San Andres Canyon - Lincoln National Forest

I've been on the Upper San Andres Canyon trail ( FT 125) which heads east and uphill from the West Side Road ( FR 90) , a couple of times. Last year I hiked  Lower San Andres Canyon down in the desert. Although the "new " number for that trail is FT 2094, there is still an old FT 125 sign down at the Forest Service boundary which tells me it was once a continuous trail.
 That left me the middle section to explore, which according to maps, the Lincoln National Forest website, and Lynn Melton's fantastic trails website, has no trail. Well, it does, sort of. It definitely did at one point. I know this because even though the paths I ended up following were made for the most part by elk and bears, at times I would come across places where logs across the tread had been sawn on either side and the  cut sections moved aside to clear the way.  Unless elk and bear have learned to use saws, humans were down in here trail busting, although it appears this was many years ago.
This is not to say there is one clear path to follow down (or up) the canyon. There isn't. In fact, I missed most of my mental landmarks I had made going down when I was coming back out. If this all makes anyone thinking about this trip nervous, don't let it. You can always follow the stream bed. Plus, if you get off track a little on the way, just keep walking uphill. You will hit the West Side Road somewhere.
Speaking of the West Side Road, I had a little adventure even before my hike started. Cruising along in the cloudy morning, my drive came to an abrupt stop a short ways past the Heart Attack Canyon( FT 235) trailhead. A large (over 18 inches diameter), dead tree had fallen directly across the road. I thought about my options briefly, and then went for the saw I have in the pickup bed. I sawed, and rested. Sawed and cleared away the smaller broken branches. Sawed and checked my phone to see there was no service. Sawed some more, and then was finally through. I was hoping to move the top section which would allow just enough space for one vehicle to get through. It was heavy. At first I tried to move it with my truck, but it just wanted to go over the log rather than pushing it. In retrospect, it would have been better to turn around, tie a rope to it a drag it out of the way. So then I just muscled it a little bit at a time until I was able to push it off the hillside. I cleared some more branches and I then I was back in truck and on my way for the last 1.5 miles to my starting point. In the end my start was only delayed  about 45 minutes or so.
 Everything was green and moist from the last week of rain showers. The creek channel was thick brown mud with the occasional puddles of storm water. I stayed on a faint path on the north side. The forest was mostly second growth pines and firs in this section.  I walked along and soon found myself at the ruins of an old two room log cabin. I knew it wasn't really, really old, because there was actual lumber for the doorways and the nails I saw looked just like the ones I used a few weeks ago. Still, it had small trees growing in its midst, so it's been abandoned for quite some time. I could tell it had been a two room job from a middle framed doorway. I couldn't find much of the roof, and there wasn't even a chimney.

 A little farther on, but not really that close, I came across a rusted bed frame, the parts to a woodstove, and some  fragments of a large bottle. The letters "EL P .  . " and " . . . ICTS" could be made out,  so it was an El Paso company, but what was in the bottle way back when, I don't know.

 
 I came to a fence which had tall posts at what once was the gate, and then rather soon after that I came to another fence which I went under at the creek crossing. Neither of these fences is serving much of a purpose anymore as they are mostly on the ground. On a different path you might not even encounter them.
 It must be said that the along the entire forested  part of this hike, there was copious elk droppings, and very regular intervals of bear scat. There were also several carcasses which I inadvertently chased the vultures off of. One was a turkey. One was an elk. The others were mostly just bones, which I didn't look too closely at, so I'm not sure what they were. Strangest of all was elk shed with its points sticking eerily out of the black water in a pothole further down the canyon.

 In places the path ran into thick stands of young pines and firs as if you were walking through a conifer nursery. It could get a little claustrophobic in these stretches, so sometimes I would detour to the creek bed if possible.

A couple miles in, there started to be grassy clearings on the north side of the creek. One of them had the stoutest ponderosa pine I've ever seen in the Lincoln. Its circumference had to be on the order of 10-12 feet( although it wasn't extraordinarily tall) and was the only truly huge  conifer I saw on the hike.


 At the largest clearing, where Lawrence Canyon comes in from the south, was a very old, broken down corral. There had been  a small spring with a waterfall further upstream, but at this spot there seemed to be several and  the stream actually flowed for a bit through a sinuous channel cut into the sandstone.

 Past this point, the canyon started to descend more rapidly, and cliffs, with layers of limestone, shale, and sandstone began to rise up on either side until it was completely boxed up.  All along there had been  abundant, deciduous oak trees, some quite large, but now, in typical fashion where there's a more reliable water source, boxelder, and few willows began to appear, and there was also chokecherry, ash and grapevine (with  still green grapes). At the lower elevation, the pines thinned out and  gave way to sparse alligator juniper and arid land shrubs on the hillsides. The sunshine and bit of blue sky in the clouds were welcome sights (on this overcast, humid day) at the enormous opening where canyon has a hundred foot or more pour-off. On the south side were vertical cliffs several hundred feet high, where a few tall, but skinny pines clung. On the  north side were huge overhangs nearest  and views of the distant rims of the lower canyon. This was awesome spot, reminiscent  of Split Rock Canyon in the Robledo Mountains, but on a  larger and more spectacular scale.

I took many photos. I was much calmer ( despite the bear scat, threat of rain, etc.) than I had been on my previous week's hike, I ate my lunch and lingered awhile. On the way back, huge yellow and black butterflies followed me up the hill, or maybe I was following them. Canyon wren laughed. I startled a pair of whippoorwills ( or maybe poorwills or nighthawks) and they flew from the ground to some low oak branches and never took their eyes off of me till I had passed. I saw a long legged turkey too, and he threw me some backward glances as he hiked gingerly away from me.
 I was glad and my heart was light to be  part of such wonderfully wild place for few hours. To all the animals, who didn't want me to be there, I am grateful  because I, nonetheless, felt welcome.