Wet Burnt Canyon - LIncoln National Forest

 We went out Friday afternoon to camp on a friend's property on 16 Springs Road. They've done a beautiful job of thinning the 20 acres to let the sun in and the grass grow. It was peaceful spot in the pines, where we could see across the valley to the ridge to the north. We watched deer as they watched us. Green hummingbirds came to say hi and each night the moon grew fuller.

 
Saturday morning we drove on the Carr Gap Canyon Road(FR 607) to the top of ( well nearly the top) of Wet Burnt Canyon. We hiked down what was once an old road, but now a single track wildlife trail in the drooping clumps of long grass.
 We saw elk early on and listened to jays and ravens talking in the trees. Small open areas had ungrazed meadows. Oaks and a few cherry trees grew among the pines and firs.  Unfortunately the streambed of white and gray limestone cobbles was completely dry along the 2 plus miles we hiked, although there is a spring much farther downstream on private property that can flow for  a ways.

We passed  primitive roads, not on any map, coming in from both the north and south, but saw no tire tracks of any kind in the canyon until we reached our turn around point near where  FR 607D comes in at the confluence with Lower Wet Burnt Canyon and an un-named tributary from the north. We sat in the shade near a limestone bluff contemplating what would become  a return trip with many rests and even a bit of carrying for our overheated dogs. The hike had been from 7800 to 7200 feet  elevation but it was in the mid-eighties and in the open areas it felt more like the mid-nineties.
 Luckily a few clouds had mercy on us and blocked the sun for few crucial stretches of the return trip.

 Even though this canyon is near well maintained roads, and not far from ranches and private homes at Sixteen Springs, because of lack of livestock,  it had a very remote wilderness feel to it, a definite rarity in much of the Sacramentos section of the Lincoln.
 We returned to the camp for lunch, and then set out to spend the rest of the warm afternoon at another friend's property on the Rio Peñasco. As we drove on the twisting and turning, but well designed and wonderfully maintained  Car Gap Canyon Road  as it  traversed ridge tops and dove into canyons for its entire length, I became quite curious at to why this route would even exist. My guess is that like many roads in this part of the Lincoln it was once a logging route, only this one got the star treatment from the Forest Service and now is a wonderful, if hopelessly remote, scenic drive.
 Down at the river  where it was shady and cool, the dogs forgot their travails of the morning and found new energy.  They waded, drank and smelled the smell of every creature that visits this oasis for a sip of water. I got in the water up to my neck, because it just seemed like the thing to do. Later, I noticed some fly leader and a box of flies still in my backpack, so I rigged up a cane pole with a stick and caught a couple of chubs. I was hoping for a trout, but I'm pretty sure all of the  many fish I could see in the clear water were chubs also.
 We drove back on the county road( C-9) that runs  from US 82 back to Sixteen Springs. This was a narrow rough  road that follows Elk Canyon and only improves when it returns to Forest Service land. What was surely once a scenic valley area through steep hills and limestone cliffs has been vastly altered by fires and relentless livestock grazing leaving it looking rather sad and in need of a lot of rain and  a lot of love.