Date Hiked: December 20, 2015
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)
THIS REPORT COVERS THE SECTION OF TRAIL FROM VICENTE FLAT CAMP TO THE APEX
The trail is in great shape and has survived the recent storms well. There was evidence of some serious treadwork on both sides of the Hare Ridge crossing. The sections that are prone to slides (the approach to Hare Ridge and the climb out of Middle Fork) have held up. There were no real downed trees to speak of (I did some cutting of encroaching downed branches/small trees).
Stone Ridge Trail
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christoph28
- Posts: 10
- Joined: Wed Jan 28, 2015 12:05 pm
Re: Stone Ridge Trail
Date Hiked: August 9, 2015
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)
We hiked Stone Ridge Trail from the Ojito saddle to Vicente Flat camp. Most of the trail was in great condition with minimal encroaching brush and no deadfalls. The stream just passed Goat camp is flowing nicely, as is Limekiln creek. We were able to make good time, hiking from Ojito Camp to Kirk Creek Campground in around 5 hours.
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)
We hiked Stone Ridge Trail from the Ojito saddle to Vicente Flat camp. Most of the trail was in great condition with minimal encroaching brush and no deadfalls. The stream just passed Goat camp is flowing nicely, as is Limekiln creek. We were able to make good time, hiking from Ojito Camp to Kirk Creek Campground in around 5 hours.
Stone Ridge Trail
Date Hiked: August 1, 2015
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)
A group of us hiked the Stone Ridge Trail from Ojito Saddle to the Apex on 8/1/15, it was a quite hot day and we were glad for the shady spots along the way and the light breeze that came and went.
See my report from 5/23/15, no change from that report, the water at Goat Camp is still flowing very well and the water is delicious and very cool. 2 small groups were at Goat Camp. Face flies and biting flies were out in the vicinity of Goat Camp and the nearby water source. Also, there was yellow jacket activity in the one switchback that exists between Goat Camp and the Apex (the yellow jackets were concentrated at the second (final) turn of the switchback as you head towards the Apex), one person in our group was stung there, I walked through without any yellow jackets bothering me.
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)
A group of us hiked the Stone Ridge Trail from Ojito Saddle to the Apex on 8/1/15, it was a quite hot day and we were glad for the shady spots along the way and the light breeze that came and went.
See my report from 5/23/15, no change from that report, the water at Goat Camp is still flowing very well and the water is delicious and very cool. 2 small groups were at Goat Camp. Face flies and biting flies were out in the vicinity of Goat Camp and the nearby water source. Also, there was yellow jacket activity in the one switchback that exists between Goat Camp and the Apex (the yellow jackets were concentrated at the second (final) turn of the switchback as you head towards the Apex), one person in our group was stung there, I walked through without any yellow jackets bothering me.
Re: Stone Ridge Trail
Date Hiked: May 24, 2015
General Condition: Wilderness Freeway (Heavily used and well maintained)
Dates: 24 May 2015
Hiked Stone Ridge Trail from Vicente Flat Camp to Cone Peak Road
Wilderness Freeway. Plenty of water in Hare Creek at Vicente Flat Camp.
General Condition: Wilderness Freeway (Heavily used and well maintained)
Dates: 24 May 2015
Hiked Stone Ridge Trail from Vicente Flat Camp to Cone Peak Road
Wilderness Freeway. Plenty of water in Hare Creek at Vicente Flat Camp.
Stone Ridge Trail
Date Hiked: May 23, 2015
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)
[Mike Heard has said I'm too generous with Wilderness Freeway designations so I'll use "Very Clear" for trails which are maybe not WF but are "more" than just clear]
We hiked the SRT from the Ojito Saddle to the Apex.
Section: Ojito Saddle to Goat Camp: Very Clear. The couple of obstructions I had seen on my last pass (trees across the trail near the bottom) are gone, the tread has held up quite well on the steep switchbacks and the cut-back brush in the brush tunnels has remained at bay.
Water was flowing extremely well at the Goat Camp water source and was quite tasty and refreshing.
Section: Goat Camp to Apex: Very Clear, no obstructions, a bit of PO and other brush growing in in a few places, the tread (much of it constructed/reconstructed in the past few years with the Mike Heard-led efforts on the Cone Peak Trails Network) has continued to hold up very well.
Goat Camp had 3 small groups in it.
