RR: Tobias Trail Recon

[jfsh]

I had the day off today and Mel took the kids with her to work. I was free for the whole day!! None of my regular crew could do anything on such short notice so I was solo. I decided to do some recon on a trail I have been working on a little recently. The Tobias Creek trail drops down from the Southern Sierras to the Kern River along Tobias Creek. It was a normal Forest Service trail 7 years ago. Then the Mcnally Fire burned the area bad during the summer. In November of the same year a big storm rolled in and dumped something like 13" of rain in the area. With no vegetation on the mountains the trail was heavily damaged. Since then there has not been any work done on the trail.

I started checking the trail out from the bottom last year. It was not in good shape and had a lot of deadfall. I asked my local Forest Service trail guy about it. He said that with the budget they have these days he wouldn't be able to do anything about it for a while, if ever. I decided that I was going to make it one of my projects to get this trail back in circulation.

I have not been able to find the top of the trail. The trail was damaged so bad that I couldn't see the upper trail head. Today I decided to start at the bottom and hopefully follow the trail all the way up to were it spits out.

I got started at about 9:30. I started out climbing on my bike at first since the bottom part is in decent shape. Here is the start of the climb.


The river looked great from up on the first ridge.


I ran into plenty of this.


I road the bike for about 45 minutes then decided to stash it. The trail was getting too overgrown. I hiked the rest of the way. A little higher up things cleared up.


Wouldn't want to fall off the trail here.


The trail dropped back down to the creek and I ran into this.


That is all Poison oak. There was no way to get through it without touching the stuff. My only option was this.


I climbed up the shale, around the trees, and back down the other side. After that there was no signs that any other person had been on the trail for a long time. Here is a shot of the creek.


I crossed the creek and worked my way up some really overgrown switchbacks. At times I was borrowing through the vegetation like an animal. Then I saw these.


It looked like someone had been here recently. On closer inspection I saw that those tracks were not made by a human.


I followed these tracks for a good while. Soon I got into the big trees.




Also saw some cool granite.


I saw a few trail markers so that gave me some confidence that I was on the right track.


More big trees.






Big trees mean big obstacles.


Almost to the top.


I finally made it to the creek at the top.


The top trail head. How did I not find this before. I actually did find this spot but the trail is almost nonexistent. I was not sure this was the correct trail head.


This little guy was on my pack at the top.


Beautiful up there.


There were these huge dandelions up there.


I got up there at about 2:00. I was stoked. The trail still did go through. I rested for a bit, ate something, then headed back down. There is not much dirt work that needs to be done but the brush work is a little overwhelming. It is going to take us a while to get this trail back into ridable shape. At least I know it is doable. By the time I got back to the car my shins were shredded. I should have worn long pants. It was a long day but I got some good info. I hope some day to be able to do a real ride report on this trail. Maybe next year.

[art23rockpile]

Nice Ride ('n hike) Report!

My parents have property south of Lake Isabella, so i'm somewhat familiar with the area. About the same elevation as Mt Breckenridge or Shirley Meadows?

The next time I go up, i'll PM you about riding or if you need help with trail work.

[dstepper]

Nice hiking report. To bad there is not a bigger MTBing crew up there to help you open up that trail. The Poison Oak would have turned me around. I am asusing the upper Trailhead is accessible off Sherman Pass Road?



Dean

[jfsh]

Originally Posted by dstepper

Nice hiking report. To bad there is not a bigger MTBing crew up there to help you open up that trail. The Poison Oak would have turned me around. I am asusing the upper Trailhead is accessible off Sherman Pass Road?



Dean

This trail is actually on the West side of the river. The top is around 6500' to 7000'. The top is not easy to get to. Eventually this will be part of a bigger ride but more work needs to be done to make that happen.

[dft]

Originally Posted by jfsh

This trail is actually on the West side of the river. The top is around 6500' to 7000'. The top is not easy to get to. Eventually this will be part of a bigger ride but more work needs to be done to make that happen.

jeff, how much vertical drop on this trail? do you mind telling me what your thinking for the "bigger ride?". good work.

[Pain Freak]

Originally Posted by dft

jeff, how much vertical drop on this trail? do you mind telling me what your thinking for the "bigger ride?". good work.

Only you would ask that,LMAO.
Jeff, can you ride your moto up with the chainsaw? Really does look like a great ride and I love the elevation. Seems like a long way to go for trail maintenance, but I could be talked into it, if it included some more riding the next day or so.

[jfsh]

Hey Tom, I would expect this kind of question from you. The vertical is 6500' to 3500' give or take a few. I know of another section of trail that starts up at 7500' to add another 1000'. With a little work I will be able to connect the 2. There is plenty of steep loose stuff on these. You would like it. This still would be a long shuttle for the length of ride. The bigger ride will include 15 or 20 miles of XC riding between 6000' and 7500', then drop down this trail. I haven't put all the pieces together yet. Some of the ride will be fire road. It is an ongoing project.

Mike, there is still a ways to go before this trail will be useful. I wouldn't come up here to work on it just yet. Let me do some more exploring to make sure the whole route is viable before calling out the troops. I'll keep you informed.