I started Buck Creek trail from Sewart mountain and made it to Hardluck. The trail is open very well up there with serpentine pathways through all the massive fallen dead trees and massive brushing and trail work. The area had been obviously devastated in a fire but it is easy enough to follow if you are observant.
Near the summit of Sewart Mountain, it is easy to miss the turnoff to continue on the Buck Creek Trail. It is not marked and is easy to miss. You must turn right rather than continue along the more visible trail you are on. With a GPS you can avoid missing the turn.
As the trail descends down toward White Mountain and Cobblestone, it is in very good shape and clear. Easy to follow. It appears it was once a dirt road.
Where the trail is supposed to turn down into the Buck Creek Drainage itself it becomes a bit confused. You must seek out a small "dry lake" that is marked on the topo. The trail continues through at the other end of the dry lake. You have to push through a little bit of brush to find it. You will see some old oil cans and other metal debris.
The trail thereafter is very faint. It is easily confused with bear trails. In fact, I probably missed a switchback and instead ended up following a bear trail too far. I ran out of daylight and had to bushwack to a flat spot marked on the topo so I could make camp (no fire, just sleep) for the night.
In the morning I tried to return to the trail but instead of trying to find and follow it I simply bushwhacked straight down to the bottom of the canyon. There I found the trail again.
It took determination to reach Buck Creek Spring. The trail is littered with fallen and tangled debris and brush.
Near the spring I found an old camp. There were two signs in the camp but no longer is there any information visible on the signs. There were 2 large fire rings and some kind of stone wall or something. I believe that this is one of the "official" Buck Creek Camps. Depending on which map you have, there is a camp here at the spring or another one further down the canyon, both called Buck Creek Camp. The spring itself was sort of delightful although a bit hidden by water plants. You can find it because you can hear it burbling.
From this upper Buck Creek camp I was able to follow intermittent trail and fight constant brush and blowdowns of all sorts of trees and all sizes. I had many waypoints marked on my GPS in advance to try to help me find the way. Occasionally there were ducks.
After a long fight with brush, blowdowns, tangled masses of dead stuff, fern fields that I sunk into up to my waist, I found a guerilla camp someone had made with a little bench and fire pit. At this spot I think I did not attach my funny foam coolie-type hat properly to my pack and somewhere after this spot I lost it. If anyone dares try to hike here and you find my hat, please return it to me!
After more fighting with constant blowdowns and brush, I found another Buck Creek Camp. This one is the one Chris Lord reported with pictures of what looks like an oven door and some other metal artifacts.
At times I could find portions of trail that were fairly good. There was one long stretch where I made decent progress for perhaps half a mile. Someone also flagged portions of the middle trail with pink tape and yellow caution tape which I was able to follow now and then. But mostly I fought through tangles of stuff.
Eventually I found the trail where it rises out of the creek at a confluence with a lot of bright whit boulders coming from a side canyon. This trail was in pretty good shape although there were a few fallen trees you can add to what was reported previously.
All the blowdowns reported previously were still there and I found them all. You can times all of those by 5-10 and get a more accurate representation.
After the section of high trail lowers down into the creek again, there is a large guerilla camp. The water in Buck Creek at this camp has to be some of the clearest looking water. Unfortunately, here is where the trail is completely obliterated. The area from this guerilla camp to the Piru confluence appears to have been devastated by a massive debris flow. There was tape and occasional ducks to follow but most of the time there was nothing at all to follow.
At one point I decided to make a traverse from one side of the canyon to the other to see if I could follow the trail. I believe I did this somewhere around the vicinity of the old Bailey Trail. At one point my GPS told me I was on the Bailey Trail but there was nothing resembling a trail at all. At one point my GPS told me I was on Buck Creek trail but there was only total devastation as far as the eye could see. The entire canyon was just a pile of rocks and sticks and dead trees and devastation. I made my way to a bench on the west side of the canyon hoping to find trail up there but there was nothing.
I had been here 10 years ago in the vicinity of the Bailey trail and recall a small gentle little creek you could easily hop across. It no longer looks like this.
In total, I forced my way through the tangled debris flow for many hours until I finally reached the confluence. Overall, it took over 12 hours to hike something like the 5 or 6 miles from the dry lake to the confluence with the Piru. Once I reached the confluence, the old dirt road has now reverted into a single track trail. It is easy to follow.
Overall I would say this trail is obliterated. It would take a revival of the WPA to bring it back. You couldn't bring it back with a couple of guys with folding saws, loppers and a cross-cut. It would take a team of people dedicated (and probably paid with real money).
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