Silver Fork of the American River Hike

Commando and I hiked along the Silver Fork of the American River and stopped here for a long session of reading, napping, eating lunch, chasing rodents, messing around in the water, and playing splash. There's a heavily used trail along the river. About a quarter mile upstream is a small waterfall and above that some granite pools. There were tons of people in those pools and all over the surrounding rocks. I was hoping this trip wasn't going to be a bust. We left the river and headed down a wash just over a big granite ridge. It lead onto some more granite and then into the little forested area. Downstream and over another granite ridge was another small waterfall and someone's tent. We were at the river for about 2 hours and just after a splash session we were passed by two guys hopefully fishing the river. We hiked back up by just following the various granite outcroppings and then meandered (pushed through somewhat dense forest with lots of downed stuff) back to the trail.

I'll go back again in the spring, and maybe for a snowshoe trip this winter.

Camping in Sierra County CA in June 2011

Took a quick trip up to Sierra County for a camping trip. I had wanted to stay for free somewhere along the Gold Lakes highway but there was still too much snow. We ended up at the Bear Valley campground and it was lovely. There are plenty of places to hike and we had the campsite to ourselves for one night. Highlights: Bristlecone pine, Weird flower, Little Last Chance Scenic canyon, the Little Truckee river, and Commando deciding to cover himself with mud from a seep just before bed.

Click the picture to go to my Picasa album and see more pictures.

View from 120 Kearney, San Francisco

Flooding on the Yolo Causeway

 The road is blocked but one can park just at this gate and look to the west towards Woodland.

I had been wondering if there was any current and if it might be possible to kayak. Just to the left of the road there is a substantial current flowing south. Looks like more research would be needed.

Grouse Lake Success

On my second try I made it to Grouse Lake. The first time I just wasn't feeling very good and even the easy, flat trail sections were hard. This time, although the steep climb was hard, we charged right up. Once the trail splits from the Twin Lakes trail there is a short, somewhat steep granite section. Then, there's a right turn up and there's a steeper forest section. Next, it levels off a bit, but still angling up and somewhat southeast. Just before the last bit, we ran into some hikers on the way down. The man said the lake was just at the base of the leftmost rounded "peak" as I faced the steep forest/granite wall ahead. The trail switches back to the left (northish?) and angles up the wall. This section is the steepest and reminded me of the trail to Loch Leven lakes or even Mt. Judah. There weren't many switchbacks though because there isn't really room for them.

We started to cross the stream that exits the lake but I couldn't see the trail on the other side. As it turns out, that's the trail. Instead we took some marked cairn "trails" up and did eventually reach the lake. We found a likely spot. Commando gobbled his trail meal down. I had my banana and some vitamin water placebo. I soaked my feet in the lake. Wow. It was cold. It was so cold my feet turned red and my toes started to ache with cold. The socks and boots went back on.

As we headed back we ran into a backpacker and his dog coming up over the granite ridge instead of from the trail. The backpacker asked what lake this was, and then asked how to get to Twin Lakes. Hmmm. I told him the general vicinity to head cross-country and said he could also backtrack on the trail. I hope he makes it.

I then stupidly decided to try and make it back cross-country. We angled along the ridge generally heading down, west, and south trying to find the path of least resistance. My theory was that there was a long, gradual ridge that led back to Wright's Lake. I don't think my theory was correct. If it was correct, I never found the ridge.

We headed down dry stream beds interspersed with granite slabs or large granite blocks. As we got lower, we got caught in a section of large granite blocks (some the size of houses) and dense manzanita. We had to climb rocks and push through dense flora. At one point I looked down and realized that the manzanita was hiding a 3-4 foot drop next to the boulder I was trying to go around. Commando had difficulty too. He can't see over the manzanita and he's not so agile over the big rocks. He needs some type of flat surface for his paws to grip.

At one point I realized that, although we'd been hiking for a while and were still descending, we weren't on the trail yet and the sun was starting to set. We headed straight down to get to the trail fastest. At first, we were helped by some deer trails. There were also fewer rocks. Then, it was back to thick manzanita. We just pushed through as carefully and as quickly as possible. At last we reached some flat space and soon discovered the trail, just inside the Desolation Wilderness boundary. I'm really not sure my "short cut" had saved us any distance.

