Grouse Creek is Brian Flegler’s favorite trail and it’s for good reason. At seventeen miles round trip to Arrow Rock dam and 4k feet elevation it was a fun run down, and a nice hike out.
The trail traverses left in this photo, then switches back to the right and follows the valley all the way to Arrow Rock reservoir. I lost track of the stream crossings, maybe eight or so depending on what you count as a stream, and I’m sure later in the year there are fewer, but I couldn’t help but think what a great horse trail this would be.
Once we made it to the beach at the lake, we skirted the eastern shore looking for a route to Guess Creek. He was planning a future loop run and wanted to see how easy the two creeks would be to connect.
I followed him along the shore line for awhile, but the side slope leading to the water was getting steeper and the hiking turned to scrambling on steep crumbly dirt and rock. I started scoping out the grassy bluff above the water cut and decided on a vertical scramble to get to the grass above.
Once on the grass, I continued up another ten yards or so until I came to a game trail traversing the hill. A slip from here would mean a short tumble to the top of the dirt/rock cliff and either into the water, or onto the rocks below. But the footing was better and I moved along pretty fast. I figured I’d be passing Brian below at some point but I could only see the shoreline below every now and then and didn’t see Brian. I whistled loud enough to hear the echo off the far bank but he didn’t reply.
I started getting a little worried and started to spend more time looking for him below than I did hiking. I rounded a corner and could see the slope ahead of me and a good portion of the shoreline below, but Brian was nowhere to be seen. I started to wonder if he had turned back to find me, and turned back myself.
I decided to head down the trail on the far side of the inlet so I could get a good view of the entire shoreline as well as the slope above, but still. No Brian. I started to think he may have slipped into the water and sunk below the surface. Thoughts started bouncing around in my head of how I would explain his death to our boss, his wife and kids, the media.
Finally, after scanning the hillside for awhile, I spotted him making his way back to the beach. We both got a laugh out of our miscommunication and headed down to the dam.
This is one of those trails where it’s easy to go in because it’s nearly down hill the whole way, and we knew that hard part was yet to come.
Brian still had some running in his legs, but I elected to hike my way out (which is what I said I’d do before we even started out). And it was a long hike on tire legs, but very enjoyable nonetheless. On the way in, my eyes were focused on the trail right in front of my feet. On the way out I was able to look around and take in the sights. We met at the saddle and headed back to the car.
We agreed if we come back to do the long loop, we’ll bring a lunch!