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)
[Mike Heard has said I'm too generous with Wilderness Freeway designations so I'll use "Very Clear" for trails which are maybe not WF but are "more" than just clear]
We hiked the SRT from the Ojito Saddle to the Apex.
Section: Ojito Saddle to Goat Camp: Very Clear. The couple of obstructions I had seen on my last pass (trees across the trail near the bottom) are gone, the tread has held up quite well on the steep switchbacks and the cut-back brush in the brush tunnels has remained at bay.
Water was flowing extremely well at the Goat Camp water source and was quite tasty and refreshing.
Section: Goat Camp to Apex: Very Clear, no obstructions, a bit of PO and other brush growing in in a few places, the tread (much of it constructed/reconstructed in the past few years with the Mike Heard-led efforts on the Cone Peak Trails Network) has continued to hold up very well.
Goat Camp had 3 small groups in it.
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Al Normandin
Re: Stone Ridge Trail
Date Hiked: May 5, 2015
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
Supplemental Info from 4/28 submission or Black Fly rebuttal: Hiked from Vicente Camp to Goat Camp. It is noted that the stream at Vicente Camp had gone under ground immediately at the camp, but plenty of water was available just above the camp. It was an overcast day, so the black flies horrors of the 4/28 submittal did not occur. I did not see one black fly due to the cooler temperatures. The next day was sunny on a nearby trail, but there were only a few manageable black flies (or more descriptively "face flies") due to breezes during the day.
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
Supplemental Info from 4/28 submission or Black Fly rebuttal: Hiked from Vicente Camp to Goat Camp. It is noted that the stream at Vicente Camp had gone under ground immediately at the camp, but plenty of water was available just above the camp. It was an overcast day, so the black flies horrors of the 4/28 submittal did not occur. I did not see one black fly due to the cooler temperatures. The next day was sunny on a nearby trail, but there were only a few manageable black flies (or more descriptively "face flies") due to breezes during the day.
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daveviaventana
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Thu Apr 30, 2015 11:03 pm
Stone Ridge Trail
Date Hiked: April 28, 2015
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
I hiked the 16-mile Cone Peak - Gamboa - Stone Ridge - Vicente Flat loop.
Of the whole loop, Stone Ridge, had the most encroaching brush, including poison oak of course, and deadfall trees. There were a few places where I had to push poison oak out of my path with my hiking poles. There were 2 or 3 treefalls that would probably require a chainsaw (or a big saw anyway) to remove from the path, but all of them were easy to get over/under/around. There were also a couple of treefalls that could be cleared with a smaller handsaw.
That said, I was able to maintain a brisk walking pace while stepping around poison oak, and had absolutely no trouble knowing where the trail was at all times.
Oh yeah, a note to hikers: There were a lot of small flies, on pretty much all of the Stone Ridge Trail, as well as on the Vicente Flat trail. Not so much a problem when walking, but if I stood still for a minute, they were buzzing all around my face. This made taking breaks unpleasant. Small flies were also very abundant at Goat Camp when the sun was up, and not quite as bad at Vicente Flat camp, also during daylight. When the sun went down, the flies went away. I would actually bring a head net with me next time. I was certainly glad my hammock has a mosquito net. They didn't bite, but they were a nuisance.
Also, Vicenete Flat, Goat Camp, and the middle fork of Limekiln creek all head plenty of flowing water.
Thanks for your work!
dave
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
I hiked the 16-mile Cone Peak - Gamboa - Stone Ridge - Vicente Flat loop.
Of the whole loop, Stone Ridge, had the most encroaching brush, including poison oak of course, and deadfall trees. There were a few places where I had to push poison oak out of my path with my hiking poles. There were 2 or 3 treefalls that would probably require a chainsaw (or a big saw anyway) to remove from the path, but all of them were easy to get over/under/around. There were also a couple of treefalls that could be cleared with a smaller handsaw.
That said, I was able to maintain a brisk walking pace while stepping around poison oak, and had absolutely no trouble knowing where the trail was at all times.
Oh yeah, a note to hikers: There were a lot of small flies, on pretty much all of the Stone Ridge Trail, as well as on the Vicente Flat trail. Not so much a problem when walking, but if I stood still for a minute, they were buzzing all around my face. This made taking breaks unpleasant. Small flies were also very abundant at Goat Camp when the sun was up, and not quite as bad at Vicente Flat camp, also during daylight. When the sun went down, the flies went away. I would actually bring a head net with me next time. I was certainly glad my hammock has a mosquito net. They didn't bite, but they were a nuisance.
