We got to do the Cherry Creek trail for the first time last March, Lone Pine Divide was the obvious next choice. Never having been this side of the Sierra Ancha’s until that Cherry Creek run, made me reconsider that and search for what else the area had to offer.
The beginning of the road was the same old familiar route that led us to Cherry Creek, but this time around we skipped the Coon Creek ruins, and were in a much smaller group, so we got to the Lone Pine Divide trailhead by 10:30am, the day was off to a great start.
As we approached the first crossing below the power-lines, we would continue to follow them for the rest of the day. Almost as if they were guiding us to the end of the trail.
The first few miles of the road was in a fairly good shape, there weren’t any washouts, and we were able to maintain a speed of 10-15 miles per hour, with the exception of a few rocky patches, but considering how rough Cherry Creek trail was, this was pleasant surprise.
The first what felt like 10-15 miles was a constant climb up to reach the Lone Pine Divide plateau, we were constantly criss crossing below the power-lines, and even saw a guy in a stock F-150 with giant binoculars watching birds almost all the way up towards the top of the climb.
Once we reached the plateau, we could see the Sierra Ancha’s in the distance from a completely different perspective, and then shortly after we got to our first patch of pine trees.
The road from there on out seemed like it was recently graded, for how remote the area was, we were surprised to say the least, but were able to maintain a descend speed. We got a little carried away with the filming, and ended up taking the wrong way for a few seconds before Mike realized that the trail number had changed.
The road was a little dusty so we all got quite a ways separated to stay away from the dust, but once we caught up and all came to a stop at Forks Canyon, Jim somehow got a hole in his sidewall, so while he changed to his spare, Darin pointed out an old asbestos mine near by, so we went and explored the remains of it.
Walking around what used to be an asbestos mine was a little eerie to say the least, but in a way it was cool to see this stuff literally growing out of the ground. We tried to keep as much dust down as we could in the area.
Once Jim changed his spare and got a little exploring out of his way we continued on without too many breaks. Forest Road 202 from Forks Canyon all the way to the turn off for Young was as smooth as butter, I don’t think there were too many rough area that required us to slow down much, we maintained a good pace, we finished the trail at 2:00pm.
We did something like 70 miles on all dirt, I didn’t shift out of 2 wheel drive all day, I could have easily done this trail in my daily driver without worrying at all about pin striping.
Huge thanks to JeepTheUSA.com for the GPS coordinates and a brief write up of the trail, we probably wouldn’t know about this trail if it wasn’t for those guys. Below are a couple of videos from the trail run, to see all the pictures, click here – https://www.turndriver.com/Off-Roading/Lone-Pine-Divide/