Summit Gulch
We weren't really sure what to expect from the big loop made at the north ends of Galena Gulch and Summit Gulch, so we did things in a strange order. We took part of Galena Gulch north from Humbug Hill to do Summit Gulch backwards, and it worked just fine. It ended up being a very scenic trail.
Summit Gulch at the south end is filled with scenery. At the switchback, we took lots of pictures of the big cabin collapsing in on itself between the two stretches of trail. The water was a yellowish orange as it ran down the creek, making everything look weird. We passed through the open gate and found ourselves at the top of the mill.
Bill opened his Jeep door and it just kept going. The strap that holds the door had broken, and it's always an unpleasant surprise when that happens. Our trail damage for 2012 was getting silly.
We took even more pictures of the mill and the structures around it. There were parts that looked like it was part of an old walkway. The mill would have been huge when it was working, but half of it had crumbled and fallen down the steep hill.
We saw the trail continuing ahead of us, and what looked like a spur turned left and downhill from the trail we were on. Walt went down the hill to explore and said the trail kept going. So we all went down the hill. There was a lot of parking so we got out again to go check out the mill from the bottom. It was a short walk to see the whole thing.
There was another trail that continued uphill so Monica took it. It ended up making some tight turns to make a triangle that just brought her back to the group. Weird!
We eventually left and worked our way down Summit Gulch. It soon became a nice, graded dirt road with houses on it. And then we were back on Tiger Road. We would definitely need to come check out the mill on a regular basis to see how well it makes it through the winters. It's so close to Tiger Road that it would be an easy and quick trip to check on it. If only we knew the name of the mill!
