route back.

As we go down the road, it becomes more and more snow covered until we only rarely see the ground. A few trees are down on the road as well. Through openings in the forest, we are able to see across to the north of the Kings River. Just a flat out nice sight. But the main thing here is the snow just keeps a coming. After awhile, the plodding through the snow is taxing on our muscles and energy.

Fortunately, it was just about a mile and a half walk on the road and the snow was relatively stable so we did not post hole very much. Once we got back to the junction, we had a quick bite to each before starting down. Our return trip was uneventful, even though it was slower than anticipated-probably because of being tired.

It felt good getting back to the car with daylight still available, even though the shadows were a bit long at that point and the cool air was definitely setting in. We decided that we would stop at Bear Mountain Pizza for dinner-ordered a medium half meat lovers and half Hawaiian. Was hungry and it tasted good. We got back home around 8pm.

Background

The report I filed with interested people from the Buck Rock Foundation:

Today Sherri and I took a hike up the Azalea Trail to Park Ridge Lookout. The road to Pan Pt is still closed so could not go over the Park Ridge Trail. We went up the Azalea Trail until we got to the top of the ridge. Then followed the trail along the ridge until just before PRLO. We continued our walk to PRLO. Then we took the road back to the Azalea Trail and back to the car on the highway-South Boundary Trail trailhead.

PRLO: From the bottom, it looked like it was in good shape. We did not go up on the catwalk or the stairs, but looking at things from the bottom, it looked pretty good. The covers were still on the windows.

Road from PRLO to Azalea Trail:

Trees
- I counted five trees across the road. Most were about a hands width.
  - One was about 3-4' across.
- A couple more were buried in the snow. I could not tell how big they were.
Snow
- Covered about 80% of the road from PRLO to the Azalea Trail
- it looked like the depth was 2-4'. But there was some 5' drifts.
Debris
- Towards the trail junction there was a lot of debris
- Top of snow looked pretty clean0unknown underneath.

Observations:

The road we walked was on the east side of the ridge and was pretty shaded.
The trail on the west side of the ridge had patchy snow and looked like it was only a max of about 2' deep
- Much of the road is on the west side of the ridge, so that section may not be covered as much
Rain is forecasted the next five days with fairly warm temperatures. That should melt some of the snow.
While we found patches of snow close to the highway, 6500'. Most of the major snow was started 6900-7000'
Much of the debris and logs were closer to the trail junction than PRLO.