Fourmile Creek Exploring

 Bloodroot emerging 

Four Mile Creek Exploring

Saturday March 31, 2018

and Saturday April 7, 2018

Dana, Kenny and Gabriel Koogler 

Pictures are here: Four Mile Creek Falls

Four Mile Creek Falls Directions 

  Our life has been crazy since last November.    I can't name a time we had more upheaval than we've had this year.  We still have managed to get out and explore a fair amount. I don't usually have time to blog about it until long afterward, but I eventually get it done.   We sometimes take baby Gabriel to do things that he is very keen to experience, but sometimes it ends up being a bad idea.   Exploring 

Fourmile Creek Falls area was one such adventure.   We'd been before and figured it was relatively short so it would be ok.   We found out different far into this trek.  

      We headed out on a beautiful Spring morning into the far reaches of Morgan County out near 

Deer Lodge.    We stopped by Darren and Heidi Sloan's new place to visit.  We hiked around their woods with them.  Beautiful place and awesome people.   We finally tore ourselves away and continued our days plans.   We stopped once more at the Sonic Drive In to eat right in the middle of

Wartburg.  We got everyone fed. Changed a very poopy diaper and set off again.   

    We finally arrived at the Hall Cemetery and parked.  We took a couple drive bys to identify the turn in correctly.   Road work has been done in the area and the appearance is altered.  We finally located Luke Hall Road where we needed to turn in.    It is an odd place to spot. It is residential with houses clustered around it tightly.  It appears to be just someone's drive way rather than a public road.

We got out at the cemetery and set off down the red dirt continuation of Luke Hall Road.   Google maps shows the road going all the way down to Clear Creek and fording the stream.  We wanted to find out if that was true?  I suspected it was ghosted in on the map and there was actually no bridge or road on the far side.  I was correct.   There is a stream ford there but it would have been rather tough to do today. The water levels were really up. 

 Deep hole of water on Clear Creek

Looking straight across Clear Creek at the ford.  No bridged crossing. No continuation of road.  

Tons of debris washed up on that point of land across the stream. 

Lots of water in Fourmile Creek today. 

    

  We turned back round and headed toward Fourmile Creek where it merges with Clear Creek.

Here we parked and loaded up Gabriel and the backpack.   We took turns carrying him.  It was only 0.7 miles from the RZR to the falls, but the trail comes and goes. The terrain is rocky and there are downed trees to work around.   We'd have to take our time and be careful.   

Kenny parks the RZR.


Peek-a-Boo!


I see you! Gabe peeps at Nanny

Sunny forest and a happy baby.

Kenny totes Gabriel to start out.  It was not long til he was ready for me to take him!

     We had been to this falls one time previous and it was June.  The water was high and we ended up at that time having to get IN the stream to approach the falls the final couple hundred feet.  It was warm enough today we figured it would not be a big deal if we ended up having to do the same.
We started seeing a few Spring wildflowers along the forest floor.

 Yellow violets

 Allegheny Spurge

Round lobed hepatica 

  

    We made it to just past this pretty cascade along Fourmile Creek. The stones grew so slick we were struggling to keep our balance.  I had Gabriel on my back and stumbled. I went down catching myself on my hands.   We were fine, but it was absolutely clear we were taking too much of a risk trying to carry our sweet little boy and manage to walk in the creek.   We would have to head back and finish this another time.   It wasn't worth getting him hurt.

Gabe and Papaw throwing rocks.  

   We decided instead to use the rest of the day to explore by riding along Clear Creek. We wondered how far the trail went?  It headed westward, but we didn't know much about it.  We got back to the RZR , loaded ourselves up and went to find out.   Gabe got to sit on Papaw's lap to "drive".   He was loving every minute of this.    Clear Creek passed by on our left deep green and beautiful today. The sunbeams shone into the RZR .   Gabe eventually got sleepy from the warm sun and we didn't make it far before his little head was nodding. He cuddled up against Kenny and napped.  

 Above: Looking upstream on Clear Creek. You can see the red maple buds.

Clear Creek was as green and shiny as an emerald today.  Beautiful!

    

Sleepy Gabe and Papaw.... we had to head back to the truck before we quite finished checking out the trail along Clear Creek.   Gabriel was soooo sleepy.    We made it back to the truck and got baby a dry diaper, a bottle and his Dissy blanket. He was a sweet boy, but he did not sleep the rest of the way home as I expected! He is starting to ride better on trips in the vehicle though. Less fussing.  Tolerates traveling for slightly longer now.    We made it home and determined we'd go back next weekend to make it all the way to the falls. 

Saturday April 7, 2018--Making it to the Falls    

  Gabriel was with his mom and other grandma today.  We loaded up our gear and the RZR and set out to complete our adventure.   We went by Twin Bridges. I wanted to follow in the footsteps of one of my photography and exploring idols.  Paul Mashburn  of "Mushys Moochings" blog ... had recently visited and photographed the confluence of Cook Creek and White Creek at Twin Bridges.

It was stunningly beautiful.  Captured as only he could.   I knew my photos would not do it the same justice, but it was just too pretty not to try to see it for myself.   It did not disappoint. 

Confluence of Cook and White Creek.  Twin Bridges road is named for the side by side bridges. 

One now just for pedestrians and the other autos.  

   With it just being us today we were able to accomplish our objectives very quickly. No more hunting round for the turn off today and changing diapers and such.    We went and headed out Clear Creek trail as far as we could go just to satisfy our curiosity. The trail peters out in a mile or so past where we had stopped before.  It is nice, but nothing great.   A side drainage I suspected might have a falls on it turned out to be nothing either.   We went back down to Fourmile Creek and parked.  It seemed like no time til we were at the first crossing.  We made it across much easier today since we weren't toting baby and the water levels were less.    We also found out today that it IS possible to approach the falls all the way on the river right.  Storms have dropped trees and cleared the thick vegetation making travel possible on that side of the creek. The terrain is not too bad either.  

A normal trip would have you crossing the creek once and that should be it.  

   We were not disappointed. Fourmile Creek was raging today and beautiful as ever.   

60 Foot high Fourmile Creek Falls drops into a rock amphitheater.  

Below is a short video of the falls 

    We got done in such good time we decided to take the other way home heading west through Deer Lodge and coming out in Clarkrange.  We'd go down the interstate and make it to Brady Mountain. I had something to investigate today and thankfully we had time to do it.