24 April
Destination: Masten Ghost Town | Today’s Miles: 10.0 |
Start Location: S | Trip Miles: 27.3 |
Bob and I had light rain on and off all night. It was a much warmer night, around 40. We moved our gear into the shelter to make coffee and have breakfast while our tents dried a little. It was nice to be able to pack up in the dry shelter instead of on the wet leaves. Our last weather forecast was at lunchtime yesterday and showed cooler temps for today but no rain.
The trail was not too wet since it never rained real hard. Our plan was to hike around six miles and set up camp where Sharp Shinned Trail met the OLP. We would follow Sharp Shinned Trail a mile or so to a waterfall. That would leave about four miles for the next day to get back to our vehicles.
It continued to rain lightly on and off with light wind as we hiked mostly old logging roads and railroad beds with the occasional steep climb or descent thrown in. Temperature was in the mid fifties. We stopped for lunch at the planned campsite. The tent sites were less than ideal and the light rain continued. After a short discussion that if we camped here, we would just set up our tents and crawl in to stay warm. We decided to finish the last four miles and head home.
Two of the last four miles were on old logging roads and old railroad beds. The trail did finish with a few ups and downs. There were no other cars in the parking lot, only ours. During the two and a half days on the Old Loggers Path, we had seen no hikers and only one worker on a tractor working on the road. After changing into some dry clothes we were on our way home, five hours for me and four hours for Bob.
Photos are up for each day including both Bob and mine.