West Hunter Canyon trail

The West Hunter Canyon is a short mile-long trail that was built by Girl Scouts years ago. It led to an old foundation high in the canyon that once had apple trees. The foundation and the fruit trees are long gone, the last of the foundation having been destroyed in the post-fire floods two years ago. The trail is now badly rutted in the upper section, and what once was a lush, shaded area that I sought after in the summer months is now an overgrown patch of partially-burned trees, although there are plenty of untouched trees higher up that still provide shade. This trail has been abandoned by the Forest Service and is not maintained. Illegal border crossers still use this route from the Crest Trail to get into the valley, and USBP agents continuously patrol this area. I am always well aware of the dangers here.

Still, this is a nice, short section away from the mainstream hikers that is fun for the dogs. So I took Sadie, Sammy, Zeke and Minnie. Zeke and Sammy hadn't gotten a good work out all week and these two dogs deserved a quick romp.

Sadie was still not running like she used to, although she was better today than on Monday. She's still on the slow side. I do hope there is nothing wrong with her. She should have fully recovered from the hikes earlier this week.

Since this hike was meant for all the dogs, I knew it had to remain short so that Sammy could follow. I hadn't taken him up on this trail since I was last here with Sara earlier in the year. Coming here today brought back those memories of us hopping along on the rutted trail, with Sara giving me a pained expression because the hops up the rocks were too much for her. That was her last real "hike." Sammy is now showing the same pained expression Sara once did. When we came across several partially-burned snags in the road, Sammy stopped as if to tell me he couldn't make it, although I encouraged him and he did make it over the snags. His years of leaping over logs, stumps, shrubs and snags are long gone, but the memories are as if from yesterday.

We started our hike at 3:20pm, with most of the trail in the shade. I had this planned. This made it ideal for the dogs who didn't have to suffer in the sun. We made it to the old homestead 20 minutes later, walked around, and turned back when the trail got too overgrown above the creek. The total time out was an hour.

This is a short, steep work-out. The creek by the old homestead is a perfect turn-around for the dogs. I let the dogs drink water, sniff around, and usually turn around here. (The trail officially ends here, with a more reclusive "illegal" trail going up a steep hillside to the ridgeline.) This steep side of the mountains has drastically changed since the 2011 fire. One can't tell anymore that a homestead was once here. The trail is heavily overgrown with weeds, weeds that grew from the seeds the Forest Service dropped over these mountains to prevent hillside erosion. The landscape has been reclaimed by nature.

We stopped briefly at the former campground turned shooting range where more garbage was left behind. Sammy appeared to be tired and stayed in the truck, watching us the entire time. Looks like another tree is ready to fall over from getting shot up. What a shame. When we first moved here this was a popular campsite for snowbirds. Now it's turned into a dying dump.