Lamoille Canyon Road - closure update and recreational impacts

When they tell you that there's 6000 yards of debris covering the Lamoille Canyon Road, it's hard to imagine what that looks like.  The photos of the damage done by monsoonal rains just don't show the scale of what needs to happen to re-open Lamoille Canyon Road to vehicle traffic.  Nor does it give any inkling of how the Forest Service is going to get it done with the relative pittance (about $100,000 at the moment) they have to work with.  They have 20 - count 'em - landslides to clean up, most of which went from the ridge tops, over the road, and all the way to the creek in the canyon bottom.  There were more, but those smaller slides just created instability, not clean-up problems.

Ken and I toured the canyon this evening with hydrologist Robin Wignall from the USFS, one of  the professionals responsible for managing the response to the mudslides.  It was, honestly, fascinating to see the results of Mother Nature's handiwork.  And, as with all events like this, there are incidences of gobsmacking good luck, opportunities hidden in the debris, and a lengthy to-do list before full access to the canyon can be restored.

What Happened

For those following along at home - over the course of less than 72 hours, July 30th - August 1st, sections of Lamoille Canyon from about Pete's Corner to the Terraces Picnic grounds received up to eight inches of rain.  That's a quarter of the precipitation that Lamoille Canyon usually gets per annum.  In a matter of hours. That's the kind of storm that happens once in 500 years. 

In response, landslides came down from the steep slopes onto Lamoille Canyon Road, burying the road in massive rocks and silty mud as much as 10 feet deep.  At least half of the slide activity happened above the burn scar from 2018's Range Two fire, so while some of the damage is attributable to the fire, a lot of it isn't. Culverts under the road are blocked and/or washed away, and water continues to run down the road in places. Slopes above the road are unstable, and another sudden storm could have devastating effect. The Elko County Sheriff's Office had to mount an emergency evacuation effort to get campers out of the Thomas Canyon Campground, the first time because of fears of flash flooding, the second time because of the landslides blocking the road and threatening more rockfall. The Elko County Road Department also provided emergency response, including heavy equipment and manpower, to get the road passable by vehicles so that trapped recreationists could get out, and so that USFS crews could start working to rectify the damage.

Road damage at Pete's Corner

As of now, the road is closed to motorized vehicles at the first pullout, across from the Lamoille-Talbot trailhead. The closure is to allow construction/debris clearance crews to work more efficiently, and because there is significant instability above the road. At this point it's doubtful that an ambulance or other vehicle in a hurry could get through.  The road is open to foot traffic and bicycles all the way to road's end, and while we were there we saw bike tracks and a pair of trail runners fully enjoying the unusual solitude provided by the closures. 

The next steps

On our tour today, we saw four places where the road is damaged to the point where motorist safety would be compromised, but there is a lot of debris on the road with no inkling of what might be under all of that rock.  The USFS *just* finished a $900,000 chip seal project, so workers are doing everything possible to preserve the blacktop and not have to re-do a lot of road that just got rebuilt.

The agency has been able to rob Peter to pay Paul and come up with $100,000 from various pots, but that isn't close to enough money to clear the road and repair the damage.  They are working with other USFS districts in Utah and Idaho, that experienced damage from the same storm system, to apply for a grant from the Federal Highway Administration.  Unfortunately, the earliest those funds would come through would be after Thanksgiving, meaning that they'll be operating on a very slim shoestring until then.  There is other grant money out there that they can (and will) pursue, but none of that money will show up quickly, which means that repairs can't happen in a hurry.  It can only happen as the money comes in.  Since the road is officially a Forest route, not a state highway, state highway resources aren't available, and work done by either the state or county would need to be reimbursed.

