Life...Behind Bars

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jdubb said:
Slate Mountain // Freeman Creek
Quaking Aspen - Sequoia National Forest
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Been well over 20 years since I last camped at Quaking Aspen and did those two rides. Freeman Creek seemed like a well traveled trail as I remember. Slate Mountain back then seemed like mostly a social trail, at least the whole route from Quaking Aspen down to Camp Nelson, and the road climb back to the campground was rather lengthy. Also did another long ride on the other side of the highway from the campground. Can't remember the name of the trail(s), but I do remember that it included the most deadfall I've ever experienced in a single ride.
 
From today's ride in Flagstaff. Aspens doing their fall thing. Weird year for the aspen color change in Northern Arizona. Seems like it varies from location to location, based on sun exposure, but tends to be pretty linear during the color change period. This year, some areas have trees that have changed and completely dropped leaves, some that are just now peaking or slightly beyond peak, and some that have barely started to change.

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JimN said:
Been well over 20 years since I last camped at Quaking Aspen and did those two rides. Freeman Creek seemed like a well traveled trail as I remember. Slate Mountain back then seemed like mostly a social trail, at least the whole route from Quaking Aspen down to Camp Nelson, and the road climb back to the campground was rather lengthy. Also did another long ride on the other side of the highway from the campground. Can't remember the name of the trail(s), but I do remember that it included the most deadfall I've ever experienced in a single ride.
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The area is recovering from a significant fire that swept through 4 years ago
The entire great western divide was affected and looks quite different now.
Summit trail to Slate mountain is looking nice thanks to a lot of trail work
I don’t know about the Bear Creek trail, but suspect that it may be in very poor shape as it sustained a lot of fire damage
Camp Nelson trail is in good shape however looks VERY different now. Long gone is the intimate, dark forest feel and now is exposed, sunny open views. Many big Sequoia trees got torched along the trail.
Freeman creek trail is in good condition. Most of the fire damage is not viewable from the trail
The downed trees you speak of is the summit trail heading north from QA - it always was a tough chore to ride there and still remains that way
 
jdubb said:
The area is recovering from a significant fire that swept through 4 years ago
The entire great western divide was affected and looks quite different now.
Summit trail to Slate mountain is looking nice thanks to a lot of trail work
I don’t know about the Bear Creek trail, but suspect that it may be in very poor shape as it sustained a lot of fire damage
Camp Nelson trail is in good shape however looks VERY different now. Long gone is the intimate, dark forest feel and now is exposed, sunny open views. Many big Sequoia trees got torched along the trail.
Freeman creek trail is in good condition. Most of the fire damage is not viewable from the trail
The downed trees you speak of is the summit trail heading north from QA - it always was a tough chore to ride there and still remains that way
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Thanks for all the awesome details!

Yeah, not surprised to hear, as I do remember the fire that ran through there. The trail that I referred to as seeming sort of like a social trail is Bear Creek. We rode from the Quaking Aspen campground, up Slate Mountain, and down Bear Creek to Coy Flat and Camp Nelson. It was challenging to follow Bear Creek way back then when we didn't have any sort of electronic navigation device.

We also rode Freeman Creek trail, Camp Nelson trail, and Summit trail. Summit trail was definitely the biggest chore, as you mentioned. It was nice to camp at Quaking Aspen and hit all of those in one weekend.

I think that they started offering a Camp Nelson shuttle ride back during the final years of the Kernville Fat Tire Fest being a full on festival. Attended that many times going back to the '90s.
 
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