Around Lockwood Creek, LPNF - "hunger is the best sauce"

Chase and I drove west through Lockwood Valley and then south toward Lockwood Creek.

We were surprised to see so much water flowing in Lockwood Creek.

Years ago the 4x4 road followed the creek south to the Miller Jeep Trail but now it climbs up a mountainside and takes a roller-coaster route over several ridges to the junction.

This large boulder is the first obstacle on the route but looks to be easier that it was when the route was new. I remember sitting in my Unimog watching and waiting as a Jeep spent 20 minutes attempting to climb past this spot.

Those of us in a Tacoma with a Four Wheel Camper drove to another road to look for a campsite for the night.

We set up camp high on a ridge just off of the Frazier Mountain Tie Road.

In the distance Mount Pinos was silhouetted by the sunset.

After a late breakfast we left our camp and hiked to a mine that was marked on the map about a mile away.

Not much of an opening left at this old mine. No structures remained.

Soon we were driving back down to Lockwood Creek.

We began our hike down Lockwood Creek to revisit a place I would camp when the road was open.

A lot of bear sign in this section of Lockwood Creek. Twenty years ago I hiked Piru Creek from Halfmoon Campground to Pyramid Lake. On that trip I found massive amounts of bear sign near Gleason Flat.

 After about 45 minutes of hiking through muddy, brushy thickets we arrived at the abandoned Lockwood Campground.

At the far end of the camp we found what looked like the remains of an old grow camp.

We filtered a couple of liters of water at one of the old campsites. Site number 2 if I remember correctly.

Chase enjoyed his lunch of cold chili with beans. I quoted Cervantes and said, "hunger is the best sauce."

After lunch we hiked back to the truck and began our drive home.