Ballard Road
Though we had already done more than half of Pennock Pass, it was Ballard Road and Greer Road South we were really looking forward to for the day. We found the trailhead easily enough and headed south. It would be a day of wandering around.
We saw the trailhead for Greer Road South but we decided to save it for later. Ballard Road is an "out and back" trail so we would pass by it again.
The trail was muddy, with big ruts in spots. We started seeing lots of cars coming in the other direction -- cars, not four-wheel drive or AWD vehicles. It was slick and muddy, and all of the drivers were young. Where was everyone coming from?
When we got to the first spur we decided to head over to the fun part of Greer Road South. It wasn't long before we found where all of the cars were coming from. There were many cars parked near the really muddy curve, and we found an older model stuck in a deep and muddy rut. The driver and other onlookers seemed pretty stoned and clueless, so we stopped to help. Monica winched the car out enough to get it rolling again, and we kept going.
We stopped soon after that to have lunch in the trees. It looked like it was going to rain, and it did at the end of our lunch. It was a good time to stop, but we ate listening to loud music from the kids in the mud at the bottom of the hill.
We did the far end of Greer Road South and headed back to finish Ballard Road. By the time we got to the muddy area the police were there in two trucks and all of the kids looked pretty unhappy. The cops asked us if we were "the Jeeps" so apparently they heard the story. We said we were, and that's all they wanted to know so we kept going.
The southern spur on Ballard Road is narrower and more interesting. It's a bit rocky, and it goes by many piles of old timbers. We stopped at the far end and took a break. The timbers were definitely weird and we couldn't figure them out. Why were they there? Weird!
We headed out to the trailhead. Julie and Jerry didn't do the other section of Greer Road South, so Monica, Matt, and Roger continued on. It ended up being fairly uneventful, anyway. Ballard Road was definitely interesting!
Reports from Other Days: 2
Use the arrows or dots to flip through the previews of the other reports for Ballard Road. Click one of them to read more and see all of the photos from that day.
