Day 23: Into the Wilds of the South Fork Trinity

[Emily]:

After a decadent evening the night before with friends, Erin and I started out the day a bit slower than usual. We had planned to get a ride through the Hayfork Valley and start along the Smoky Creek Trail, just south of Highway 36. As Randy drove us to the start of our last leg of the journey, the twisty car ride rattled our stomachs and we felt the effects of civilization. Eventually we got to the “trailhead” off of the Bramlett Road in the middle of a large burn that occurred last year.

Heading into the wilds of the South Fork Trinity along Smoky Creek Trail

As we dropped down the trail, we traversed through manzanita and then areas of serpentine.

We saw our twenty seventh conifer - ghost pine. 

Eventually we made it down to the South Fork Trinity canyon and a trail junction with the remnants of an old cabin. The South Fork Trinity Trail was wide and easy walking well above the river, though there was quite a bit of poison oak. Eventually we came to St. Jacque’s Place, a flat terrace above the river and starting our routine of setting up camp.

Consulting the map set at the trail junction

South Fork Trinity Trail - lovely for hiking and cycling.  

Camp at St. Jacque’s Place - though we would soon learn more of its history. 

As we were setting up the tent, I suddenly heard a crashing, mechanical noise and turned to find two cyclists barreling down the trail to the meadow. Soon two other bikepackers joined them. All of us were quite surprised to see another group. We started chatting about the trail, each of our trips and the history of the terrace meadow we called St. Jacque’s Place. Mike, the wise leader of the bikepacking group, told us that a man named Jack had staked his claim here in the 1930s by walking in from Red Bluff and then back to the land office. He apparently did enough mining to walk into Hayfork in the 1960s and drop down a bag of gold to help fund the creation of the community swimming pool. The cyclists looked around for a camp spot further in the meadow, and we contemplated all the unknown history of the places we had hiked through along the BFT.

Total miles: 12.5