Upper Buffalo Wilderness Area
10/13/2012
Temp in at 7:00 a.m. 60, temp out at 2:45 70, foggy, sunrise 7:15
Last week the time spent in the Upper Buffalo Wilderness Area revealed to me an area that warranted further exploration...so this trip involves that. Arrival was about at the usual time of 5:30 a.m. at the Boen Gulf parking area on Hwy 21. It was extremely foggy and...of course...still dark...and the image of hiking through the woods with no trail in the dark with heavy fog did not particularly appeal to me so I took a short nap and headed in at 7:00. I still know of no trail going in from this parking spot. This is the 2nd time in from this access and a crappy trail goes for about a 1/4 mile then disappears into the shrubbery. My weather map showed more than an inch of rain the night before in this area so there was some water in the creek. Even though it wasn't raining it might as well have been.....the woods were wet from the rain and now the fog had all vegetation dripping. So I followed the main/east branch of Boen Gulf Branch as far as Paradise Falls then worked my way up to the base of the bluff line on the north side. This is another really great line-o-bluffs with lots of large overhangs. Eventually there was a break in the rock that allowed easy access to the top of the bluff line. The weather never did clear but pretended to a couple of times. This system of hollows along with the Whitaker Creek system is the best uninterrupted acreage in the Upper Buffalo Wilderness...in my opinion. From vantage points along these bluffs no sign of civilization could be observed....and that's what I am looking for...the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere...even though you're not. Miles hiked in this narrow loop totaled about 6. Fall foliage was better than expected.
