Philpot Waterfall and Plummer Peak Lookout
Shasta-Trinity National Forest
Click for map
I needed water and hadn't been able to fill up at Hell Gate Campground (the first spigot was dry and the second added "dangerous" flagging), so I eyed the dry creek bed at Philpot with great consternation. Philpot was once campground, now signed as "Philpot Picnic Area", but returned to campground status again with a fresh "14 day stay limit" sign. I was there for the short Philpot Creek Interpretive Trail. Built after a fire to showcase the changes resulting from that, it now just showcases the decay of an interpretive trail. It finishes at a little waterfall, which keeps people coming back, and caused a bit of disappointment to mix with my consternation. However, it was a bit too cool in that pocket of land to believe the dry creek bed. A little investigation showed some water still remains.
The trail looked scruffy at first, but it is quite distinct along the route. The lower part of the trail has been claimed for the south end of East Tule Creek Trail, but a few numbered posts remain to show its real allegiance as the trail makes a way near the creek.
About halfway along, there's a short trail connecting to parking up on the the road. First there's a shortcut that gets directly to the climbing East Tule Creek Trail, then there's the good trail adorned with warnings about entering a burned area. This is for the Peak Fire (Fork Complex) in 2015, not the one that inspired the interpretive trail about 40 years ago in the 1980s.
Soon, the route left the trees although it stayed right next to the water. The sun was already warm.
And then there's the waterfall. As is typical, the hard rocks that make the waterfall also serve to push whatever water is flowing to the surface. At this time of year, that's not a lot of water.
Waterfall seen, albeit in rather meager form, I could start on the secondary goal of the day: hiking East Fork Tule Creek. The creek it is named for is along the north end and occurs on a list of hike suggestions around Hayfork as a route up to Plummer Peak. I thought I'd take that, but also check out this side as it is part of the Bigfoot Trail. This side is shorter, so the peak bagging, which is a side spur, would come with this hike.
The part of the trail that is not borrowed from the old interpretive trail is steep and rutted. The map shows some little wiggles around the ridge edge, but there's none of that on the ground now. I'd seen some flags and thought maybe I'd missed something better, but short investigation turned up nothing usable. I would just have to climb the steep.
The trail crosses the road with a jog off to the left. From the crossing, the view is almost as good. There's just a ridge and trail and a few trees more in the near portions of it. The next bit of trail does not relent.
Since I was on the Bigfoot Trail, I figured I ought to pay some attention to at least one conifer.
The trail crosses the road again, but that's where I was getting off. There's another mile on road to the top. It promises to be much easier. In fact, I could have driven up in my little car. There is a sign faded to near invisibility at the start of the road claiming one needs permission to drive up to the lookout, but the gate is only locked seasonally on this "administrative use only" road.
This is a professionally staffed fire lookout in season. This particular lookout likes to leave the grate down to allow taking laps around the building while trying to spot smoke, so you've got to get permission to come up. I went spotting benchmarks and having lunch in the shade of the lookout first. I even had enough signal to get a weather report. It said I was lucky to be up here today because it was going to get even hotter for the next three days. Everywhere was looking at 10-20F degrees above normal for at least a week.
But I did get to go up and even got to squint through to the crosshairs of the Osborne fire finder. Looking out to decidedly dry Chanchelulla Peak, I decided that the Wilderness wouldn't be on the itinerary of this trip after all.
Then it was down again. I finally found the second reference mark, forgot to try to find the geocache, and decided to zoom down the road instead of the steep ridge. The lookout believes the firefighters use that ridge for training and I have to admit, it checks out. It certainly is the sort of thing they would use. The road is a mile longer, but still faster and easier.
At the on road parking, I popped over to the trail instead of road for the final stretch.
I still needed some water. Rather than collect from the tiny North Fork along which I'd been hiking, I investigated the main stem of Philpot Creek which it ends in on the far side of the campground. There was a lot more water flowing down that one. The area was way too cool to be from just that little fork.
*photo album*
©2024 Valerie Norton
Written 31 Oct 2024
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Comments
The severe erosion of the Tule Cr. Tr. is unfortunate. To me, it shows signs of past motorcycle use. But running a trail right up a ridgeline is always problematic. Just invites erosion. It would take a lot of labor to drain the trail properly.
I guess that doesn't say the subject is the burn recovery, but that would be an in flux subject. Plants are a popular subject, but they tend to move around a bit. Fundamentally, the interpretive trail is embedded in a changing landscape and this will lead to its downfall over some unknowable time. Even if the area doesn't change much, the knowledge base it was derived from might. Maintenance is specialized and the person who set it up and had the expertise was probably only on for a summer or otherwise loosely affiliated.
Since I stopped at Hayfork Ranger Station on the weekend (closed) and only had the Natural Bridge literature in mind at the time, I don't know if you can get any of this anymore. These days, there should be a PDF online. Actually, an e-book might be a better form. There's a page for these trails, Philpot and Natural Bridge, but no links to literature.
I love the level of engagement that is required of the descriptive version like the Redwood EdVentures, but there is a learning curve so they probably won't be your first interpretive trail. They're much less visible. They really need at least one big bold sign at the start to say they are there and give a link to the literature. Even if the area has no cell service, it serves to remind those who prepped and inform those who might be coming back. I'd have been able to download literature at the peak for when I came back down, for instance. They still suffer from unforeseen changes.
I don't know the answer. A mix is probably good. Interpretive trails with extensive signs are more expensive to set up, but each stop will last as long as that sign. Engagement: low. Accessibility: high. Not very flexible to go into extensive details. Trails with posts and nearby brochures are accessible when the brochures are there and not waterlogged. That Agents of Discovery app could be on the right track if the execution was a whole lot better.
And that answer was way too long.
Oh, the erosion could just as easily be from legal bicycles. Some of that trail was place your foot wrong and slip slightly and end up on the ground sliding more steep. I don't doubt there's be a fool or two on a motorcycle, though.
Actually, to make PDF files, the very first thing that would have to happen would be for someone in the F.S. to care, and it's not clear that there's anyone who does, who's in a position to take on the job. These trails are part of a very long list of projects that quickly fell into neglect. The F.S. reflects the character of Americans at large--we're good at starting flashy new projects, but really bad at maintaining the facilities that we already have.
I don't suppose it would be all that hard to repair and replace the numbered posts. But it's more labor than anyone's likely to devote.
I concur that one big bold sign at the start would be a very good thing. Visitors could either download and save a PDF file in advance, or print it, or get a printed copy from a F.S. office. The Redwood EdVentures brochures are quite nice.
The post-fire ecologic features that one would want to interpret will have changed through the years, yes. But the ripple effects of the fire will remain visible for many decades. I have in mind, for example, the fact that prior to the Mt. St. Helens eruption in our lifetime, the surrounding mature trees were all about 300 years old. It turns out that the last previous major eruption was...about 300 years before!
That bicycles might have contributed to the gullying of the trail makes sense. But again, it's just asking for trouble to route a trail right on top of a ridgeline. Even moderate foot and horse traffic very often leads to problems. To be fair, it's perhaps unlikely that anyone in the past few hundred years deliberately created a ridgetop trail here. Routes like this tend to follow very old Indian trails that were never substantially "improved" through construction.
I'm sure that at least once, I found an interpretive trail whose online description included a link to the brochure. It was years ago, so every time I look and don't find a link, I'm very disappointed. I have gathered a huge pile of disappointment from this. While posts for the interpretive trail might not be hard to obtain, getting them to the right places might be difficult.