The USFS is renting heavy equipment from all over the western US to use on the project - a hot commodity, as much of it is already committed to firefighting.  And - as a hot commodity, the price of heavy equipment rental is only going up.  In one instance, the USFS was outbid for heavy equipment by a large utility company, since the utility was able to pay more for the rental than the USFS can.  The first of the equipment the USFS has secured arrives tomorrow.  Because they have the equipment for such a short period of time, and because time is money when equipment is idling, the Canyon road will be closed to ALL traffic, including foot and bicycle traffic, while the equipment is operating.  The USFS just doesn't have the money to manage for any kind of ongoing traffic while repairs are going on.

They hope to have the road open to Thomas Canyon Campground in 4-6 weeks, obviously depending on what they find under the debris.  They are hoping to get at least parts of it open sooner.  Pete's Corner and points beyond are likely to be single-lane traffic until they can come up with money to repair the places where the slides chewed up the road and removed the retaining walls.  While it's likely that cars won't have problems getting through, people pulling camp trailers may have difficulties, and the USFS may have to limit the length of trailers that can pass that point.  It's all a big wait and see.

Groups that had the Lion's Camp rented still have access to that camp, and cabin owners still have access to their cabins.  People who had spaces rented at Thomas Canyon Campground will not be able to access the campground until the road is officially re-opened.  Terraces Picnic Area is inaccessible due to road closures, but Powerhouse Picnic Area is operating normally.

Some crazy good luck

The slides ran right through the cabin area - without burying any cabins

Even though the road is spectacularly buried in a lot of places, this event COULD have been a whole lot worse than it was. Nobody died, which was a very real possibility. Thomas Canyon Campground was undamaged. The cabins were mostly undamaged, although the slides came right through the cabin area and the cabin access road is impassable in places. The USFS had completed a scaling project in the Narrows just last year, and so a lot of rocks that otherwise would have been candidates for smashing into cars and bikes had already been removed. The Backcountry Horsemen and Friends of Nevada Wilderness had re-established the old Colonel Moore Trail after the 2018 Range Two fire, meaning that trail access to Liberty Lake and points beyond is still available. The dead mahoganies burned in the fire remain rooted enough to provide some slope stability, and likely helped prevent worse damage. The Scout Camp was undamaged, as were the hiking trails up Right Fork, Thomas Canyon, and at Road's End. The road damage isn't catastrophic, and with some work the road can be made passable again. Some of the dispersed camping near the Lion's Camp is inaccessible due to a road washout, but the road is repairable and the bridge over Lamoille Creek was undamaged. The storm cells don't appear to have been as ferocious above the Terraces Picnic Ground, so (perhaps amazingly) the Verdi Chutes didn't slide. The bridges on the Island and Lamoille Lake Trails weren't damaged. The Nature Trail was largely undamaged, as well.

What this means for recreation

HIKERS - The Lamoille Canyon terminus of the Ruby Crest Trail, as well as the Island Lake trail, aren't going to be accessible by vehicle any time soon.  Those planning on Ruby Crest Trail trips are best served by exiting/entering via the Colonel Moore Trailhead, on the Ruby Valley side of the mountains.  Would-be Lamoille Canyon dayhikers have access to the Lamoille-Talbot trailhead at the mouth of the canyon, or can walk up the road a few miles to access the Right Fork and Thomas Canyon trails - while the heavy equipment isn't operating.  The Lamoille Canyon end of the old guide trail from Pete's Corner to Talbot Canyon was washed out... hopefully money for re-establishing the trail can be part of the Pete's Corner repair project.

CYCLISTS - The road is open to bicycles to Road's End, as long as the heavy equipment isn't operating.  The road is passible by road bikes, but there is a significant amount of gravel on the road, and a gravel bike might be safer.  The road up to Pete's Corner is largely clear.  

HUNTERS - Those scouting hunts are going to face the same limitations as hikers.  The road is closed to all motorized vehicles just past the first pullout, so scouts will need to travel on foot or horseback.  Access to the high country for hikers and horsemen is via the Colonel Moore Trail, the Overland Trail, Krenka Creek, Secret Pass, Rattlesnake Canyon, Soldier Canyon or Harrison Pass.

