Lamberson Spur, passing of a favorite -- 08/29/21
Posted: September 11th, 2021, 11:43 am
Howdy,
My hiking partner and I left the Pollalie trailhead just after 6am on 8/29. Cool morning, no clouds, some fire smoke, great trail conditions for a trip up Lamberson Spur with a return via the Elk Meadows trail. Very similar conditions to 2020's outing.
Distance: >= 17 miles (Many chances to putter around).
Elevation at the trailhead: ~2880
Elevation at the high point: ~7330
Total elevation gain for the route: 4900
From the clearing 3.75 miles from the trailhead.
The gps track I downloaded from Caltopo shows the trail extending another 7/10s or beyond, but this is no longer true. Good luck finding a trail more than a few hundred yards. Since the fire... the main challenge between the clearing and the upper spur has been the many downed trees. New growth leaves us with the following for a mile or so:
Enjoy working through the deadfall while pushing through a dense barrier of 5-12ish foot adolescent trees. Starting the upper spur. From here to the Timberline Trail is amazing, fun off-trail hiking:
Looking up the remainder of our climb:
Looking down from just below the Timberline Trail. Water available not far from here.
Heading toward toward the top of Lamberson Butte. Thought about scrambling to the high point, but we were tight on time. Traffic was steady on the TT. Nice mix of round-the-mountain hikers, day hikers, runners... Everybody we spoke with was having a good day.
The four miles from Elk Meadows back to the Lamberson Spur junction were in great shape. Only one pair of trees to go over/around. Trail was a bit brushy in spots, but hard to complain given the earlier treewhacking.
Crossing the creek at ~14.2 miles, ~.6 miles from the junction with Bluegrass Ridge. The log looks fairly broken on the underside, but didn't budge for me or my partner.
This is one of my absolute favorite outings on the mountain, but I am not sure I will do it again. The combination of dense new growth and downed timber past the clearing makes for a rough go. But... I probably said something similar last year. So little trail remains for that close to mile that I think you'd have to call opening up any way through new construction.
Happy hiking!
--Rob
My hiking partner and I left the Pollalie trailhead just after 6am on 8/29. Cool morning, no clouds, some fire smoke, great trail conditions for a trip up Lamberson Spur with a return via the Elk Meadows trail. Very similar conditions to 2020's outing.
Distance: >= 17 miles (Many chances to putter around).
Elevation at the trailhead: ~2880
Elevation at the high point: ~7330
Total elevation gain for the route: 4900
From the clearing 3.75 miles from the trailhead.
The gps track I downloaded from Caltopo shows the trail extending another 7/10s or beyond, but this is no longer true. Good luck finding a trail more than a few hundred yards. Since the fire... the main challenge between the clearing and the upper spur has been the many downed trees. New growth leaves us with the following for a mile or so:
Enjoy working through the deadfall while pushing through a dense barrier of 5-12ish foot adolescent trees. Starting the upper spur. From here to the Timberline Trail is amazing, fun off-trail hiking:
Looking up the remainder of our climb:
Looking down from just below the Timberline Trail. Water available not far from here.
Heading toward toward the top of Lamberson Butte. Thought about scrambling to the high point, but we were tight on time. Traffic was steady on the TT. Nice mix of round-the-mountain hikers, day hikers, runners... Everybody we spoke with was having a good day.
The four miles from Elk Meadows back to the Lamberson Spur junction were in great shape. Only one pair of trees to go over/around. Trail was a bit brushy in spots, but hard to complain given the earlier treewhacking.
Crossing the creek at ~14.2 miles, ~.6 miles from the junction with Bluegrass Ridge. The log looks fairly broken on the underside, but didn't budge for me or my partner.
This is one of my absolute favorite outings on the mountain, but I am not sure I will do it again. The combination of dense new growth and downed timber past the clearing makes for a rough go. But... I probably said something similar last year. So little trail remains for that close to mile that I think you'd have to call opening up any way through new construction.
Happy hiking!
--Rob