Wildhorse Creek Camp water availability

[zippetydude]

Hi everyone. With the drought going on and water proving to be hard to come by in the wilderness I thought I'd post that Wildhorse Creek Camp has good flow at this point. It's a nice little camp and it's only 4 miles from the trailhead, so it might be a good choice for a quick and easy early season backpack. Here are a couple pics so you can see the flow. It's not exactly a flood, but you could easily pump/filter all you would need. I normally just drink straight from streams with no filtration, but I would have only done that in this case if I were in serious need, the flow was just too low.

DSCN9959 by zippetydude, on Flickr

DSCN9960 by zippetydude, on Flickr

BTW while the trail is only 4 miles, it feels longer because parts of the trail are pretty much just jumbled tennis ball sized rocks. The camp is outside the Wilderness, so you don't need a permit. The trail leads on up to the top of Sugarloaf, which is kind of an interesting place as well. I did it as a mountain bike ride, which the ranger said is both legal and fairly common. It was a LOT easier coming back as some of the rocky spots are pretty much impossible to ride going up without damaging your bike.

z

[tarol]

4 miles from Hwy 38? How far from 2n93 is the camp? Do you have a topo map showing the location of the camp itself? thanks

[zippetydude]

Here's the link I used initially to look into the trail. It has good directions and pics of the camp and the view from the trail. BTW he lists the distance as 8 miles, but that's round trip. It's just 4 each way. Hope this helps!

http://nobodyhikesinla.com/2011/06/19/w ... rail-camp/

z

[Hikin_Jim]

Thanks, Zip.

Hey, have you used the old trail that goes direct down the creek lately? Just curious what kind of shape it's in these days.

HJ

[Patrick]

gpx available on request

[zippetydude]

Thanks for the map Patrick.

HJ, I didn't know there was an old direct route. Now that I know, if you can help me figure out where it hits the 38 (is there a bridge crossing Wildhorse Creek or some other easily spotted landmark?) then I would enjoy scouting out the old route and seeing if it's still passable. There are a bunch of small roads that lead off to the north from the 38, so I'd need some way of spotting it if the creek is dry down by the highway. Any suggestions or a pic of the old trailhead?

z

[Hikin_Jim]

The easiest way to find the old trail is to hike to Wildhorse trail camp and then go down stream. You should be able to pick it up. If you want to try to pick it up from below (at Hwy 38), that's a little trickier, but it can be done.

Referring to my Interactive San Gorgonio Wilderness Map, you can see the old trail coming down Wildhorse Creek. The old trail hits Hwy 38 about 0.9 to 1.0 miles east of the South Fork Campground entrance. There is sort of a concrete culvert that the water flows under the highway via, but it's not exactly a major bridge. The guardrails do neck in at this point. There isn't a good parking area that I can remember. I parked at the new Wildhorse Trailhead last time, went to the camp, and then exited via the old trail. There were a couple of spots where it was hard to follow, but as long as you keep heading down stream, you'll pick it up again. It makes for a nice, fast exit. When you get back to Hwy 38, you can walk the ~1.5 miles back to the new trailhead or set up a car shuttle or stash a mountain bike.

HJ

[tarol]

has anyone gone to the camp from the Wildhorse Road? Is there a trail?

[zippetydude]

I haven't taken the road in but I know when I went on up to the top of Sugarloaf following the trail up out of the camp I came across the road and it was obvious and maintained. If you are not blocked from access off the 38 (the road cuts up to the left 2 miles after the Heart Bar turnoff) then you can probably drive it. If not, it looks easy to hike or bike. Then you can just turn left on the trail and go down to the camp, or potentially follow the trail on up to Sugarloaf if you like. One word about the trail on up - the top mile or so is not a dirt trail, it is a trail on top of tennis ball sized rocks. It's not terrible, but it's a little tough on the ankles, especially if you run or hike fast. I don't think it would be a good idea on a mountain bike.

z