The Dead Snag access trail is largely gone

ROCK CLIMBERS - The Sport Rocks area is largely undamaged, although there is significant instability and the risk of rockfall is real.  The Buttresses are largely unaffected.  The approach to Dead Snag Wall was one of the more damaged portions of the canyon - the small stream crossing on the approach trail became a raging torrent and dumped tons of rock and debris on the road.  The access trail is largely gone.  Odin's was a massive wash-out... conditions depending, it may now be a very interesting alpine climb/ski descent in the winter, to rival Terminal Cancer Couloir.

Odin's... need snow for this one.

One of the East Side Climbs - now steeper and more interesting

ICE CLIMBERS - The Canyon's ice climbers are likely to have a number of tasty new climbs to explore.  Many of the gullies that form ice are now a lot longer, steeper and cleaner than they were before the storm.  There is a newly-exposed formation below Scout Camp that looks long and steep enough to be interesting, with a short and simple approach (a real gift, there).  There were significant flows in a couple of the East Side Climbs, and the new climbs could prove to be a lot more interesting than their predecessors.  Ice Capades experienced some flows, but nothing that would change climb characteristics.  Upper and Lower Slabs, Delay of Game, and the other popular ice climbs appeared largely unaffected.

SNOWMOBILERS/SKIERS - The road will be open to snowmobiles and skiers all winter.  The slides had no effect on the approach to Terminal Cancer Couloir, or on the couloir itself.

RV CAMPERS - The Thomas Canyon Campground should be accessible again to RV campers in 4-6 weeks, although there may be some limitations to vehicle length.  Those using dispersed camping near the Lion's Camp will lose access to the most upcanyon campsites, until the USFS can repair the washed-out road.  Campsites downstream from the washout are unaffected.

Silver linings

Perhaps surprisingly, there are a few opportunities that this crazy event has presented.  One opportunity - all of the debris is now a whole lot of potential construction material that can be used to repair roads and trails.  As an example - with some forethought some of it can be used to repair the Lamoille Canyon end of the Ruby Crest Trail - the first half mile or so is incredibly eroded, and in need of material.  The potential is there for Historic Roads and Trails grant money designated for repairs to be used for building better trails than were there previously - say, for instance, the Talbot-Lamoille Trail, whose Lamoille Canyon terminus was completely wiped out.

Insert new trailhead here

As was the case after the Range Two fire, the slides are going to become part of the lore of the canyon, and will force people to look at the canyon in new ways. Our old friend is different now.  I remember after the last huge slide event more than two decades ago, when Thomas Canyon Campground was heavily damaged, the local talk was that the canyon would never be the same.  

A decade later those old slide scars were still findable, if you knew where to look, and the re-routed creek through Thomas Canyon Campground is a geology lesson, if anything.  The canyon ISN'T the same, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.  The canyon recovered from the last slide cycle, it is recovering from the catastrophic fire, and it will recover from this, too. 

Black is the color of my heart today

Lamoille Canyon burned.  This photo is from around 3:30 PM, September 30, 2018.

The canyon was sacrificed to stupidity. To people who didn't have the common sense to put a rifle range someplace where a fire could be contained, and to close it down - or at least staff it - during extreme fire danger. To people who ignored another, smaller, fire started by shooters using the range a couple of years ago, who ignored another, smaller fire just west of the range a couple of weeks ago.

To people who ignored red flag after red flag after red flag.

The people who started the fire were the apex of a huge heap of people making stupid, selfish decisions all based on their BY GOD given rights TO SHOOT THEIR GODDAMNED GUNS ANYWHERE AND ANYWHEN THEY BY GOD FEEL LIKE IT.  High winds and extreme fire conditions be damned.  And reality be damned, too - it's been amply demonstrated that many, many people in this area aren't at all responsible when it comes to firearm ownership and use. People who consider themselves responsible firearm owners have a responsibility to face the FACT that a large percentage of people who own guns AREN'T responsible.  DON'T make good decisions.  Since our Constitution says that any Tom, Dick and Harry can buy a gun, responsible gun owners need to be responsible enough to establish and maintain boundaries that safeguard the rest of us from these asshats' complete fucking stupidity.

