OCCR #1 Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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This is 1 of 12 caches in the Old City Creek Road Series. (OCCR)
OCCR #1 - 3234 feet elevation
Some of the dates in this account of the Old City Creek Road varied depending on the article you find but they all agree that by the 1890s most of the large sawmills had closed down in Little Bear Valley, although it was just beginning in the Running Springs area. The Highland Lumber Company began operation in 1890 and built the steep, zigzag road up rugged City Creek from the Molina Box Factory to their Fredalba lumber camp. The box factory was located west of Boulder Ave. on the Santa Fe siding, and the lumber was used to make orange crates. The City Creek Road allowed them to bring up their heavy equipment, and soon their mill was capable of producing 60,000 board feet of lumber per day. The road was soon improved and opened as the City Creek Toll Road. However, building the mill and road used most of the money earned by the lumber company, and it went out of business in 1892. Sometime between 1895 and 1899 Highland Lumber was bought by the Brookings Lumber Company. The mill was brought up-to-date and everything was soon in full operation again. At least twenty teams of four to six horse or mule teams hauled the lumber down the mountain toll road to Molino. In 1900 Brookings began laying narrow gauge railroad tracks in and around Running Springs and in 1904 hauls a 27 ton locomotive up the mountain by 6 wagons pulled by mules. Between 1899 and 1911 the company produced between 10 and 12 million feet of lumber per year, peaking in 1905. It took just twenty years to harvest all the lumber in the Running springs area and logging was discontinued in 1911. Molino closed in 1914, and the County purchased the toll road soon after and opened it for public traffic increasing the use of the mountains for recreational purposes. The old road was replaced with a new modern highway in several sections with the final section being the new bridge over City Creek in 1948. The old road crosses the new highway several times on its way to Running Springs and the section just below town is name “Old City Creek Road”.
Most of the old road can be hiked with the exception of two areas. The first is the area around the old trout farm, just uphill of the old bridge and east of the ranger station, to the cell tower on 330. The second area is from the gate located at the 4800 foot level to Live Oak Drive and 330. These areas are private property and access is not allowed.
This is not an easy walk on an old highway. While the old road was paved it is badly deteriorated and completely washed out in places. Scotch Broom, Manzanita, and Yucca now call this route home along with Oak and Pine trees. You will have to climb down and across several washed out and overgrown areas with drops of over 25 feet. The old asphalt is undermined and extremely dangerous in spots with drops of over 100 feet to the canyon floor. I did not see any Poison Oak but it does grow in the area and there is a least one location near the old concrete bridge (OCCR #3) where it could be.
Three Benchmarks are also located along the section where I have placed this series. Two are from 1935 and the other is from 1948. Spoiler images for the BM’s are posted with my logs on the BM pages if you want to check them out.
Don’t forget to log the Benchmarks!
EV1508 (visit link)
EV1509 (visit link)
EV1511 (visit link)
I have listed two parking areas for access to the series. I parked at the bottom (3000 ft.) hiked to the top parking location (4290 ft.) and back to my truck but two vehicles would make it a much easier day. If you have two vehicles park one at the lower area and drive to the top parking waypoint and hike down skipping the Ridge Route Short Cut as there are still caches to be found. If you are using one vehicle I recommend you start at the bottom, follow the old road out of the west end of the parking area to GC2J9EZ “The Forgotten Road” and then on to the caches in the OCCR series, then return by way of the old road to the Ridge Route Short Cut (waypoint 3) I listed. This ridge is a nice & easy but steep drop back to the bottom parking location by way for the old water line from Barrel Springs and the water storage tank. The total series is three miles each direction, six miles round trip with 1290 feet elevation gain and loss. Remember a Forest Adventure Pass is required to park in the National Forest.
Have fun and BE CAREFULL.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
oruvaq ohfu cebgrpgrq