Commando at day care

Took Commando in for his first day care visit at Grateful Dog. He seems to have enjoyed it. He spent some of the morning playing with a white shaggy dog and then played fetch with a Cairn terrier in the afternoon. He even let the other dog get the toy out of his mouth. So, if he enjoys it and it seems like he is tired tonight I may repeat this every other Monday. He was certainly hungry when he got home.

Bassi Falls

The road was clear all the way up to the trail head. I didn't want to hike from Ice House road, instead, I wanted to see if there was a good route off trail to the top of the falls...and then try going upstream.

Just before the trail turned right and started dropping Commando and I forged off into the pine forest. I could see some brush ahead, but thought that the pines would keep the brush to a minimum. Wrong! We worked our way through rabbit brush and mesquite picking up many scratches in the process. We finally made it down to the upper part of the falls by following a rough and (mostly) dry creek.

I enjoyed the first of my two sandwiches just lazing on the granite and looking at the view and listening to the falls. Commando ran around and smelled stuff. A family was a bit upstream (still on the granite) and asked if there was a trail down. I said no and they said they'd bushwhack back down just like they'd gotten up.

After studying the terrain a bit I decided to head straight up the granite face and then hope there was a trail through the brush covering the ridge. I had to admit, it looked pretty impenetrable.

After climbing up (and then relaxing some more) I saw a guy coming from upstream but close to Bassi Creek. I started back down and he was soon joined by his pal. I thought, hey, they look like they know what they're doing! Wrong.

I headed upstream until we got to a tiny creek. The decomposed granite is a little hard to track through (or maybe the guys had never gotten this far) so I had to choose staying on "my" side of the tiny creek or crossing it to Bassi Creek side. Both ways looked choked with brush. Unfortunately, I chose the Bassi Creek side. I soon lost any hope of a trail and just scrambled through the brush (tearing holes in my shirt) and really hoping I didn't break a leg.

There was a small waterfall that I could almost see. In the summer, it will be possible to just hike up the granite, but I had no wish to be swept downstream in icy water. After much more bushwhacking, I made it back to the granite.

I was a bit tired so decided to head down to the lower area as fast as possible as it's all granite and then a nice trail. At this point, if I never see another mesquite it will be too soon.

Naturally there's no trail so there was more bush scratching, except this time with a steep drop over what is essentially a brushy cliff to keep me paying attention. I actually had to help Commando down at one point.

We made it back and I soaked my feet in one of the icy rivulets before making the final push to the car. It really was a beautiful day and I'll look forward to hiking this again in the summer (and maybe with a machete).

Oh, the dog in this link looks just like Commando, except he doesn't have a tail. She's even got the running bug!

More Lake Spaulding

Took the marked foot trail all the way to the lake. The snow is melting fast but there are still plenty of 3 foot deep drifts. The streams are running well from the snowmelt too so I didn't need to carry water for the hound.

The high water mark is a good 50 feet above the water line and it's strewn with plenty of driftwood. I relaxed at the top of a cove and read some of my book and ate my lunch. The only people I saw the whole day were two guys and a kid with two dogs headed out for camping somewhere along the lake.

Then we followed the high water mark along until I got high enough to intersect the trail again. I threw a big piece of driftwood for Commando to chase in the water and he grew quite attached to it. Unfortunately, when our route took us between two boulders he was forced to abandon it. I sat for a while watching him try to figure out how to get the stick through the gap. A nicer owner would have rescued him from his plight...but I guess I'm just not that nice.

Hike to Lake Spaulding

Drove up 80 to 20 and took Bowman Lake road the hike to Lake Spaulding. Stopped at the road just below Fuller Lake (perhaps called Fuller Road?). I could see quite a bit of snow from the paved road so I took my snowshoes. Almost as soon as I got onto the snow though, I could see bare dirt ahead.

That would mark most of the trip...snow...dirt (or mud)...snow...dirt...granite, etc., etc.

