Mission Creek and Target Practice -- On the PCT!

[zippetydude]

Guns give me the willies

Me too. I like going out shooting, so it's not that I don't like guns in general. But, when I'm out on a trail and I come around a bend and meet a hunter or some people shooting, it always spooks me. On the Calico 50k there's a place where the trail goes past an area where people are shooting, and it always makes me just a little uneasy.

I once had someone's richochet pass between me and my brother when we were out at the old Lytle Creek shooting area. We decided to leave. As we were packing up, a guy comes walking by, carrying a .44 magnum. He was a little agitated, and told us somebody had buzzed by him farther up the road on a quad, throwing dust and dirt all over him. So he shot their quad. We didn't believe him, but who needs a nut like that walking around with a loaded .44?

Shooting should be done very far from other people, not just the 300 yards or whatever it is that the BLM requires. At least, that's what I feel is courteous, and we go way out in the desert when we go shooting.

Thanks for the pics, Jim. Especially, I was thinking about going up to Mission Creek camp, but with the trail so overgrown, it would be impossible to make good time, so I'll have to wait on that trip, maybe help out with trail maintenance instead.

z

[Hikin_Jim]

Shooting should be done very far from other people, not just the 300 yards or whatever it is that the BLM requires. At least, that's what I feel is courteous, and we go way out in the desert when we go shooting.

Yeah, those guys on the PCT were a pretty irresponsible bunch. A clearly marked, easily discerned trail -- one that they themselves used to get to their target's area -- and they set up, essentially, a firing range. That was just plain stupid of them, not to mention reckless. Maybe, just maybe, our showing up on the scene startled them enough that they'll be more careful in the future. But I won't hold my breath.

Thanks for the pics, Jim. Especially, I was thinking about going up to Mission Creek camp, but with the trail so overgrown, it would be impossible to make good time, so I'll have to wait on that trip, maybe help out with trail maintenance instead.

Yeah, I was pretty surprised at the condition of the trail given that it's the PCT. I'm normally good at following old trails, but the brush was so thick in several places, I really had to work at it. This of course was not an old trail (it's the freakin' PCT for cryin' out loud), but it was similar in terms of route finding. Come spring when the through hikers pass by, I'm sure it'll get stomped out some. Until then, it won't really be a trail run*.

HJ

*At least in the section indicated on my map. Other sections were fine.

[phydeux]

A little info that might shed some light on the map irregulatiries.

A few years ago I was doing sections of the PCT in So Cal (one-two night trips) and found lots of mistakes on USGS maps, especially in creek beds like the Mission Creek drainage. What typically happens in the spring is the snowmelt water that runs down the SE slopes of the San Gorgonio area into the Mission Creek drainage can wipe out the trail from one year to the next; the slopes are steep enough that if the runoff doesn't destroy the trail, then the rockfall and 'soil avalanches' from the spring thaw will. While groups like the PCT Assocation try to keep up maintenance on the trail, its almost impossible in areas like Mission Creek where the 'trail' gets exposed about the same time the thru-hikers are coming through. The PCT hikers I was running into simply had to navigate up the slopes the best they could and regain the trail in the Coon Creek area.

Nice pics! Its a great area for a simple hike during cooler weather. If anyone's not been back there, and you just don't feel like tromping throught he snow, definately put it on your "to-do" list for this winter!