Kelsey Range: Bear Lake
Klamath National Forest
DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3
Orange line for day 1. Click for map.
I took the easier (and likely shorter even if coming from southwest like I was) road out of Norcross to Happy Camp where I could check the most recent forest orders (because it is disconcerting to find that after 5 days, no one has obscured your tire tracks with their own) and then followed another road marked "Kelsey National Recreation Trail" on the map and signed Bear Mountain Road to the eastern end of South Kelsey Trail. Ever in search of a loop, I thought about getting in some of the Clear Creek Trail too, but the line I was looking at to connect the loops is just the wilderness boundary. Clear Creek Trail is the southern boundary of the Slater and Devil Fire closure anyway, although the closure map indicates the trailhead itself is open. This was planned as a rest day, but I figured it would be more likely I got the little extras I wanted if I added the afternoon to the hike and did the 2.5 miles to Bear Lake hitting Bear Peak on the way. I was repacked by 2PM and took off.
The trailhead is "Elbow Springs" (or "Elbo" on the sign next to the springs) and I looked for water as I went by. I only saw willowy things and a sort of dirt hollow that can often be found around springs. It was barely muddy. Maybe there's something lower. Trail hits the ridge and a fuel break and climbs directly at an ever increasing slope until finally giving in and having one little switchback (missed by most) before breaking around the upcoming peak. I marveled at how an exposed south face of a mountain could have so many ferns as I followed the trail to a saddle and then through a series of wiggles that almost don't merit the term switchbacks. The dirt is loose and sandy and instead of flowing back a bit, they just sort of suddenly climb and level off again.
It quickly became obvious that I would be more aware of the surrounding fires on this hike than on the previous two. To the north, great gobs of Slater smoke were billowing off to sea. To the southeast, a new puff could be seen adding to the rest of Red Salmon's production. I broke off from the wide, soft trail to hike along the ridge to the peak, finding better footing and ever increasing views including more clarity on the murk.
I found one of Bob Burd's registers at the top. (He calls this hike as one of the best of the area for the open views.) First to find! Well, if I was geocaching. I added my name to the nearly empty book and tucked it away where I found it and proceeded to look for the benchmark. I only found a large old cairn that was mostly dismantled. There should be a station and two references from 1928 and a bonus benchmark from 1915. There is even an azimuth mark from 1952, but finding the cedar with a triangle blaze to locate it might be hard. The most recent bulldozer probably went to the south of the peak and not much past. They're good for making benchmarks go missing, but the cairn has surveyor trash among its rocks.
I wasn't too thrilled to see all the burned trees around Bear Lake, but I picked out where I would most prefer to camp along the northeast edge anyway. I mean, I was going down there. That's where the water is.
I continued along the ridge to the west with the brush sometimes giving a little resistance. Knee high manzanita usually can't quite block travel. I got back to the trail by the junction and found some lovely new signs at the trail down to Bear Lake.
I turned down it finding the trail nice at first, but quickly devolving into a steep, wiggly trail. There is a higher pond on the map and I found a little trail off to the side marked by a cairn where I would expect to break off for that. The trail took a little rest from dropping after that and when I looked back, I could see the shelf for the pond was a lovely green thing. It looked a lot more attractive than the lake below, so I climbed back up and tried out the trail. The next "cairn" I found was actually a campfire ring. Still, I pushed on and found some more trail, cairns, cuts. The pond has had frequent visits and bear helps out in making trail. There was a lot of bear sign too.
I was along the edge for a bit since that is the least brushy. I popped over a little hill to a small camp site that looked delightful. Unfortunately, the pond itself was completely dry. That did make it easier to remember where the trail was for the return trip.
The camp by the trail wasn't all that good, so I decided not to stop there and just go down for water. I returned to the briefly flatter trail before it turned downward, steeper than before. I decided I would stop at the next camp, provided there was one. There was and it was actually rather pretty sitting above the lake about the same level as the pond. The trees around it are short and green and not the least bit threatening of falling over. Brewers spruce, which is quite recognizable by the drooping branches and I'm getting to quite like.
After dropping off my gear, I continued down with water gathering supplies and my headlamp just in case. The trail got even steeper. It even found a rock gully with foot holds getting worn into it. Others must not share my perception of the trail, though. There were road apples from a horse at the bottom. Maybe there's a sort of trail below all the way to Clear Creek? The sign was for "Bear Lakes". Maybe this is the route to make a loop? It wasn't just big, grassy bear scat. It was definitely equine. Some horses are quite tough. I thought I could see trail around the side, but most were taking a short climb up a rock and over to the camp, so I followed that. The camp was right where I picked from the mountain above and the view of the lake from it not bad at all.
I got my water from the lake and it was surprisingly good for lake water. I filtered some right there because I didn't have enough dirty water bags for all that I wanted. Then it was right back up to my camp in sufficient time that the headlamp wasn't needed. I was feeling pretty good about the camp I ended up in so long as it didn't get too windy. The smoke of Slater was making it obvious winds were coming out of the inland areas, but it took a warm breeze to the face to remember that might mean a hot day coming. Santa Anas. Or not, this far from Santa Ana and without the desert to source the winds. Warmer than that stuff off Alaska anyway.
Oh, yes, I was definitely liking my little camp.
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I know of no real accurate GPS track for the West Fork Clear Creek Tr. Climbing out of Willis Hole, yes. After that, no. I do know that the route of the trail differs radically from what many maps show. Like by a full mile. A good source for the most recent reports of trail conditions in this neighborhood is the Siskiyou Mountain Club's record of the status of work it has performed, at https://siskiyoumountainclub.org/trailfinder/ . From that page, follow the link, "Check out the updated work log here."
Looking again at Bob Burd's GPS tracks, I think that right at the point of leaving the Elbow Spring Trailhead, he followed a fire line rather than the correct trail, and that I got misled by that. So the flagging you saw was probably a good thing.
"Maybe there's a sort of trail below all the way to Clear Creek? The sign was for "Bear Lakes". Maybe this is the route to make a loop?"
Let me know how that works out for you, LOL.
It is my impression that Bob Burd is prone to just going up, but in that case it could just be the GPS was still settling. The flagging waited a little before starting and it really was unmistakable trail. The sign is in a bulldozed flat on the side of the hill with trail behind it.
I'd be more likely to try the ridge as well. Valleys are just so prone to getting choked out with willows and other really difficult vegetation. I gave that exact ridge a 30 second look over and decided it was probably doable. If I was actually going to do it, I'd want to give it a much longer look. It looks like there are some wide areas down at the bottom of that ridge. I saw that there was once trail down into Bear Valley as well, although also just to the highest pond as far as the 15' is concerned. Now direction... down is usually much faster and you can see better over a distance, but up is often much safer. The map claims the last mile to No Mans Trailhead is 4x4, so I have to hike extra to use that one.
Your creeks are too big! I mean, I haven't found myself shouting into the roar that there is no &%#$ bridge on this thing that is clearly a river like I did in Colorado on meeting one crossing of Snowmass Creek, but still. Who has this much water flowing across the ground? And it isn't like these mountains are any more stable than the ones down south. The creeks drop at a crazy pace downward from their start then sort of go on forever on a level. The landscape is nuts, yet somehow there's this lightly rolling ridge to travel through it all.