The South Kelsey Trail was first designated as a National Recreation Trail in 1979, but was used by early miners between 1855-1880 as a route between Crescent City and Fort Jones and other inland mines in the Klamath River region and Yreka. Along with the Old Kelsey Trail, the South Kelsey is a key portion of the Coast to Crest Trail route (and also the Bigfoot Trail) which connects the Coastal Trail to the Pacific Crest Trail. Read more on the Smith River Alliance website.
Over the past five years, the Bigfoot Trail Alliance, Siskiyou Mountain Club, and Del Norte Trail Alliance have all played major roles in rehabilitating this route. SMC has led several trips through the area logging out and brushing the trail. Joe Gillespe of the Del Norte Trail Alliance has coordinated and joined those trips as well as planned and executed work trips and spike-camps on the Kelsey Trail.
This October, the BFTA returned again. We focused our work this trip between Baldy Peak and Harrington Mountain — some of the most difficult and remote trail to access in the region.
In 2021, the Bigfoot Trail Alliance received a Rose Foundation grant to fund work on the Kelsey Trail. We recruited 8 graduate CCC Backcountry Corpsmembers through a letter writing campaign. Once the letters were received, we sent letters back to the corpsmembers notifying them that they had been accepted into the program. What an amazing group of young adults! The crew was lead and supported by Dennis Houghton, Petr Fleischmann, Michael Kauffmann, Laura Chapman, Aaron Babcock, and Terri Vroman-Little. Learn more about their stories in the video below.
Work highlights include:
- 30+ logs removed
- 2+ miles of treadwork
- 2+ miles of brush removal
- Cairn construction (in a burned area that is difficult to work right now)
Everyone who had not been to the Siskiyou Wilderness fell in love with the area and vowed to some day return and re-hike the Kelsey Trail!
Good to see this difficult section of the Bigfoot Trail has been improved. It was a tough one. When I saw the Kelsey Trail historical interpretive sign in 2015 during my hike I was sad it hadn’t been maintained.
This is beautiful! Thank you all so much for the work you do and I honor the deep sincerity and love that emanates from your stories. The renewed possibility of walking these trails is a gift to all people who are able. I can only offer my humble gratitude in return and a promise to one day walk this section and appreciate your part in the splendor. Many, many thanks and happy trails…
I like the others before me send my gratitude for the work you do and have done on the back country trails. The sense of peace that one encounters in these remote treasures forever stays in your heart. Thank you all again a fellow Bigfoot hiker.
Jimi Logsdon
Thank you, everyone! The most neglected segment of the trail is neglected no more.
Thank you so much for keeping the Kelsey Trail alive! I first worked on it in 1989 for the US Forest Service. I am also a CCC Backountry Alumni 1985 Trinity Inyo,1997 Klamath Trinity,1998 kings Canyon, 2002 Klamath Trinity. The CCC Backcountry Program is definitely life changing and one of the best trail programs in the country!!! Again, thank you so much for all of your hard work!!!
Hello, Phil, great to hear you weighing in. I have fond memories of trips with Pat Garrahan. I have been doing considerable volunteer work with the Orleans-Ukonom-Lower Trinity R.D. in recent years, and got to join a previous project on the South Kelsey Tr. going up Baldy.
It’s great news to hear that work continues on the Kelsey Trail. I worked on a trail crew in 1976 for the Six Rivers Ranger District. We cleared and rebuilt the trails for that entire summer. We worked the Summit Valley Trail in its entirety and brushed and repaired flood damage to the Kelsey Trail from the trailhead near the GO Road to halfway up Baldy Mountain. The forest managers in Gasquet stopped our progress on Baldy once we hit the brush field, even though we still had time and money to complete it. Everyone on the crew was disappointed we couldn’t continue to clear the Kelsey Trail to Harrington Lake. Everyone thought it was a political move to limit visitation as the area did not have wilderness protection then, and the forest service still had planes to log the upper regions of Harrington Creek. That summer, we also cut and cleared the old Gun Barrel Camp Trail up to the road on Blue Ridge. That section of trail was in really poor condition as it had not seen much use, or maintenance, in decades
Greg- Thanks for sharing these stories. Lots of history out there. Any chance you want to join us on the trail this fall and share some of these? We most likely will be at Gunbarrel Camp for a few days — TBD.