Green Mountain Adventure by KK

Yesterday, the 1st of August, Michael and I left the camper locked and went west on the Harrison Pass road a few miles to find and explore a road up into the Green Mountain Creek drainage. We had previously driven a little ways up one road that became rough with potholes, didn't have much traffic on it, and so turned back.

We could not find another road that is marked on all our maps as well as showing on Google Earth. Thus we left the camper at our campsite and took Michael's 4-wheel drive Geo Tracker up the rough road that parallels Green Mtn Creek where it flows out southwest to the highway.

GREEN MOUNTAIN

We soon came to a cow-bombed area – bare ground covered with cow pies over a large area next to the dry creek.

Wherever grazing occurs on public lands, there is supposed to remain a four-inch stubble

The Forest Service assesses utilization by percentage. 

This is  (dripping sarcasm) 100% utilization

Note humble Phoebe in upper right. She often has occasion to kick her in-step while muttering a self-effacing, "Aw, shucks."

The road track followed the creek but did not get much use judging from its condition and the few tire tracks, but we managed to find our way along the North Fork, which originates on the slopes of Green Mountain, 10,200'. We crossed the creek a couple of times and ended up on its north side when we stopped for lunch in the shade of some willows growing along a nearly dry tributary. A side track going up toward several green draws of aspen coming down the lower slopes of Green Mountain was calling to me, so after lunch I walked up it about a mile, found lots of beaver sign, both old and current, along with cattle destruction, and got back a little after 5 pm. Michael had had a good nap, which was to prove very useful.

After much paper and computer topo map study, we drove slowly up the road track. It was much more appealing to make a circle drive back to the Harrison Pass road and not have to retrace our steps. The lure was a trailhead to Green Mountain - and the Ruby Crest Trail - that we'd seen signed at Harrison Pass the day before. It was not only shorter than going back but surely (I thought) would be a decent road used by hikers on the Ruby Crest trail.

It might rain

But as our road climbed upward to meet this trailhead, it became very rocky. Michael was naturally concerned about damage to his undercarriage, so we would stop and assess the difficulty and if necessary, walk up the track removing problematic rocks. Some were too embedded so they would have to be avoided by driving to left or right of them. In low gear and 4-wheel drive, we successfully climbed up these treacherous stretches, always hoping we'd seen the worst!

The Worst!!

But they continued to appear, even more frequently, and we noticed that it was getting hard to see. The sun was not set but a summer rain system had developed into a thick cloud cover over the whole sky. Neither Michael nor I have the best of vision and it worsened in low light conditions. Feeling more additional pressure as it began to rain large cold drops, I walked ahead clearing the worst rocks and pointing out those I couldn't clear. The Tracker crunched its way up the rocks showing off its fine lineage. (link is to article & vid of 2019 Suzuki Jimny.)

Should we stop and spend the night? What was ahead? Were we on the right track or had we missed a turn? I was pretty low energy, especially in the brain department, but Michael appeared to be enjoying himself, energized by this challenge. Yet he suggested to me that I could look for a "camping place" as I walked ahead assessing and removing rocks. Yet there was no place nearly level enough and we continued. The rain came down harder and the wind blew it through me so I had to take refuge in the car as my body heat dropped. Michael seemed more excited than ever to go onward, now with headlights on.

I helped watch the road and if a rock looked like a problem he would get out and deal with it. In this way we crept up the hills and every so often Michael would check on his GPS and computer where we were.  When it was nearly dark we came to the trailhead" area, which was only another grassy track leading to the left with a Forest Service road number sign. We were elated, and I think I even heard the phrase "home free".

But the track from then on was unbelievable. The rocky areas became less but very steep and twisty challenges began. Where is the road? Our headlights showed only trees or grass. Several times Michael got out with flashlight to see what the deal was. Nearly dropping down over many big humps and gullies, as the hours went by we had to wonder if we'd missed the "main" track. One time it seemed to go nearly straight up. How could this be a road to a trailhead? It was more like a track only used by ATVs. We couldn't see anything outside of the headlights, and once we turned a curve and a striped skunk was in the road, moving toward the tall sidegrass. He again checked our position and yes we were on the right track, the highway just another mile plus away. It seemed interminable, but suddenly there was a small light to our right, vehicle headlights on the Harrison Pass road!

We turned downhill at the pass, where we had emerged. All was pitch black and the rain had stopped. I hadn't noticed there were so many reflector signs next to the highway, but they guided us brightly down the few miles to our turnoff to camp. It was only 9:30 when we pulled in to the happy sight of the camper, but we had been in a mindset of This Is Never Going to End so it seemed miraculous.

The smoked salmon, gin over ice, and olives and pickles were consumed as we talked about, laughed and shook our heads at the challenges we'd never imagined would be up there. Great praises to Phoebe and Michael's driving. I also appreciated his calmness and especially his humor that made it much more endurable, so much less exhausting and antagonizing than it might have been. At one point he said he was good in a crisis, didn't lose his head and enjoyed dealing with it. Who knew?

Addendum
A few days later when we drove over Harrison Pass to Ruby Valley, there were five vehicles parked in pulloffs at the pass. I'm guessing that people are taking ATVs to the trailhead. Still, it would be a rugged ride up there.



MFH Comments:

Altho this didn't quite qualify as a crisis, there were enough adrenaline-inducing moments to shift me into hysterics - with accompanying humor and more. Near the start, we cleared nearly 1,000 ft of "road" of cobbles that might've caused Phoebe to lose traction...not a good thing when all I'm seeing is sky.

As night descended, the road REALLY got going. For a while it was steep sides with a deep trough down the middle. Next came ruts that, had we slipped, we'd've high-centered. Then a length of REALLY steep slant. Finally, it just disappeared. By flashlight, I walked over the ledge, assessed the boulders and decided on a line-of-travel. It looked kinda bleak if we wanted to go back. Lions und tiggerz und Bären! Yee-haw!