cub creek - trail #40

Description

The Cub Creek Trail, in combination with intersecting trails, provides a number of loop hikes of varying lengths in the Upper Bear Creek basin. The trail traverses varied terrain, crossing glacial moraines, through open country of old burns and into dense, quiet forest.

From the trailhead, the trail climbs westerly onto the ridge between the Elk Creek and Bear Creek drainages. 3.7 miles in, the North Elk Creek Trail comes up from Staunton State Park to the south. This new trail is open to mountain bikes, as is the Cub Creek trail from the junction back to the trailhead, so expect possible mountain bike traffic.

From this junction, it’s another couple miles to the Wilderness boundary. Once in the Wilderness, the trail descends through quiet forest on a section of trail which sees little use to a junction with the Indian Creek Trail. Here the trail begins to ascend the Indian Creek Drainage to a junction with the Meridian Trail rising from the south.

Continuing westerly, the trail climbs to a high saddle, then descends into the Lost Creek drainage to a junction with the Lost Creek Trail. The Cub Creek Trail continues northwesterly over a ridge and down to Truesdell Creek, then up again a junction with the Beartracks Trail, which runs northeasterly down the ridge toward the trailhead at Camp Rock.

In the winter of 2011/2012 a major wind event knocked down 400-600 acres of timber along the trail in this section, rendering it impassable. As of the end of the 2015, clearing of the trail was completed, all cut out by hand using crosscut saws. From the top of the ridge between Lost Creek and Truesdell Creek, you travel through the blowdown for almost 2 miles.

At the far side of the blowdown, the trail descends north through the 1,050 acre Resthouse Meadows burn (1962) to Bear Creek. Shortly after crossing Bear Creek, you pass a stone chimney, all that remains of the Resthouse that gave Resthouse Meadows its name. Soon you reach the end of the trail at the junction of the Beaver Meadows and Resthouse Trails.

TRAIL'S HISTORY

Originally, the Cub Creek trail ran from Cub Creek southwest of Evergreen to the Indian Creek Trail. It was constructed by the Forest Service, with help and encouragement from Edwin Welz, the owner of the Brook Forest Inn, a small resort on upper Cub Creek. The inn became well known for its horseback trips to Mount Evans, now Mount Blue Sky. The Cub Creek Trail first appears on USGS topographic maps in 1924 and on Forest Service maps in 1925.

At some point in the 1980’s, the original Cub Creek trail, and sections of Indian Creek, Meridian (then called Meridian Hill), and Resthouse trails were joined to create the Cub Creek trail as it is today.

Near the west end of the trail stands a stone chimney, the remains of a log rest house there, which was constructed for public use by the Forest Service in 1916-1917. A fire camp was located here during the 1962 Resthouse Fire. The Resthouse was in use until 1968 when, according to a note in Forest Service files, it was burned by “parties unknown.”