Also, Vicenete Flat, Goat Camp, and the middle fork of Limekiln creek all head plenty of flowing water.
Thanks for your work!
dave
Re: Stone Ridge Trail
Date Hiked: February 22, 2015
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)
THIS REPORT COVERS THE SECTION BETWEEN VICENTE FLAT AND GOAT CAMP
Amazing hike from Vicente Flat Camp, we had light showers all along the way intermixed with sunshine. Trail was in great shape, small erosive slides in the usual places between Vicente and Dubage Point. There was 1 downed tree between Dubage and Middle Fork. Overall the trail is in excellent shape, brush was very minimal as was the PO. Goat camp was also in good shape with plenty of water at the spring.
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)
THIS REPORT COVERS THE SECTION BETWEEN VICENTE FLAT AND GOAT CAMP
Amazing hike from Vicente Flat Camp, we had light showers all along the way intermixed with sunshine. Trail was in great shape, small erosive slides in the usual places between Vicente and Dubage Point. There was 1 downed tree between Dubage and Middle Fork. Overall the trail is in excellent shape, brush was very minimal as was the PO. Goat camp was also in good shape with plenty of water at the spring.
Re: Stone Ridge Trail
Date Hiked: December 8, 2014
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
THIS REPORT COVERS THE SECTION BETWEEN THE OJITO SADDLE AND THE APEX.
While on ranger patrol two of us found the following pair of trees down about 1/10 mile above Goat Camp:
It was dark when we arrived but not wishing to take a dangerous downhill detour in our packs, we took a few minutes to toss away the loose slash and trim off the protruding branches. Even with that work I found it necessary to remove my pack; hence the designation of "passable" rather than "clear" for this trail segment. However, there are no other significant obstacles: farther on past Goat Camp the downed madrone noted in a previous trail report was reduced to a step-over during a previous patrol in August.
General Condition: Passable (some brush and/or deadfalls, tread evident)
THIS REPORT COVERS THE SECTION BETWEEN THE OJITO SADDLE AND THE APEX.
While on ranger patrol two of us found the following pair of trees down about 1/10 mile above Goat Camp:
- Downed oak + downed pine near Goat Camp
Stone Ridge Trail
Date Hiked: December 21, 2014
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)
THIS REPORT COVERS THE SECTION BETWEEN VF CAMP AND THE APEX.
I was worried about what we might encounter on this section after the recent storms because some of it goes through some areas that have historically encountered a lot of sliding and some of it is notorious for trees coming down. But we found zero trees blocking the trail other than one that we were able to drag and toss off and a couple of stepovers and a few branches or very small diameter items that I cut with my saw.
On the climb towards the Hare Ridge crossing there were two gullies that had slid a little but I've seen a lot worse on this stretch.
The trip down from Hare Ridge to the Middle Fork crossing was in excellent shape, all the gullies had held up. Middle Fork was flowing stronger than I've seen it but is crossable. I didn't investigate to see how accessible Middle Fork Use Camp was.
The climb up from Middle Fork to Cow $hit Creek was in excellent shape, no sliding anywhere, no trees down.
In the section on the grassy hillside as you climb towards the Apex, the tread was very visible and easy to follow.
General Condition: Clear (no obstacles and tread well defined)
THIS REPORT COVERS THE SECTION BETWEEN VF CAMP AND THE APEX.
I was worried about what we might encounter on this section after the recent storms because some of it goes through some areas that have historically encountered a lot of sliding and some of it is notorious for trees coming down. But we found zero trees blocking the trail other than one that we were able to drag and toss off and a couple of stepovers and a few branches or very small diameter items that I cut with my saw.
On the climb towards the Hare Ridge crossing there were two gullies that had slid a little but I've seen a lot worse on this stretch.
The trip down from Hare Ridge to the Middle Fork crossing was in excellent shape, all the gullies had held up. Middle Fork was flowing stronger than I've seen it but is crossable. I didn't investigate to see how accessible Middle Fork Use Camp was.
The climb up from Middle Fork to Cow $hit Creek was in excellent shape, no sliding anywhere, no trees down.
In the section on the grassy hillside as you climb towards the Apex, the tread was very visible and easy to follow.