By Erika Miller

We were eight people and two dogs. We met at the Pedro Monument and then carpooled to Skoogy Gulch.

We were looking for Bob Pettit’s rock that he climbed in 1968 but couldn’t remember its location was. Because he mentioned water coming out of the hill from a pipe and there is a water pipe at Skoogy Gulch, it seemed a likely prospect.

Jim Deininger knew the area and we hiked on a good mining road to a caved-in drift mine (hard rock). We then continued hiking up the hill along the power line with a good view of the hill on each side. Since it was early in the year, the visibility through the trees was good. We saw an old caterpillar and an old truck in Sgoogie Gulch and mining equipment including a trailer (to haul stuff with) upside down off the trail but no rock.

The trail ended at the True North Mine Road where we admired the views, but no Bob’s rock. True North did a good job of reclamation. Jim explained why the mining stopped. The gold in that area is in the shist and far too expensive to get the gold out. We passed the road going up to Pedro Dome but didn’t hike up since I knew where weren’t any rocks (tors) up there.

We then hiked back and stopped at Silver Gulch. It was a nice afternoon, not a very long hike and although it was not a success finding Bob’s rock, we saw another bit of the Fox area.

By Eric Troyer

Party: Eric Troyer

Trip Location: Granite Tors Trail, Chena River State Recreation Area

Access: Trailhead is at the Granite Tors Campground Day-Use Area at milepost 39.5 Chena Hot Springs Road.

Trip Date: Sunday, May 8 [Read more…]

Party: Eric Troyer, Jay Cable, Jill Homer, Beat Jegerlehner

Trip Location: Tolovana Hot Springs, off the Elliot Highway.

Access: Take Steese Highway north. Go straight at Fox to get on the Elliot (turning right keeps you on the Steese). Turn left just after Livengood to stay on the Elliot (going straight puts you on the Dalton Highway). Parking area is at Milepost 93 Elliot Highway, on the south side of the road.

Trip Date: Saturday and Sunday, December 26-27, 2015 [Read more…]