Has anyone been up (or down) the old Cartridge Creek trail in the past couple of years. I was up and over Cartridge Pass from Muro Blanco about 20 years ago and the trail was pretty decent at that time. I've never been down Cartridge Creek to the Middle Fork though. Secor paints a grim picture of the trail condition, anybody been there recently?

in '03. i actually went up from triple falls after coming down the unnamed creek from dumbbell lakes. *UGH*. and double *UGH*. that was miserably dense. the section from triple falls up was not near as bad and i was able to pick a way, sometimes seeing the old trail, other times not. path of least resistance was not that bad. down to mf kings, i have no idea.

if any of that helps...

I have hiked up the trail from the Middle Fork on my way to Marion Peak last summer. It is steep but in reasonable shape and easy to follow. The trail is a little hard to find coming from below. I just started an ascending traverse towards the west on the southwest side of the big boulder field until I intercepted it.

Michael Graupe wrote:I have hiked up the trail from the Middle Fork on my way to Marion Peak last summer. It is steep but in reasonable shape and easy to follow. The trail is a little hard to find coming from below. I just started an ascending traverse towards the west on the southwest side of the big boulder field until I intercepted it.

Michael, you hiked up from the South Fork, not the Middle Fork. I had prepared a similar response when I realized the OP was asking about that section of the trail north of Cartridge Pass.

Bob Burd wrote:

Michael Graupe wrote:I have hiked up the trail from the Middle Fork on my way to Marion Peak last summer. It is steep but in reasonable shape and easy to follow. The trail is a little hard to find coming from below. I just started an ascending traverse towards the west on the southwest side of the big boulder field until I intercepted it.

Michael, you hiked up from the South Fork, not the Middle Fork. I had prepared a similar response when I realized the OP was asking about that section of the trail north of Cartridge Pass.

Oh, sorry! My mistake. Should have read the post more carefully and mixed up Middle and South Fork.

Thanks for the report. I was in the initial planning stages of a trip next summer from Bench Lake to Simpson Meadow. Since I had previously been up the old Cartridge Pass trail on the south side and it was OK I just assumed the entire trail was still passable. Then I looked at Harrison's map and he showed no trail at all. Normally you assume trails on the north facing slopes become impassable slower than the south facing slopes since the brush grows faster on the south side. In this case I suppose the lower elevations on the north side account for the accelerated trail degredation.