We started off intending to hike somewhere at Ice House but a boulder at Bridal Veil Falls was threatening the road and the traffic backup was insane. So we did a U-turn and decided to explore somewhere off Sly Park road. We turned off on Park Creek road. From the map, it looks like you can hike down to Jenkinson Lake via Old Sly Park road.
We didn't make it quite that far. My phone GPS was working and it just didn't look like I was moving that fast. The way back would be uphill. We turned off on an unmarked but well travelled road (White Springs). It traversed the hill at roughly the same elevation and parallel to Old Sly Park. I figured it must eventually hit Park Creek again. It does, almost, except for the dead end.
The last 1/4 mile to Park Creek was uphill through an extremely dense forest with manzanita, willow and plenty of junk pines. I'd already picked 3 ticks off Commando so I figured they were now raining down on us.
We saw plenty of deer sign, indeed, there really wasn't a place where there weren't fresh tracks or droppings. I did see what looked like bear scat, but I couldn't be completely sure. It was certainly a BIG pile of poo with lots of berries and twigs in it. I've never seen horse or cow poo quite that color either. It wasn't particularly fresh although I didn't touch it. There's only so much I'll let my naturalist self do. I observed, that was good enough.
Commando got a bath once we got home which he loved (not). I took a bath and am pretty sure I washed off some ticks.
So, that's why I don't hike at lower elevations.
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