Long Story Warning.
I hiked out to Loud's Cabin yesterday.
My wife has severe arthritis and this hike is beyond her. So Saturday night before I went I found two (horrible) trail videos on YouTube to show her the route.
Both videos showed a Dugout on the way to the cabin. Based on the videos The Dugout was just off the trail between the main trail and the first bridge over Bear Creek. That's not a big area.
Both videos also implied that the dugout was part of the cabin's out buildings. I don't think it is because it was a mile and a half away from the cabin. It wasn't really near any water source. It couldn't have been a Spring House. The Dugout is a pit that somebody dug that's maybe 10 ft Square and then they walled it with dry laid stones.
So on my way out to the cabin I'm looking all around to see this dugout. I ran into a guy who was coming back and I asked him if he knew where it was at. He described it perfectly and then pointed me in the exact opposite direction
away from The Dugout.
I don't remember exactly where I ran into the guy on the trail but we were between the main trail and the first bridge over Bear Creek so we probably weren't 50 yards from The Dugout.
FWIW that's the first bridge over Bear Creek. If I had turned around exactly where I was at here and taking 50 steps back down the trail I would have been right next to the dugout.
So on the way back I was looking all along the right side of the trail and I saw the dugout.
The Red Dot is on the roof and there's a path right around that down tree that leads to the front (only) door.
I can't come up with the reason why the guy that built the cabin would build this place a mile and a half away.
On the left side of the picture those limbs appear to be some kind of bed and you can't see it in the picture because it's just out of frame on the right side but somebody had stacked a tarp and some other items out there.
I don't know if somebody was living there or (and this is actually quite likely) when the forest service people go out there to maintain the trails that might be where they stay at night. I've seen them out there (not necessarily at the dug out) and they usually stay out overnight.
Anyway the place gave me the creeps. It was like walking into somebody's house and I'm assuming that anybody that would actually be living out there would be a little bit nuts. Although I can't imagine why anyone who would live out there would build their home so close to the trail.
So, I literally stuck my phone through the door took two or three pictures and got the hell out of there.
Here is my Glock.
youtu.be
This is a waterfall on Seven Bridges Trail.
ETA I asked in a local hiking group. The general consensus is it was a root cellar built far away from the homestead to keep the wild animals away
.
Did you carry you Glock 45acp?