The Second Amendment crowd goes on and on about onerous firearm regulation.  Bullshit.  I fail to see the regulation, here.  Whoever started this fire likely bought their gun legally by flashing a drivers license and passing a laughable joke of a background check.  There was no requirement for education, no requirement for the most rudimentary demonstration of skills and knowledge.  No requirement that this idiot show that he knew enough to not be out there shooting in high wind in dry grass on a red-flag fire condition day.  On a day when we hadn't had rain in months.

Spring Creek Association posted a few rules for their rifle range, assuming these idiots would read and follow them.  Well, guys, they didn't.  Nor did they use an iota of common sense.  And that, my friends, was entirely predictable.  As were the consequences.

Lamoille Canyon burned.

Road at the mouth of the canyon.  The Secret-Lamoille trailhead area burned, as did the remains of the historic flume.  Firefighters saved Ruby Dome Ranch... the fire burned down to the corrals where cowboys were scrambling to finish the work they'd started early in the day before the fire overwhelmed them.

Right Fork Canyon

The access point for Terminal Cancer Couloir.

Scout Camp, including the ruins of the lodge built during the Great Depression.

What remains of the historic lodge.  It makes me want to cry.  So many memories there.

See a single word about fire safety or extreme fire conditions? 
I don't either.

As of today the USFS anticipates the canyon road will be closed through November 30th.  The Spring Creek Rifle Range and Campground are closed until further notice.  That means access to the following trails is closed:  Secret-Lamoille Trail, the Ruby Crest Trail (Lamoille Canyon trailhead), Island Lake Trail, Right Fork Trail, Talbot-Lamoille Trail, Thomas Canyon Trail, Hennen Canyon Trail (accessing Griswold Lake and Ruby Dome), Seitz Lake Trail.

Cold Lakes

The Cold Creek drainages don't get visited much. The only people who really get up there seem to be hunting guides and their clients, locals setting up a fishing camp and a resident rancher whose family has run sheep and now cattle up there for generations. It's really too bad, because Cold Creek offers all of the spectacular beauty and intimate loveliness that Lamoille Canyon does, without the highway, cars and madding crowds.

I haven't wandered around that part of the range since I was a kid. My dad used to hunt deer along the sagebrush benches in that area, and it's still a popular spot with hunters. I'd never been up to Cold Lakes, although it's been on my Ruby Mountain bucket list for many years. My friend Bruce had a rare day off in town, and I was feeling a bit spunky, and so we decided to head out on a voyage of exploration and see if we could make it up to the lakes.

This trip is usually done on horseback and as an overnight (at least), and after having walked the route I can understand why. It is an absolutely fantastic hike in the autumn - really hard to beat - but there's not a lot of shade and there is a fair bit of elevation gain. It'd be hotter than Hades in the summer. Not only that, but there are three big stream crossings that would be pretty challenging when the water's up, making a spring or early summer trip hard to manage. There's a lot of evidence of huge stream flows along the creek. If walking's your bag, wait until fall, when the sunshine is a welcome partner rather than a gumption-drain, and the creek crossings are fun places to teeter on river rock as you cross.

COLD LAKES

Length:  13.4 miles round trip from trailhead

Elevation Gain:  3520'

Difficulty:  Class D - R (difficult with route finding)

Time required: Day hike or overnight

The Cold Lakes are a pair of lovely glacial lakes at the head of Middle Cold Creek canyon, nestled beneath one of the iconic and most photographed peaks in the Ruby Mountains, the Old Man in the Mountains. It's a remote, beautiful area, with a decent old trail that's generally easy to follow, and good trout fishing in the lakes once you get there.

