I spent some time hiking with Dan Huntington last spring � the gentleman who was instrumental in the building of the Cape Horn Trail. After hiking a stretch of the temporarily redirected Cape Horn trail, we took a drive over to Duncan Creek and hiked up that trail a ways. During that hike, Dan mentioned that eventually the trail got to the top of Archer Mountain. On that day, we didn't have time to venture further, so it's been on my list to return ever since.
Archer Mountain from Lemmon's Viewpoint
Well, that was my ambition on August 12th to reach the top of Archer Mountain from the Duncan Creek trail. Sorry for posting this so late. I�m just now getting caught up after a big project wrapped up at work.
Well after my trek, it was obvious I will need some help from Don (Don Nelsen), Dan (prindleman) or Jim (cluain) � because the trail just disappeared into the woods. Even using my best John Locke tracking skills and a GPS I wasn�t able to figure out where to go next.
The trip wasn�t a total loss. There were a lot of nice little falls along the way, and because it was so remote, the dog was able to go off-leash and get some much-need excersize.
"trailhead" at the end of Duncan Creek road. The trail starts at that rock on the middle-right of the photo
The fiirst of many little falls along the trail.
A second falls within the first half-mile
The same falls, closer up
The well worn trail ended at this point. I'm guessing this is a favorite spot for locals.
Things got intersting after this point. I crossed the creek, scaled a small cliff and found the trail. It wasn't long before the trail got very sparse. I had to use clues from my surroundings to keep track. It eventually merged with an old grown-over wagon road probably left over from turn of the century logging.
I found this interesting little artifact. Ok so I wasn't the first guy to be here.
An old railroad artifact? Or a gas tank off an old Chevy?
The trail was navigatable until I got to this (unnamed?) falls. You had to basically scale down a dirt cliff about 100 feet to get down here. The "cliff" seemed to have seen it's share of visitors this summer.
Last falls I saw along Duncan Creek, although i'm sure there are more upstream
It was a pretty spot, and again I'm guessing that again, people who live around this area frequent this area as a summertime swimming hole.
A would-be swimming hole, just downstream of the falls. The photo does this no justice. This was a very pretty spot
After this point I was able to track the old trail for a ways, but it eventually disappeared. I spend about 20 minutes backtracking and retracking to see if I could pick it back up again. It was a bit frustrating because I had my GPS and a half-way decent map of the area - so I new basically where I needed to get to, but I didn't have the time for a full-fledged bushwhack.
After the last waterfall, this was the what the "trail" looked like for at least a half-mile. Appears to have been an old road
Anyone know where I went wrong?
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