Middle Prong Wilderness

Warning:  This trail is not for amateurs and will test your orienteering skills as well as your fortitude.

We met up at the Sunburst Campground area and geared up around 8pm for our usual Friday night jaunt of a few miles in.  After gearing up we discussed that this may be an interesting journey and Peter had setup his iPhone with a suitable GPS app.  So we set forth on the fire trail road which was to be about 3 miles before picking up our trail and heading in.  The hike along the road was easy to moderate in ascent and moved along very quickly chatting away.  We came across a sign (pointing uphill) with just numbers on it someone had carved into it TRAIL.  So we consulted the map and assumed that the cut in the road was actually the trail and set forth on it.  It was more like an old overgrown logging road that quickly turned into a trail.  The sound of rushing water quickly grew near and we found some water spilling out of the mountainside and we descended further down to a river.  I only showed a small blue line on the map but this was a large creek and the trail was on the other side.  So, we stripped off the boots and made our way across in front of some falls into some really chilly water.  We booted back up and got back on our way.  This trip obviously was going to have some surprises in store.  What an understatement that turned out to be.