Battle Creek Trail to Dry Creek Trail Hike

One of the several waterfalls along Battle Creek

The story of our hike from Battle Creek Trail to Dry Creek Trail (very nice pictures at the end):

Our original plan for Saturday was to hike Lone Peak in preparation for Timp in two weeks, but after reading about how difficult it was, we did some research and found some trails in our own backyard (practically): Battle Creek and Dry Creek. Both are in canyons on the east face of Timp and are on the north and south side of Mt. Baldy, respectively. Baldy kind of branches off of Timp about 3,000 feet under it, but 4,000 feet above the valley.

We parked one car at Dry Creek Canyon, and then drove up to Battle Creek to start our hike. Battle Creek, specifically the first 1.5 miles of the trail, proved to be the highlight of our hike. The creek was the perfect way to cool off on a very hot afternoon, and it made the canyon very beautiful. We especially enjoyed the waterfalls--we had no idea that they were there. Crossing the creek at a few points proved to be an adventure since it was overflowing and had knocked out the bridges. But I finally convinced Angela that wading through 3-foot deep raging water wasn't all that dangerous.

After 1.5 miles, the trail started to seriously veer from the creek. That was where it started to get less interesting. It wasn't too steep, but it was very overgrown, and there were a lot of sadle flies. They kept biting Angela's ankles. By the time we got out of the canyon and hit the Great Western Trail (2.5 miles), we were hot and exhausted and ready to go back. But our pride kept us going. We turned south on the Great Western trail so we could follow it for a few miles to Dry Creek.

Originally we thought that our intended trail would take us "around" Baldy. This turned out to be a very major logistical mistake. The trail actually took us to within 400 feet of the Baldy summit, so we basically climbed another mountain. It was far from the funnest mountain I'd ever hiked, and Angela was an angel not to turn around. Now, don't get me wrong. It's nice and pretty up there at the base of Timp (note that you can't really hike Timp from this side). But Battle Creek was so much better, we weren't expecting such a climb, we were in the hottest part of the afternoon, and even though we started with 6 bottles of water, we were running out of fluids.

At any rate, we eventually made it up to the top, and then started a very rapid descent down to the Dry Creek Trail. At least we assume it was the Dry Creek Trail, because it brought us to the right place. I guess we were kind of lucky because it wasn't marked at all. At any rate, the trail is insanely steep. I was so glad we were going down it instead of up. After a mile or so it got better and by the time we got down into the canyon, we were feeling a lot better. In the shadows of the late evening, Dry Canyon was actually pretty nice--especially the rock formations at the face of it.

So after 8 miles and 6 hours, we were very relieved to see our car. We hopped in, turned up the AC as high as we could, got a tall 44 ounce drink at the nearest gas station, ate a ton of fish and chips and cheeseburgers at the Purple Turtle, picked up the other car, and went home where we crashed our fatigued and sore and dehydrated bodies.

• Pictures

Posted July 17, 2005 (07:36 PM) | Comments (1)