Upper Ash Canyon

Time went by fast today. I wanted to take the dogs on an early hike if the school didn’t call by 8am. I didn’t leave the house until after 2pm and got to the Ash Canyon Road turn-off twenty minutes later.

The dogs jumped out of the truck as soon as I reached the National Forest sign. I drove slowly up the canyon, stopped briefly at the first creek, let the dogs rest, then drove another half-mile to the upper-most parking area. One other truck was already there.

The truck belonged to a local man who was told by his friends to drive up to Ash Canyon to look for gold. I spotted him resting in the shade of a Manzanita tree, smoking a cigarette. All the dogs alerted me that a man was up ahead. When I saw him I was relieved. He was neither a hunter nor an illegal.

“This is my first time up this trail” he explained as he showed me his gold panning material.
“You won’t find any gold here, but down in the dry creek bed. After a heavy rain people prospect for gold down there and find flakes from time to time. Just be careful up the trail, this is a popular trail with illegals coming down the mountain.”
"Oh great! I just came to explore. I saw on Google Earth all the trails here, and you could see where the illegals trashed the place."

After a few more friendly exchanges, I wished him well and continued up the right fork of the trail. This trail got steeper and rockier. I explored the many dead-end side trails until I opted to hike the main trail to the end. The trail got steeper, rockier and cooler. My lungs felt like they were ready to burst.

I recognized the dead-end. I had been here before, years ago. I just didn’t realize this was from the right trail. My memory had me thinking this high meet-up was from the left trail. So what is now on the other trail?

Old clothes, dirty backpacks, empty plastic bottles lay around, off another illegal trail that went up an even steeper, narrower trail.

I had to turn around here. It was 3:40pm and the sun had already set behind me. It was cooler, and the dogs were acting more animated.

On the way down Sadie started barking. All three dogs took off running down the trail. Had they spotted something, someone? The trail was too curvy for me to see far, and the close-lying manzanitas hid my view. I stumbled as I panicked, nearly spraining my right hand in the fall. I dropped Kevin’s sunglasses when I fell and had to walk back up the steep trail to retrieve them. I stopped to listen. I heard nothing. But the dogs remained aggitated.

Whatever spooked the dogs had either slipped off or hidden. The rest of the walk back down to my car was uneventful.

I don’t think I am going to go into the mountains in the afternoon anymore. It’s getting too dark and too cold too soon now.