The Clear Creek National Recreation Trail, Klamath Mountains Series, Episode 1

The Klamath Mountains are a remote and little known group of rugged mountains in Northern California and Southern Oregon. A true paradise for backpackers, these mountains contain many wilderness areas, including the Siskiyou Wilderness, the Red Butte Wilderness, the Kalmiopsis Wilderness, the Marble Mountain Wilderness, the Russian Wilderness and the Trinity Alps. I hope to visit all of them!

The Clear Creek National Recreation Trail is located in the Happy Camp/Oak Knoll Ranger District of the Klamath National Forest. It starts at the No Man's Trailhead and continues for 22 miles to Youngs Valley. Unfortunately, the trail has largely been abandoned by the Forest Service due to past fires. I made it only approximately 6.5 miles up the trail before I was blocked by a dangerous slide. The lower portions of Clear Creek are salmon and steelhead spawning waters with a few trout, too. The upper portion is trout water, and like the name implies, the water is remarkably clear. You can probably see into depths of over 30 feet deep in many of the deep holes of the stream. The trail is an optimum place to find solitude, but it's a shame that the trail receives very little use and is largely abandoned. The builders that constructed the trail back in the 1920s deserve credit for a monumental effort in labor and craftmanship for some portions of this trail. I hope that the forest service finds funding for restoration of the trail in the future so that the achievements of the original trail crews are never forgotten.