The sun set before we got back, but we were almost to the flat section of the trail when it set. There was plenty of residual light to see. The moon was up and a little over half full so it's reflected light was enough to cast a faint shadow.

Both of us were exhausted when we got back to the car after about 7 hours of hiking. Commando is still sleeping on the bed, a sure sign that he's one tired doggy.

It was a great hike though!

More Mt. Lola pictures

 

My signature on the summit log. Commando refused to sign.

This is the box in which the summit logs are stored. It would have been interesting to read all of the entries...the box is stuffed with papers.

Camping Trip

Drove up to the Salt Springs Reservoir for a night of camping. The usual roads are blocked by gates and snow so I took the Tiger Creek road. It's quite a road; it follows the Tiger Creek and North Fork of the Mokelumne River canyons. It's extremely narrow and only about half paved...although, the dirt parts were some of the wider and faster parts. Because it runs through the canyon area, there's a 500 ft. to 1000 ft. drop on the water side. The fast moving forest service and PG&E trucks were a bit scary too, but there was always room to pass as long as you folded in your mirrors and didn't mind exchanging dust particles. I was glad there weren't any logging trucks because I wasn't wearing brown pants.

We checked out the dam area (no camping) and 2 of the 3 campgrounds. We selected White Azalea because it had a flat open space on the Mokelumne River. There was a couple at the other campground and me at this campground so it wasn't very busy.

Commando and I enjoyed a stroll around. We went down to the empty picnic area...over a bridge...along an old, unmarked forest service road/trail...and then back to camp. Commando ran all over the campground. He played in the water. He chased birds flying overhead. He chased far away squirrels.

I made a sandwich and lit a fire and just relaxed. Sometimes I read a book. Sometimes I looked at the fire. Sometimes I looked around at the river, or the fish biting, or the bats scooping up insects from the air, or the ducks paddling in the water. It was a bit colder than I'd expected but I stayed warm enough with the clothes I'd brought.

We went to bed in the back of the Escape. I closed the hatch but left the window open and we were as snug as could be. There wasn't much of a moon, but I could see stars. Sometime late at night, Commando woke me up with growling as another car pulled into the camp area. I could see the glow of their headlights against the tree trunks for a while, but eventually I went back to sleep.

In the morning we got up just as the sun was peaking between the V shape formed by Calaveras Dome and Hammer Dome (thanks KE). I had brought two cups of cafe mocha from Peets for my morning coffee and put it on the Propane Coleman to heat up. I went down to the river's edge to share a moment with Commando. When I came back all of the coffee had boiled away. I drank some dregs and then ate breakfast.

From the scouting the day before, we decided to hike up to the top of Garnet Hill. This is an old mine road that loops about 1000 feet up to the summit. I stupidly didn't bring any water for Commando, thinking there would be some seasonal stream for him to drink from. The trail loosely follows Monroe creek and it was filled with snow melt and was a constant and substantial noise. Unfortunately, Garnet Hill was dry and Monroe creek too steep sided even for nimble and athletic Commando. By the time we got to the summit (meh) he was one thirsty dog. He still wasn't thirsty enough to drink my Vitamin water though and he still had enough energy to chase off after squirrels.

We hastened down as fast as the steep terrain would let us. Poor Commando tried to get down at one point, but was defeated by the steep banks of the creek. It was almost comical to see his disappointed face. Less than 1/10 of a mile down though, and with some guidance from me, he was able to get his drink. He actually hates any bottled water and has often refused water I've carried for him. I bet he might drink water if I filled up from any lakeside that we might happen to be near.

We finished the trip to the car and then headed home. We did make a few side trips and excursions, and, after driving 22 miles out of the way, discovered that the Panther Ridge road back to 88 was not only blocked by snow but also blocked by a gate.

It was a good trip and can't wait for more of the high country to melt so we can camp again.

