Loaded up Quinn and headed out to the far end of the Randy Morrow Trail. This end is really semi urban as it passes through some sparsely populated areas near Georgetown Lake.
The North Fork Dam is a rock fill dam 6947 feet in length. The crest is 894 feet above sea level. The Lake behind it, Lake Georgetown covers 5070 acres.
Now back to the trail. We, (remember Quincy is with me) started out from Overlook Park at the lake headed towards Georgetown’s Bootys Road Park. Here and for the next 1.1 miles the trail is paved. It runs along the base of the dam through a rather nice area of cedar breaks and small pocket prairies.
This portion is called the Connecting Trail which connects the Goodwater Loop around the lake with the Randy Morrow Trail. After about 3/4 of a mile, we drop steeply down into the river canyon.
Now why would I want to hike a paved trail for a mile or more? Well, it’s what’s at the end that makes it worth it. The Randy Morrow Trail through Bootys Road Park is one of the prettiest sections of trail in the area.
As you enter Bootys Road park the trail switches from pavement to a more natural surface. It is still about ten feet wide. On one side is the North Fork San Gabriel River. on the other the cliffs of the canyon.
There is also a waterfall in the park which is spring fed, but it isn’t running very well today after another month with no rain.
As we exited the park the trail becomes concrete and climbs upward out of the canyon and starts through the neighborhood to connect with the other end of the trail. Not going to do it, I have seen houses before. We turned around at this point and headed back towards the dam.
On the way back through Quincy decided to hit the spring for a drink and to play a bit in the water.
When we got back to the dam, we were ahead of schedule so I decided against Quinn’s will that we were going to walk the dam. This dam no longer has a public road atop it. The old Cedar Breaks Road has been closed to traffic and the dam now acts as a trail and the end of the Goodwater Loop as it curves around to the Cedar Breaks Park trailhead.
So that’s the Randy Morrow Trail. Maybe one day they can figure out how to get the other mile out of the neighborhood and back along the river.
Old Man Wandering 