24. August 2008 by Tony & Tami Buthman.

We had a great turn out for the Hitt Mountain Tool Cache project. Ten members and one guest worked on two trails. Eleven head of riding stock and eight head of pack stock were brought to support the project. The riders on the 268 trail reported it was an enjoyable ride, with great views, ending close to the Sturgill Peak Lookout.

The 270 trail was difficult at first to find due to numerous cow paths and healed over tree blazes, but was successfully found after some scouting around. There were quite a few down trees, and a lot of brushing done. Approximately 2.5 miles of the trail was cleaned.

As usual, we had delicious group meals and lots of good conversation. We have some fantastic camp cooks in our group.

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12. August 2008 by Rob Adams.

If your interested in a nice ride up West mountain with interesting trails and nice views I can recommend that you make a loop ride out of the Wilson Corral trail [TR135] and the Gabes Peak trail [TR136]. Truck / Trailer parking can be either at the Wilson Corral trail head or Rammage Meadows camp ground where the Gabes Peak trail head is located. I recommend you ride up [TR135] and down [TR136] but either way works nicely.   The Gabes Peak trail has some climbs that make it slow going up.

Wilson Corral trail follows a creek in tall timber for the first couple of miles and then crosses a string of meadows ending up north west of the Radar Dome on Snow Bank mountain. In the meadows the trail gets quite indistinct, as cattle summers graze this area. You will see trees marked, and rock carrions. Continue up the meadows until you can not go any higher without dropping down into a small valley, around 7400 feet.

Look to your right and you will see a small meadow down through the trees and a rocky hillside between you and the radar dome. The trail heads down the hill through the trees into the north end of this meadow. You really don’t want to cross the rocky slope as the going is dangerous on very loose rocks. A nice place to give your horses a drink is located in this meadow.

From here the trail heads south and is easy to follow. You continue south along this grassy valley until you come to a line shack. At this shack, the Gabe’s Peak trail branches off to the right. The trail go left of some large rocks and works it’s way along a south facing slope into a series of meadows along a ridge. Stay in these meadows and on the crest of the ridge and you will have little trouble following the trail. The trail leaves this ridge on the north side and works its way through some large timber coming out on an old logging road. Follow this road to Rammage Meadows. Robbin, his grandson Al, and I rode this loop trail easily on a Saturday leaving the trail head around 10:00 and being back at camp in time for cocktails. This assumes that trail maintenance has been performed prior to making this ride, else it will take a bit longer.

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