Today’s hike was kind of a spur of the moment “get out in the woods” hike. I had been reading about all the work the Orogenesis group did on the Rho Ridge, Burnt Granite and Rho Creek trails, so I thought I’d head up Rho Creek to see what they did. Last time I was up here, the trail was not bad with only a couple of logs on it as I recall.

We headed out about the usual time and made good time up to the trailhead. We got there around 10:30, suited up and headed up the trail. One interesting note: When we drove down 4671, there were two white pickups not too far off of 4670. I was curious what that was about – neither had Forest Service markings on it.

The trail is constantly gaining altitude, but I feel like I’m improving in my stamina – I wasn’t as winded going up this trail as I have been. When we got up the trail a half mile or so, we got to one of my favorite spots – I love the old growth – I’ve taken this same picture a bunch of times but it never gets old:

A bit farther up the trail we get to the spot where Rho Creek and Tumble Creek join together – for a long time I thought this was just a split of Rho Creek but recently realized this is the confluence of the two:

We continued up the trail – it was in really good shape – there were a couple of spots where I could see where some tread work had been done recently. When we got up to the spot where the trail parallels Rho Creek, running above it, I took this photo of this beautiful old trail:

We continued up the trail and I can’t pass the weird Fadeaway spring without taking a picture:

We got to the 4672 road crossing and continued up. There was a lot of evidence of brushing out on this initial ramp up from the road – it had been pretty brushy before. We continued up the trail and noticed a few new cut logs. We soon got up on the relatively flat area and continued. When we got to the old post and sign at the junction of the Rho Creek and Hunter Creek trail – I noticed a new sign someone had hung there – I’m guessing they must have found it on the ground – too bad you can’t read it any longer:

Shortly after that junction, the trail crosses the beginning of Rho Creek – the work done last weekend cut out a rotten log but it had the effect of damming up the creek, making what used to be a pretty shallow crossing now 6-8″ deep – fortunately, you can step on the cut log sections to keep your feet dry:

Not too far past this crossing, there is a trail junction with the trail coming down from Bear Camp. The Orogenesis guys blocked the continuation of the trail to the old Rho Creek Guard Station – I guess they have decided that the trail down from Bear Camp is the best route for them. I think that might cause some issues since the trail goes right thru that campsite and the campsite is pretty popular. I guess time will tell.

We continued up the trail and soon got to the old Rho Meadow Guard Station. This seemed like a good spot to stop and have some lunch. After a quick lunch, we continued up the trail and soon came to the end of the official tread and then followed the rough route up to the junction with the Rho Ridge trail at the old decommissioned road (that isn’t on the map). We walked out the end of the Rho Ridge trail to Graham Pass. We walked over to the parking area. I noticed this sign on the tree – I’ve seen it before but never really looked at is too close – It is warning about the burned area but I was shocked it has no English on it – I think it is all in Spanish:

As we were walking back, I saw this really nice flashlight laying on the 6350 road – it still worked, although it needs new batteries:

We headed back the same way we came. The trip back was pretty uneventful, but when we got to the Tumble Creek crossing I went down to the creek to take some pictures (instead of just crossing on the log). Here is a small waterfall at the crossing:

And a video of the waterfall:

We got back to the truck before 2:30 and since it was still kind of early, I thought I’d head up to the Burnt Granite crossing on 4650 to see what work they’d done there. The lower end of the upper portion of the Burnt Granite trail (above the 4650 road) got some pretty aggressive brushing/thinning work done:

I walked up the trail a bit to see if there had been additional thinning done but I didn’t really notice much of a difference – this initial section until it gets to the “corridor” goes thru some very thick second growth small trees – it has been iteratively cut out every year and every year it gets a bit better but it is better now than it has ever been.

After walking up the trail a bit, I came back down and went down the lower section. I know there were a bunch of new downed logs in here – we didn’t have to go far before I got my answer – they didn’t get down here:

After that, we returned to the truck and headed home. It was a relatively short day, but we did 9 miles! I guess that is what you can do when you don’t do any trail work! I did really enjoy the day – this is just about the perfect trail – beautiful old growth, a variety of forest ecosystems, some water and some interesting destinations. No views, but I think the rest of the trail makes up for that.

It was a beautiful, peaceful day in the woods.