Kelsey-Dorsey-Hog Hill Loop

This is a quick memo to record a 15 October hike in Upper Sycamore Canyon. As shown on the below map, the hike utilized part of Forest Road 538G, part of Kelsey Trail, all of Dorsey Trail and a very short section of Hog Hill Trail.

A more complete description of the trail, based on a 17 August 2016 scouting hike, is available online at:

http://ellisfprice.blogspot.com/2016/08/kelsey-dorsey-loop-hike.html.

GPS track of the Kelsey-Dorsey-Hog Hill Loop – recorded by Ellis Price on 160817

The trail map included above is taken from the report of that August scouting hike.

On the current hike, participants reporting seeing wild turkeys and deer; on the scouting hike we saw no wildlife other than a few birds and perhaps a ground squirrel or two.

Ellen McGinnis provided several photographs taken with her smartphone during the recent hike; most of these duplicated, or were very similar to, photographs included in the referenced scouting hike and I have included in this report only a group photograph of the hikers at the Dorsey Spring Trailhead and one looking across Sycamore Canyon.

Left to right: Mark Purcell, Gary Jacobson, Jim Gibson, Ellen McGinnis, Daisy Williams and Karl Sink –hike leader Dave Beach is not shown

The photograph taken looking across Sycamore Canyon was an excellent shot of a view along a ledge of loose rocks running through an opening in the forest and showing the craggy cliffs on the other side of the canyon. It includes a dead tree standing alone at the edge of the forest and low-lying undergrowth with fall colors backed by the green of the coniferous forest along the edges of the forest opening.

Looking across Sycamore Canyon to the craggy cliffs on the other side

This report was compiled by Ellis Price with assistance from Lila Wright and input from Ellen McGinnis.

1http://ellisfprice.blogspot.com/2016_08_01_archive.html