At the beginning of my hike I’d added a waypoint on the trail where I thought I’d need to turn north to find the top of the hollow I wanted to try and hike down to Beaver creek. I was very surprised to find that the spot I’d picked was exactly where an old forest road turned north off the trail. Ginger was initially quite skeptical that I’d found an old road, as it wasn’t marked on the current map. I checked a 1930 map and sure enough there it was.
Pretty soon I was bushwhacking west down into the hollow, which due to the 100ft high and very steep southern side, I’ve dubbed ‘Deep Hollow.’ The hollow’s upper stretches were dry until I came across a spring — you can see all the green grass growing where the spring emerges in the top left of the above picture. The creek seemed to drop in a series of 10-15ft falls covered in ice. With the very steep sides and the ice coating, I decided that I’d found water, even if it wasn’t Beaver Creek, and that was good enough for me. The slope to the north of the hollow was much easier, and I climbed up to the top of the ridge to make camp.
Copyright © 2020 Gary Allman, all rights reserved.