There are a couple of obstacles you'll need to overcome, however, before you even set foot on the trail to Cold Lakes. One, access to this trailhead is through private property and you'll need to get permission from the property owner to go through. The good news is that these guys are long time local ranchers, they're great about access, and if you can catch them at home they're generally happy to give you the combination to the gate. The only caveat to that is when it's really muddy up there - they don't want it trashed and they'll keep the gate locked if it's wet. I won't do them the discourtesy of posting their phone number here, but you can call the rec manager at the USFS, 775-752-3357 or Joe Doucette with the Nevada Department of Wildlife, 775-777-2300 and they'll tell you how to reach them.

The second obstacle comes with trying to find the actual trailhead. There was a sign, once upon a time, but it's not there now and if you don't know how to find it you're in for some very steep ups and downs. Fortunately there's a bridge crossing right off the bat, and if you can find the bridge you're golden.

To get to the Cold Lakes trailhead, head south from Elko on Lamoille Highway, drive through the town of Lamoille to the T intersection at the Lamoille Church. Check your odometer. Turn left at this T onto a gravel road, turn right at the next T, and follow this road as it zig-zags through Lamoille's beautiful ranch country. You'll pass a nice ranch house at the bottom of a hill, with haystacks across the road. Follow the road as it climbs and curves around to the right. At 6.3 miles or so, you'll see a right turn that goes up a hill to a microwave station. Take this road to the locked gate, and open said gate with the combination you got from making all of those phone calls. Check your odometer again.

Drive through the gate on the good two-track road (passable by passenger cars) and follow it to an old homestead ranch. Drive past the ranch house through the gate by the corrals. You'll come to a fork in the road with what once was a pretty useful directional sign, now missing. Take the left fork and drive up a hill, paralleling an irrigation ditch. At the top of the hill, at about 1.6 miles from the locked gate, look for a bridge crossing the ditch on your left. That's your trailhead... park here.

It's pretty easy to get turned around right off the bat, because there are a lot of very predominant cow trails leading off of the main trail, and no signs or rock cairns differentiating the real trail from the rest. Count the drainages and don't take any turns. You'll cross one little dip right after the bridge, and you'll climb up and over to an almost immediate second drainage. That's the south fork of Cold Creek. Cross it, climb up again and over another hill to a much larger drainage - the main Cold Creek drainage, which is the one you want. Cross the creek onto a private ranch road and hang a right into a beautiful tunnel of aspens.

There is a lot of evidence of very high stream flows here. The rancher who runs cows here told me that the creek flooded big-time a few years ago. It took him a long time to clear this out. He and the local hunting guides are pretty much the only ones keeping this trail brushed out these days. The USFS trail crews rarely, if ever, get up here.

You won't go far along this road before you come to a new "National Forest Boundary" sign, followed by a much older sign marking the trail fork to North Cold Creek Canyon and to Cold Lakes, which are at the head of the Middle Cold Creek canyon.

The North Cold Creek crossing, right before it merges with the much larger middle fork.

Once you cross the creek, the trail starts climbing up the spine of a sagebrush and mahogany ridge. The trail right here pretty much goes straight up the fall line, as do many sections of the Cold Lakes trail. There's been significant trail damage over the years, from water and from the thousands of hooves that have pounded it for a century or so. By far, though, the majority of the damage has been done by water erosion.

The trail flattens out when it reaches the ridge, giving you a welcome respite from the climb. It starts contouring around the ridge on a very wide bench that has the look and feel of having been a road many years ago. It is quite plausible that it WAS a road once upon a time, as local lore says that the Southern Pacific Railroad used to take timbers out of this canyon back in the 1800s. There are a lot of very old stumps here and higher up the canyon, giving credence to the story.

At about 2.5 miles you're back in the aspens again, heading towards two more crossings of Middle Fork Cold Creek. Immediately after the first of those crossings you'll come to a trail junction. It isn't on current maps, but the 1967 USFS Forest Users Map shows a trail that leaves from about here and goes over the ridge to the South Fork Cold Creek drainage. We didn't follow it, so I couldn't tell you if that's the old trail or not. There are easier ways into that drainage these days, in any case.

