In 2012, about 6 miles of the Granite Creek road, from the middle fork to the turn off to Thompson Lake has been decommissioned and restored as a trail. In this case, that means that a guy with a huge track mounted backhoe dug up the entire road bed and left behind a meandering single track trail. To the sides are boulders, and lots of organic stuff pulled down from the sides such as logs, brush, ferns etc.
It is no yet “pristine”, but is on its way. I would now consider it a nice family hike up to the crossing of Granite Creek. The route has a gentle grade and is still passible with mountain bike, but is no longer suitable for “family biking” like it used to be.
But one thing it is now is more challenging to hike on. The hike used to be boring, but pretty effortless. You now have to pay attention as you step over rocks, small creeks and other minor stuff.
Overall, this change has made the trip up to Zorro Ridge (aka) West Revolution more interesting, but it is a long day. A group of us, keeping up a good pace with only short rest breaks took 9 hours to do the 16 miles round trip to the cabin. On our late December day that was 100% of the daylight.
JohnGilbert - Dec 9, 2012 10:20 am - Hasn't voted
Granite Creek road is now a trailIn 2012, about 6 miles of the Granite Creek road, from the middle fork to the turn off to Thompson Lake has been decommissioned and restored as a trail. In this case, that means that a guy with a huge track mounted backhoe dug up the entire road bed and left behind a meandering single track trail. To the sides are boulders, and lots of organic stuff pulled down from the sides such as logs, brush, ferns etc.
It is no yet “pristine”, but is on its way. I would now consider it a nice family hike up to the crossing of Granite Creek. The route has a gentle grade and is still passible with mountain bike, but is no longer suitable for “family biking” like it used to be.
But one thing it is now is more challenging to hike on. The hike used to be boring, but pretty effortless. You now have to pay attention as you step over rocks, small creeks and other minor stuff.
Overall, this change has made the trip up to Zorro Ridge (aka) West Revolution more interesting, but it is a long day. A group of us, keeping up a good pace with only short rest breaks took 9 hours to do the 16 miles round trip to the cabin. On our late December day that was 100% of the daylight.