Moments in Dirt and Ink

Dixie National Forest (map link) Signal Peak is a major peak in the south part of the Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness, the highest point in Washington County, and looked like a good climb to me. One approach is via Oak Grove although as the summer heats up, the route from Browns Point becomes more popular. The road to Oak Grove is a well maintained graded dirt and the trailhead is full of informational signs including a cut wood map. The trailhead in Oak Grove Campground. The map is the middle sign behind the fence. It is sunny and threatening to be warm already as I start, but I am quickly among the oaks. Above, it is hard to see where the trail might be going. Largely, there seem to be cliffs. Panorama of the cliffs above. Signal Peak is off the ridge to the left.

Dixie National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 After an amazing light show and rain off and on through the night, I make a lazy start in the morning. The nearby meadow area lets in some sun to try to dry everything and it is mostly there by the time to pack up. Crossing the meadow, there is a deer path to follow downward, at least at first. It does not drop very fast, so I make my own way getting my shoes wet in grasses along the way. The trail is easy to locate again just on the other side of the creek. I still do not see the extra trail indicated on my map. At the sign for Anderson Valley, I turn down the third trail. It crosses a narrow arm of meadow and runs into trail leading both up and down the edge of the meadow. Perhaps this is the rest of the indicated junction. If it is, the right side will go back to where I was and the left will go where I want to go. It does not feel right, though. I head left, which is entirely the wrong direction...

Dixie National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 It rained a little in the night, although not enough to need the deployed extra protection. The hoof prints I was following yesterday head off along the edge of the lake and no longer show the way. The trail south is hard to find. It is possible I would have had better luck finding trail if I had followed these prints just a little further, but there is a sign on this end of Big Water, so it seems logical to think the junction is somewhere near it. There is a nice trail leading from it, but it quickly turns into unmistakable cow path. The map suggests I should exit the meadow in a different direction, so I head out to another trail which dwindles and drop down to another until I am finally exiting the meadow in the right direction. It seems a well established path, but it is still a cow path. A perfectly good trail for now. The path I am following comes to a low saddle and through the similar vall...