After the next creek crossing you'll walk into an aspen wood with another unsigned trail junction at about 3.4 miles. Take the right fork, and you'll eventually reach a hunter's camp at about 3.7 miles.

It's obvious that the Basque sheepherders used this camp before the hunters did, because there are a lot of great old tree carvings through this stretch. We found legible ones dating back to the 1940's. This one, left by a fairly prolific gentleman named Pierre, was apparently his annual calendar.

Once you pass the hunter's camp, the trail gets quite a bit steeper, averaging an 18% grade. There are significant areas of water damage on the trail from here to the lake, as well as a few opportunities to lose the main tread and utilize cow trails as you continue upwards. The cow trails are in better shape than the main trail in a lot of spots. Generally speaking, once you leave the hunters camp, the trail leaves the creek and hugs the climber's left side of the drainage.

There are great views of the back side of the Old Man of the Mountains through here.

After a couple of steep, erosional climbs, you'll come to a set of rock cairns marking your way through a spot where the tread is pretty much missing. When you reach the first cairn, look to your right for the next one. The cairns in front of you mark what is essentially a cut switchback... the right route is much easier.

Once you pass the cairns the tread is very easy to find, even when snow-covered. There are some switchbacks and rock work to show you that someone did, in fact, construct this trail once upon a time.

It's truly lovely through here, with the austere alpine beauty that has made the Rubies famous. Best of all, you'll very likely have the place to yourself.

The final approach to the lake is pretty steep with a lot of trail damage, and runs along the climber's left side of the outflow stream from the lake.

Last few steps - you won't see the lakes until you're about standing in them.

The Cold Lakes sit in a rocky glacial cirque at just short of 10,000'. There's great fishing up here, and most visitors come up with horses and plan on staying several nights. We found a fully-stocked fishing camp between the lakes, complete with saw, shovel, tent, MREs, pots and pans, fishing pole... and wall art. Quite homey.

Overall, this is a great hike - well worth doing. Next time I'll bring a backpack and fishing pole, and head up a few weeks earlier before the lakes freeze up. This trip, though, was a fast one, and Bruce and I had to take off from the lakes pretty quickly to get back to the truck and beer before dark.

Here's a map of the route. Click on it to make it bigger.

No, you can't get to Verdi this way, yet...

So, apparently, folks are hiking up the Secret-Lamoille trail these days, fishing poles in hand, hoping to bring home a nice trout dinner from Verdi Lake.

I hate to tell you this but you can't get through to Verdi yet via this trail.  Not only that, you probably won't be able to get through to Verdi on this trail for a couple more years at the rate they're going.

Progress on trail construction is happening, but it's happening slowly.  The crews are up there working again this summer pushing the trail through, but they still have some rough country and thick brush to cross.

The trail is beautiful and challenging and a great day hike or mountain bike ride, but right now it dead ends a little less than half-way to Talbot Canyon where the crews are working.  Walk or ride on up, tell them "hi" and thank them for sweating in the sun on our behalf.

And in the meantime, if you want to get to Verdi, you can head up over the top of the Lamoille-Talbot ridge above the Terraces Picnic Area or you can make your way up the old guide trail that takes off at about the Glacier Overlook.  Neither route is for sissies, and the old guide trail fades into the brush before you get to the top of the ridge.  One of these days some trail fairies should go up there and finish brushing that trail out, but at the moment it eventually becomes very difficult to find.

The easiest way to get to Verdi right now - at least if you're willing to hike 16 miles or so round-trip - is through private property at the mouth of Talbot Canyon.  The folks who own it are good folks and are pretty open-minded about access.  You can pick up the old Secret-Lamoille trail behind their property and follow it to where it joins the Talbot Creek trail by a huge rock cairn.  Call Nancy Taylor at the USFS for contact information for this and other access points in the Rubies - 775-752-3357.  You can also call Joe Doucette at the Nevada Department of Wildlife for access information, 775-777-2300.