for a wet, brisk crossing of Siouxon Creek,
at a shallow (18-24”), slow-moving ford.
The climb up from the creek was on a great trail which recent maintenance had cleared completely of any fallen trees.
Springboard notches in old, now decaying stumps were mute evidence of logging back in the day when crosscut saws were the tool of choice.
I was trying to remain hopeful about the weather – daypack half full and all that – but there was no sign of a break in the cloud cover,
as I trudged onward and upward toward Huffman.
At the saddle SW of Huffman, it wasn’t actually raining, but the wind-driven mist was condensing in the trees and falling on me just like rain.
Per the guidebook (Lorain 2nd edition), I climbed the peak up its SW ridge – through some brush, across wet, slick bear grass, and over a few rocky outcroppings – to arrive at the summit it the middle of a cloud.
I took an extra long lunch in hopes that the clouds would open up just a little, but to no avail. The USFS put a lookout on Huffman in 1932,
which lasted until the early ‘60s (?), when it was torched like so many other old lookouts, leaving only its original rock foundation.
Judging from the map, it looked like I could descend back to the trail via the NE ridge, so I headed down that way. This turned out to be a shorter, much less brushy way to the summit. My guess is that this was original way up to the LO, as there seemed to be traces of trail across some of the open areas on the ridge. When I do this hike again, I’ll circle around Huffman and come up the NE ridge.
Once down, I continued E on the Huffman Pk trail, only to be significantly startled by a thunder chicken (grouse) exploding out of the brush.
My return was via the Wildcat Trail,
which although it hadn’t seen recent maintenance, was in pretty good shape,
with the exception of a 6’ in diameter log across it just before you reach the point where you can see Wildcat Falls.
Yeeee, ha...
The Falls are pretty spectacular from above, cutting as they do through huge rocky cliffs,
before plunging 100’ into the creek bottom.
After that it was another ford of the creek,
then a pleasant ramble on a gentle trail alongside it back to the TH. Neat little hike (14.5 mi, 3000’ EG) with creek, falls, summits, and (weather permitting) views. I’ll definitely going to have another go at this one when the weather is the required degree of bluebird.