We made good time up to the open canal where the dirt road ends. We took the short but steep way onto the granite outcropping and then bushwhacked our way down closer to the lake. Although it wasn't particularly difficult, we had to route find through impassible manzanita stands, impassible cliffs and other impediments. We didn't make it all the way down to the lake "shore" but made it most of the way. We stopped for mid-hike snack on a nice rock overlooking the lake, Old Man Mountain and 80 while in the sparse shade of a bristlecone pine.

On the way back, we intersected the signed trail which took us to the bottom of the steep hill where we'd left my snow shoes. There were also some significant snow drifts to get through so I really missed them!

The signed trail is a little strange. It leaves the dirt road to duck under a HUGE water pipe and across a stream. It then follows a nice trail at the foot of either a steep cliff or really, really steep hill until it gets to a dry creek crossing from the PGE hydroelectic facility just up the hill. There are signs warning you that PGE may release water at any time so stay out. Well, why have the trail go here then? The dry creek crossing is substantial and you'd have no hope of clearing the boulders if any water started rushing down. You then duck under another HUGE water pipe and then parallel the lake, presumably coming down the water at some point. I think this trail goes east a while and eventually ends up at the Grouse Ridge area.

If I were the trail builder, I would have avoided the many dangerous creek crossings and gone over the granite dome and back down.

We had to scramble up the steep, steep hill in the forest area to retrieve my snow shoes...then I slid back down the snow covered dirt road on my butt. Fun!

Not very interesting hike at Hope Valley

Drove up 88. Was planning on going to Salt Springs Reservoir but missed the turn (just after Ham's Station). Stopped briefly at Bear River reservoir but there were a lot of people and snowmobiles and the snow covered terrain didn't look too interesting.

Drove to Hope Valley and hiked randomly on the Nevada side of 89 to a small saddle. The going was a bit interesting as there was really no trail and bare dirt then deep snow. The terrain wasn't really open so no view eastwards. The view west to Carson Pass was spectacular though. There was also a small stand of very healthy bristlecone pine at the top of the saddle with a spray of winter aspen leading down the hill.

We enjoyed ourselves, but it wasn't a very long hike for all the driving.

Bosworth Meadows

Drove up to Ice House and hiked along to Bosworth Meadows. The trail follows forest service roads that are to the right of Ice House road just after the Crystal Range information station. There was still significant snow on the road and in shady spots under the trees. The snow was mostly hard packed so my tennis shoes were fine. The metal cattle guard type bridge was free of snow but Commando still refused to touch it with his feet. Luckily he was able to find a safe stream crossing area. I gingerly and carefully crossed. It was a beautiful day marred on slightly by a helicopter flying back and forth ferrying snow mobiles from what might have been the Wright's Lake area to what might have been the Union Valley area. After about 4 trips though the 'copter was finished and I was able to enjoy the quiet. The meadow was wet and the snow leading to the meadow was wet and I got my feet soaked many times. Fortunately my socks insulate even when wet so no harm done...it was actually somewhat refreshing. This will be a fun area to explore this summer.

Bike ride at Spenceville

Drove up to Spenceville Wildlife Area to try to bike to Fairy Falls. Unfortunately, I didn't start till early afternoon because I met the gang at Red Hawk. By the time I made it to the trailhead, it was about 3 pm.

Commando and I started off in the heat and dust. We stopped at the bridge and I encouraged him to drink and get wet. There were a lot of cows in pasture so I had to leash him up a few times. We walked up the hill and then had a spectacular view across a green, green saddle or maybe even a valley sprinkled with small white flowers. Commando spent some time running over the grass, clearly enjoying himself.

Then we coasted down the hill and stopped at the stream. The next bits are uphill again and it was getting late. I had Commando swim in the stream to cool off and he drank plenty of water too.

On the way back, the open saddle had cows over it so poor Commando had to be on leash again. He got put back on leash when a wily cow crossed the road (having gotten through the 5 strand barbed wire) to the other side and then went up a wash, through some rocks and disappeared from view.

We saw plenty of turkeys too so it was a good trip.