A friend of mine that is a retired instructor of the college here that taught outdoor classes have been telling this game trail that meanders along the bench of the 9,600' line of Haystack, Middle, and South mountains. He has been telling me that it would be a great bike/horse/hiking trail if all the dead fall was all cleared up. So I went up yesterday to check it out.
From getting instructions and directions on how to get there from two different people, it wasn't that hard to find where it starts. You would have to drive up Ephraim Canyon to the Philadelphia Flat meadow and park where a big yellow sign is that says "no motor vehicles allowed". They tried to shut down a road there but you can walk on it. I walked on it for a while until I got to above a chute in Bluebell.
Then on your left is a very visible game trail that looks like the picture above. My dog and I started walking on it and we were in business.
Two other friends of mine already started to try to clear this trail up a few years ago and I could see where they chain sawed. There's new dead fall already and they didn't really get that far on the clearing up. The first part is pretty much a mess and has a lot of dead fall. And the trail would need a little bit of work also.
After the top of Haystack Mountain part where all the trees are, I started walking on the south face of the mountain where it opens up and has a few aspens trees. This is the part where the trail gets better. You are getting into Jimmy's Fork.
Walking along Jimmy's Fork is where the game trail is really wide and more noticable. All we would have to do is ride it and it would be a sweet bike trail.
Then on Middle Mountain the trail meanders around just like Haystack Mountain and I saw somebody's footprints on this trail. Probably some hunter. There were a quite of few hunters up at the top of the mountain since it was opening day of deer hunt. They were looking down at me with their binoculars probably saying, "who is that crazy idiot doing down there....and that dog". Well, just going on a hike.
Then the trail gets better and better as I go more around Middle Mountain and down at South Mountain. The trail keeps going and going and I finally caved and hiked up to the top of South Mountain and walked back along the road back to Philadelphia Flat to my truck. I was thinking just for now, clear up the dead fall the southern most part of the trail and just ride down from the south face of Haystack or Jimmy's Fork starting there and ride to South Mountain and ride around all the way back to Philadelphia. That part would be less work and has a lot less dead fall to clear up. If this trail really existed as a bike trail, or a horse trail, or a hiking trail. It would be one of the best of the state. I'm serious. I couldn't believe how great the trail is and amazing the views were. The elk and deer knew where they were going. I think it would be like Park City's Mid Mountain Trail on steroids because of the high altitude and it stays right on 9,600' mark the whole way. I don't know, it would be great. It's like a dream trail. Here's the Strava workout of my hike: It took a good ol' 6 hours!
