2005-12-03-MillCreek
December 3, 2005
I almost bailed out on this ride
because of the rain the day before, but luckily in the end I
decided to give it a try and the conditions were excellent.
Just about all the soil on the loop seemed to be very well
drained - while it was wet, there was almost no mud and plenty
of traction. My route was: parked across from the fire station
at the intersection of Old Kern Canyon Rd. and 178; 1.5 miles
down 178 to turn left on Cow Flat Road (dirt); 15 miles on Cow
Flat Rd. to turn left on Breckenridge Rd (paved); 13.5 miles on
Breckenridge Rd. to Squirrel Meadow, then 7.5 miles down the Mill
Cr. Tr. to Old Kern Canyon Rd. (paved), left 1.5 miles back to
car. I didn't realize Breckenridge Road was paved; it wasn't a problem
though - it was a quiet (zero cars today), windy, narrow, scenic
road. The Mill Creek Trail itself was very nice. There were
some areas where the brush could use some trimming and there
were several impressive ruts, but none of those sections were
very long at all. Total distance was 39 miles. Tracing the route
on Topo! gives 7600' of climbing, so it is probably somewhat less
than that. Ride time was 4:16, total elapsed time was 4:52. The
only thing that could have made the ride better is if I had
brought the shoe covers instead of leaving them in the car; it
was well below freezing up top. I highly recommend this trail.
Maps
