The Birthday Hike - Mill Flat

 The Mill Flat birthday hike (#67) was beautiful, really rough, sad and wonderful all at the same time.  We started in the morning and got out pretty late.  We hiked till we found the old mill parts and then broke for lunch.  And then we had to decide whether to continue on to the old campsite at the flat.  We opted for it and then started the really rough part where we had to basically get into the stream and rock hop and scramble for the next hour and a half because the trail is pretty much gone there now having been eroded away to steep dirt walls around the stream.  It got a little iffy a few times, but we kept at it.  We got pretty scratched up when we were out of the rocks because lots of raspberry bushes have now taken over the unmaintained parts of the trail that you can still find here and there. And there were so many downed trees to climb over from the fires, erosion and avalanche damage.  We got SO dirty!  But we finally made it to the the valley and to where to old campsite used to be.  It has gone through a fire and you can't even find it now.  Young aspen trees are growing up everywhere in the area it used to be.  It is sad to lose this old trail.  Lots of hikes and memories have been made there, but we both decided that this was the last time we'd do this trail unless the forest service decides to redo it in the very near future.  I would never want to go up it to camp carrying a loaded backpack now.  It's just too rugged.  Other people familiar with it have all said the same thing.  It's just one trail that is no more.  I'm very glad we did it so we could see for ourselves and kiss it goodbye.