Today’s hike was a “return to the woods” hike. I had eye surgery a couple of weeks ago and was required to take it easy for 2-3 weeks. I haven’t hiked Alder Swamp since last year and I’ve been curious how it fared over the winter. It is a reasonably easy hike, so it seemed like a good option.

Since it was going to be a shorter day, we headed out a little later than usual. We got to the bridge across the Hot Springs Fork and found a car parked there. There were several people camping at the Little Fan Campground. We suited up and headed across the bridge and up the hill to find the beginning of the route – this first spot has been wiped out by landslides over the years. Kirk and I did some tread work a few years ago to cut in some “steps” into the hill around the slide and I was happy to see that they were still mostly intact. It isn’t great in this first short spot, but it works. I never wanted to put too much effort into it because I’m pretty sure at some point it will wash out again.

We made it past the slide/washout and continued west. There was no new significant stuff on the trail. There was a bit of expected debris which we cleared in a few spots. When we got to the corner (where you get the great view of the Hot Springs Fork), we found quite a mess – a rotten tree had fallen over the corner of the trail and had LOTS of debris along with it. Zack and I spent a while cleaning up what we could. We were able to remove some broken pieces further down the trail, but the one right at the corner was too big to move – it will require a saw:

The viewpoint of the Hot Springs fork was getting a bit overgrown, so Zack cut some limbs which opened up the view quite a bit – here is the view after some cleanup:

And I took a video of the Hot Springs Fork – it was running pretty wild:

The rest of the trip I didn’t take too many pictures. We encountered a few spots where debris or small trees had come down and we were able to clear them with my handsaw and loppers (glad I brought the loppers!) All in all, it wasn’t bad at all – I was happy to see minimal damage to the trail.

We got up to the swamp, and cleared a few messes around the swamp and continued on. The benchmark in the tree at the swamp is still there (but the tree rots a bit more each year) and the benchmark at Cat Creek is still there as well. I hung a flag a while back and removed the moss that was covering it.

We continued down the trail, clearing debris as we found it, although there wasn’t a ton of it. When we got close to the triple insulator tree, I asked Zack if he had seen it, and he couldn’t remember. We stopped and after seeing it, he said he hadn’t seen it before. I’d love to know what the glass insulators were for – I can’t imagine it was electricity – maybe it was for a “regular” phone line?

After looking at the triple insulator tree for a bit, we headed over the hill to pick up the trail on the other side. We skipped a short section of tread but soon continued down the trail. It wasn’t too long before we made it to the “end” – where the trail takes a turn down to the flat area above the river and mostly disappears. We’ve searched thru there for tread and have found small bits and pieces in there, but nothing much. Kirk also spent quite a while looking for insulators down there and didn’t find any. We think we know where it crossed the river over to Kingfisher, but there isn’t much in the way of evident tread left.

At this junction we headed right (instead of left where the trail headed down to the flat) and walked out to the river. This was our lunch spot:

We ate lunch and were surprised at how many vehicles were heading to Bagby on road 70 (across the river). After eating lunch, we packed up and headed back. When we were part way back, I took a picture of this segment of trail – I just liked it – very calm and serene:

We made good time on the way back since we cleared all the downed stuff on the way in. We got back to the truck a little after 2. It was a short but nice day and I was really happy to see that Alder Swamp has survived another winter with very little damage!