Edwards Park/El Oso Trail – December 19 2009

The following Club members attended this trip: Kurt Kuhl, Pat Neveau, Brian Billings and a friend, Tom Flood and two guests from Minnesota , and myself.  It was a beautiful clear day, and as we were driving along the Beeline highway someone noticed that our all-jeep convoy of 6 alternately red and white vehicles had the appearance of a Christmas candy cane. We started up the Four Peaks road with the temperature in the low 50’s, which became the mid 40’s when we reached the ridge. Once there we decided to take a look at the Edwards Park branch, and to take in the El Oso Loop which we had not done for about 5 years, starting at the far-end  for a change. On the way to the trailhead below the North side of the ridge, we saw patches of snow under the trees and even a dusting on the road, but hardly enough to make this count as a Snow Trip. The trail appeared to have suffered a lot from erosion and was more deeply gullied than before, with several places where vehicle spotting was required. As we approached the El Oso mine we encountered a couple of trees across the road, but since these were dead and dry they were comparatively lightweight and could be manhandled over the edge and sent downhill. We also found some recent rockfalls, one of which we could drag aside, and another that I tried to drive over and ended up high-centered, and it took a little manoevering  and rock-placing to get free. It was interesting that the short rocky climb out, with the right-angled bend in the middle, was actually the easiest part of this loop with the trail in its present condition.

Jack Knight

Return to main photo page