Tunnel Trail extravaganza
Today I hiked up to the top of the mountains by way of Tunnel Trail. The day was determined to be murky with a touch of the marine layer never quite burning off the whole time. Hiking up, the first mountain biker I saw was bloodied from his nose and asked me where this trail came out. I snapped out of staring at the profuse but dried blood and told him and probably in response to the pause and quick head shake he mentioned he had broken a few fingers. Hopefully not the braking fingers because he was still headed down on his bike although that section was road and should have been easy for him not to fall off again while on it. Headed up, I found plenty of sections that were difficult to navigate walking and looked possibly deadly for a bike all while seeing multiple tire tracks.
I saw people all over the place, just not on the trail I was on after the first couple of miles. They were out on Inspiration Point or on a trail that might lead down into an interesting section of canyon or just heard down in the canyon. Oh, and a couple of folks were driving along the road at the top. Mission Canyon seemed to have water in it until quite high up. As I turned a corner nearing the very top, I could hear the water flowing quite loudly at one section. I could see the bottom, or at least what I think was the bottom, a fair distance up from the noisy spot and it was dry there. Probably spring fed, never realized that.
I got to the top and walked around a little, because if there's one thing you need when looking at a 4.5 mile hike back with unruly steep sections, it's a little bit more walking to get a little more tired. I walked a little way down the road to Gibraltar Dam to look out over the back side of the mountains, then headed up Camino Cielo a little bit westward. There I found a pretty cool view.
Heading back down, I found it was steeper than coming up. It's always steeper, but it was quite steep enough coming up. Some parts really too steep. A bit of eroded trail with rocks even made me sit to climb down easiest. Yet there's tire tracks. A little way down is a spot where the trail climbs down and around in a tributary to the creek, there is a huge waterfall. Unfortunately it is totally dry at this time of year. Well, not totally, there was a little pool in the rock, but no falling. In there is the only shade tree remaining along the mountainside and I drew it. The bay trees didn't die in the last fire, though, and will be offering shade in some areas again in a few more years.
I continued down through some more steep spots. I looked along the side for a tiny rattlesnake I saw on the way up that was doing a very good job of playing dead. I didn't see it, so maybe it wasn't. The trail intersects a utility road twice and I was pretty sure they connected, so when I came to it and tired of the slope of the downhill, I took the old road. It has been a long time since anyone has used it as a road. Except for a slide and plant growth everywhere but along a single track, it is still a good road. It dropped down to a fork, the left side I could see going up to a high tower while the right would go back to Tunnel Road. Most people clearly used the road heading up to the left from below, but a few also went along my path. I continued back to the start and finished with only nice easy slopes.
I saw people all over the place, just not on the trail I was on after the first couple of miles. They were out on Inspiration Point or on a trail that might lead down into an interesting section of canyon or just heard down in the canyon. Oh, and a couple of folks were driving along the road at the top. Mission Canyon seemed to have water in it until quite high up. As I turned a corner nearing the very top, I could hear the water flowing quite loudly at one section. I could see the bottom, or at least what I think was the bottom, a fair distance up from the noisy spot and it was dry there. Probably spring fed, never realized that.
I got to the top and walked around a little, because if there's one thing you need when looking at a 4.5 mile hike back with unruly steep sections, it's a little bit more walking to get a little more tired. I walked a little way down the road to Gibraltar Dam to look out over the back side of the mountains, then headed up Camino Cielo a little bit westward. There I found a pretty cool view.
Heading back down, I found it was steeper than coming up. It's always steeper, but it was quite steep enough coming up. Some parts really too steep. A bit of eroded trail with rocks even made me sit to climb down easiest. Yet there's tire tracks. A little way down is a spot where the trail climbs down and around in a tributary to the creek, there is a huge waterfall. Unfortunately it is totally dry at this time of year. Well, not totally, there was a little pool in the rock, but no falling. In there is the only shade tree remaining along the mountainside and I drew it. The bay trees didn't die in the last fire, though, and will be offering shade in some areas again in a few more years.
I continued down through some more steep spots. I looked along the side for a tiny rattlesnake I saw on the way up that was doing a very good job of playing dead. I didn't see it, so maybe it wasn't. The trail intersects a utility road twice and I was pretty sure they connected, so when I came to it and tired of the slope of the downhill, I took the old road. It has been a long time since anyone has used it as a road. Except for a slide and plant growth everywhere but along a single track, it is still a good road. It dropped down to a fork, the left side I could see going up to a high tower while the right would go back to Tunnel Road. Most people clearly used the road heading up to the left from below, but a few also went along my path. I continued back to the start and finished with only nice easy slopes.