I've hiked on Little River Trail several times before. Once I almost made it to the very end, campsite 30 but was turned back by the last stream crossing. Today, I was determined to hike that final piece, which I think is only a tenth of a mile or so. Yesterday I had some shoulder fatigue from carrying too much weight, so I tossed some items out of my pack today.
The walk up Little River is an easy one on well maintained two track trail. The river crossings are bridges which you could drive across. Once beyond the Rough Creek Trail bisection, the trail does become a bit rougher but still a easy walk. There was one spot which had washed out all but about 3 feet of trail. That was covered in ice today. It looked much worse that it was. I was able to kick into the ice for footholds.
Now I'm at the creek crossing above and I don't see a good way to cross it. I scramble upstream and then downstream and nothing looks any better than where the trail crosses it. It looks like I might be able to make it across but the return doesn't look as good. The water is deep and rushing. The rocks are slick and rounded. One of the items I had taken out of my pack were water shoes. I don't know if they'd have helped much here though. After a good 45 minutes which includes lunch, I decide the crossing is too risky. If I get wet, it'll be a real miserable 6 miles back to car. If I slip and break something, it may be a while before someone finds me. The last 3 miles of trail had only deer and coyote prints. So once again I fail to see campsite 30.
On the return I run into a WWW group on a shorter loop hike. Otherwise there is no one else out today.
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