Signboard at the at the Mill B trailhead, at the bottom of the wooden "stairs."  Click on image for a view of the informational signboard.

Images (.JPG format):

• IMG03695 - Bruce, looking at the Mill B North signpost.
  
• IMG03707 - A Clint, foraging for raspberries.  #3709 shows a Clint actually eating one...  (Photos taken by Ron.)
  
• IMG03713 - From along the switchbacks, a view up Mill B North Fork, showing an unnamed, rocky peak.  (USGS elevation of the peak is 9642.)
  
• IMG03715 - Mike, lounging lugubriously at the rocky outcrop, backdropped by Mill B South fork.
  
• IMG03716 - The obligatory group picture.  L->R:  Bruce, Gordon, Ron, Mike, Clint.
  
• IMG03735 - A view down the canyon, into the valley.
• IMG03736 - Aplenglow on some of the peaks across the canyon.
• IMG03737 - The rest of the group, just before starting back down the trail.

• The elevation profile of the hike - This shows the ups and downs of the trail. 
  
• A detailed map with the GPS track of the hike (plus surrounding landmarks, 375k)
  

This was another week where the weather limited our choices.

At the time that everyone was converging on the parking lot, the weather looked pretty grim:  There were lots of dark clouds, there were high winds that were blowing enough dust to make it difficult to see all of the way across the valley, there were some occasional lightning bolts, and several people on the radio reported heavy rain.

At the time most of us arrived at the parking lot, it was raining lightly - but the high wind and large raindrops make it seem worse than it was.  Under these conditions, we decided on a destination that wasn't too ambitious in case the weather got very much worse yet provided the opportunity for relative cover (in the event of a lot of lightning) yet had the opportunity to provide good views.

I believe that Gordon suggested Mill B North Fork - the one on the north side of the "S-curve" in the road.  While this particular trail has no real destination that is practical to obtain on a Wednesday Night Hike, it does have the aforementioned qualities (cover, views, etc.) so we decided on that and quickly piled into Mike's car while it was still raining and blowing.  On the way up (just past the Stairs power plant) Ron appeared on the radio, having just entered the canyon, wondering where we were going.  After relaying this information, the entire group converged on the "other" parking lot at the S-curve (the one that is surrounded on several sides by the canyon road - not the "Lake Blanch" trailhead.)

Just at the time that we started on the trail, the weather cleared up and was beautiful for the rest of the hike.  Being that we possess, at best, Epimethian foresight, we continued onward, according to our original plan.

The Mill B North Fork is one of those rarely-done Wednesday Night Hikes - and this is for several reasons.  Being that it is fairly short, it has, in the past, been mostly "reserved" for late-season hikes where daylight is at a premium.  Another reason has to do with the fact that, as mentioned before, it has no real destination, other than a place on the trail that one stops, looks down the canyon, into the valley, or wherever, and then turns around.  The final reason has to do with the fact that the stream in Mill B North fork is hungry.

Years ago, around 1993-1995, we did this same hike fairly early in the season while there were still some patches of snow around and the Mill B North fork stream was running fairly high.  On that occasion, we somehow found ourselves on the west site of the stream:  Knowing (by then) that the real trail was on the east side of the stream, we looked for a place to cross - not an easy task when the stream is running too high to simply step over rocks.

At some point, we improvised a bridge using a downed log moved into position by, I believe, Chris, KB7TPO.  While the rest of us crossed without any problem, the log broke as Chris was crossing it, dumping him into the fast-moving stream.  While he maintained his balanced, getting only his shoes and pants wet, his radio - a Yaesu FT-470 dual-band HT clipped to the sternum strap on his daypack, flipped off and disappeared into the torrent, never to be seen again.

Returning to 2006, walking along the trail on the east side of the stream, we were trying to figure out where, exactly, the loss of Chris's FT-470 might have occurred.  Our recollections were rather fuzzy, hence the question of the day.

This time, the hike up was very nice and only the larger-leafed plants belied the fact that it may have rained earlier:  The ground was hard-packed, dampened only enough to minimize dust and not enough to be muddy - except in those places where the Mill B stream seems to have "bifurcated" and flowed, in part, down the trail.

One nice treat was that the raspberries are just starting to ripen:  One could, without too much effort, find some nice, ripe berries - extremely sweet.  While present, they weren't too plentiful:  I opined that given the scarcity of the plants, one would likely starve trying to find enough of them to eat...

While I'd known that I had been on this trail before, It wasn't until we got to the start of the switchbacks that things started to become familiar.  At the switchbacks, the trail begins to leave Mill B fork and ascend the side of the ridge, crossing across the "front" (south) side of the ridge allowing a good all of the way up Mill B fork and, later, a view up and down Big Cottonwood canyon.

Along the south side of the ridge happens to be a rocky outcrop, and it was here that we stopped for a while, lazily lounging on the rocks and looking at the scenery.  Being that it was (now) such nice weather and that we didn't have much farther to go (either by intent or inclination) we stayed at the outcrop for quite a while as the sun sunk behind the ridge and the colors began to warm.

Eventually, we left the outcrop and, on a switchback a short distance up the trail, we found ourselves looking down into "Elbow Fork."  Now, this is the Big Cottonwood version of Elbow Fork - not to be confused with another tributary by the same name (above the Evergreen Picnic area) in Mill Creek Canyon, just west of Mount Aire.  As far as is known, there is no regular hiking trail into this Elbow Fork - and Keller doesn't even mention it in his book.

After a few minutes, we proceeded another few hundred feet up the trail and looked down the canyon toward the direction of the valley and the setting sun - and then turned around and headed down.  After what seemed to be a remarkably short amount of time, we found ourselves back at the parking lot - and it was still light enough to see!

After some vacillation between between Silver Fork Lodge and Pizza, the latter finally won out and most of us reconvened at the Rocky Mountain Pizza company for pizza, salad, and some bluegrass music.

According to Keller, while there is not written evidence to indicate such, Mill B North Fork was likely the source of some of the timber for the Mill at Mill B - and remnants of some logging trails would seem to support this.

The most prominent feature of this fork is "Hidden Falls" which, as its name suggests, was hidden - at least before the modern "S-turn" roadway was constructed. 

Interestingly, I can find no mention of the Big Cottonwood "Elbow Fork" in Keller's book...

Comments:

• If you want one (or more) of these images and wish some sort of adjustment (color, brightness, exposure, etc.) please let me know:  All of these image have been processed in some way.
• These images are in chronological order.
• No-one ever said that all of these images (or any of them) were good.  Some of them may have definite focus/exposure "issues."
• EXIF data is present for most of the images, showing time, date, and precise exposure conditions.  Recent versions of Irfanview will show this in the "View->Image Information->EXIF" tab.  Note that cropping/noise reduction required the use of another program which may have removed some/most of this EXIF data.
• Images suffixed with "h" (if any) are half-size.  This was done for images that were somewhat out of focus (due to misfocus or camera/subject movement associated with long shutter times) or those that required some extra noise reduction and had lost some detail anyway.
• All images taken using a Sigma SD-10 camera and were taken using the 18-50mm zoom lens, except as noted in the EXIF data.

Go to the 2006 Wednesday Night Hike page, or main Wednesday Night Hike index page.

Historical info about Twin Lakes was taken from "The Lady in the Ore Bucket" by Charles Keller