Mt Major from the other side, and a loop over Straightback.
And newts. Lots of newts.
I've lost count of the times I've been up Mt Major, but nearly every trip has begun at the parking lot off Rt 11.
So partly as a change and partly to scout some other trails, and partly to satisfy my curiosity I decided to visit Jesus Valley Road.
The curiosity comes from a trip a year or so ago where I came down the South side of Straightback and noticed a junction with a trail to Mt Major.
I'm usually pretty observant of trail junctions, but had never seen the other end, where this one connects to the main trail on Major. So approaching from this side seemed like it might lead me to the connection.
The trail starts near the end of JV Road, where the road takes a sharp right and heads up hill and is signed as private.
There's a little side of the road parking available; the trail goes straight . About 200m from the road, the JVR Road Trail branches off and heads uphill. It's a little torn up from ATV traffic, but not too bad. There is no sign - unless you go past the junction and turn around. So much for observant ... I walked a ways past the junction before realizing I'd gone too far.
After the initial steep little rise, the trail mellows out and is never steep again. The treadway does have a lot of slash, presumably some taken from the logging nearby to reduce erosion. The junction with the Straightback Mountain trail is clear and signed. I kept going straight toward Mt Major. There were newts everywhere!
Recently I saw a comment on a forum that someone had hardly ever seen a newt. Today I counted 81. That's is more than I've ever seen in a season!
Near a beaver bog the trail runs into a mud hole and there are some herd paths around it. I took the wrong one and had to bushwhack back to the trail , but not too hard. The trail goes right at the mud hole. Again my enormous power of observation seems to have failed me. Perhaps it was because I was so focused on not stepping on any newts :)
I did eventually break out onto Mt Major. And, of course, now that I know where the trail junction is, someone has finally put up a sign.
Mt Major was its usual spectacular and busy self, with enough wind to keep most of the black flies away. A little hazy, but not too bad, with some interesting clouds forming on the horizon. Left there and headed for Straightback, and ran into a couple young guys who were happy to find out they were finally back on the right trail; They'd had an adventure getting off onto an abandoned trail and winding up over on West Quarry instead of back at their car ... but they were having fun anyway.
Reached Straightback and walked around a bit, seeing no one (except on Mt Major in the distance ) for the rest of the walk. Then it was dancing around the newts and heading back down to my car.
I'd say I prefer the other trails for Mt Major, this trail had a bit too much of the ATV trail feel, probably something to do with the ATV traffic at the bottom. Once past the Straightback junction it's pretty nice, though.