ELK CAMP TRAIL
- USFS trail #7E01
- Parking: Hwy 1 at Salmon Creek Guard Station
- Watersheds: San Carpoforo Creek, Chris Flood Creek
- Junctions: San Carpoforo Trail
- Connects: San Carpoforo Camp with Elk Camp
- Camps: Elk Camp
Conditions reported by:
Boon Hughey
Survey date: January 1999
General: CLEAR, BUT DIFFICULT TO FOLLOW
Specific:
The Elk Camp Trail is for the most part free of brush and other hindrances (I think it's somewhat maintained by the folks who have the grazing allotment back there), but can be almost impossible to follow if you haven't been over it before. I lucked out a number of years ago on my first time back there, happening by chance to be heading in on the same winter's day as the grazing alloment holders were heading in horseback. Horses leave pretty easy tracks to follow in wet December earth. But the trail starts out uphill through a big grassy meadow, which shows an obvious path in the fall and winter but can become pretty vague when the grass starts to grow. It then ducks into oak forest without any signage, and continues along, up, down, and through alternating meadowland and oak forest, with cattle trails often confusing the route. The occasional tree blaze and cut branch show the way here and there, but prime opportunities for losing the route abound.