Great views

Drove up 50 again to snowshoe but ended up hiking. Across from Pacific House is Hazel Valley road that possibly turns into Light Canyon road and intersects with Mormon Emigrant. The various maps are not clear.

I'd discovered it last weekend and stopped at a bridge where the snow started. By this weekend, most of the snow had melted so we kept driving until we got to a ridge top and then started hiking.

We hiked to the top of a hill with some great views of the Crystal Range and then just strolled around on top of various hill crests. I almost went off trail to find a faster way down to the road. Good thing I didn't because after examining the maps...I would have gotten lost!

Commando dug for rodents and chased birds and squirrels. I made a great stick for him and he happily carried it around.

The dead tree is just an excellent picture. My brother took a photoshop class so maybe he'll put a scary pumpkin head on it for me. Or is that too predictable?

Commando Catching a Snowball

Meadows Lake

Drove up 80 to to Truckee, then took 89 north, then took the Henness Pass Road to Meadows Lake road.

It's a pretty lake with some great camping spots. They are spaces far apart and most of them border directly on the lake. There were only a few spots occupied.

I put on my water sandals and Commando and I walked along the shoreline from camp spot 1 to the boat ramp and back. Then we drove over to an open area that turned out to be the remains of the town of Summit City According to the various signs, Summit Cityhad a brief stint during the Gold Rush and then was abandoned when they couldn't get gold out of the "stubborn ore."

There wasn't much left of the town. I was surprised. I expected some old tumbledown shacks. Perhaps the remains of a rock wall or sidewalk, but there really wasn't much there.

My main goal was to see if I could get close to Old Man Mountain so we headed to the dam area. I could catch glimpses of the mountain from campsite 1, but from the town site I could only see a volcanic crag (Hartley Butte). I decided to head to this volcanic high spot to see what I could see. On the way up I passed some other hikers who told me where to locate some petroglyphs.

Hartley Butte had some great views of Castle Crags, Fordyce Lake and the back side of Old Man Mountain so it was worth the scramble up to its shoulders.

I navigated down and did some cross-country scrambling to see the petroglyphs. There were quite interesting. I shot a few pictures with my cell phone. It seems as if many had been removed (based on the petroglyph sized chips on the granite. There seemed to also be some fake petroglyphs (on a wall not the floor, on bare granite not black discolored granite, and of different shapes). There was also some graffiti (1902?) and some intials that could have been from the settlers.

Perhaps someone needs to put up some signs for the First Nations people who were here before Summit City?

We drove back stopping in a few places for some short strolls.

Nice trip and I'll definitely have to come back before the snow flys.

Slow Trip to Hell Hole

Drove up to Hell Hole reservoir for a short hike. I wasn't very motivated and left late. Reached Hell Hole and headed across the dam to the trail to the campground. It was pretty hot. Reached the trail and started climbing up the trail. It traverses a steep hill, nearly a cliff, over badly broken granite and volcanic gravel. It was hot and not very inspiring. I didn't get very far and decided I'd had enough and we turned back. Even Commando didn't seem too enthusiastic. The vulture that circled overhead was certainly not very inspiring either.

Just at the end of the dam there's a slope to the lake so we headed down. Commando needed water and there were plenty of driftwood sticks for me to throw and huge driftwood logs for me to sit on.

Fortunately there was a rocky, beachy slope so I could toss sticks pretty far out before Commando had to swim. The water is very cold and I really don't want to have to swim in it to rescue him. He is very confident. He swam out several times to try to retrieve a stick that appeared to still be firmly attached to the log jammed just under the surface.

I had noticed some weird looking thing on the bottom of the lake in the shallow water. They look like fleshy pink and white tulip with octopus type tentacles. But they don't move, they seem anchored to the bottom. I didn't touch one.

For some time I'd noticed one at the surface that was moving around a bit but didn't think much of it. After a while I focused on it a little more and discovered that a smallish snake was trying to eat one of these weird looking things and was having great difficulty gulping it down.

I watched the snake for a while and kept Commando from bothering him. The poor snake didn't seem to be making much progress so we finally left without viewing the final swallow. I hope he managed to choke it down.

Stuck Trucks, Foresthill Bridge

I was pretty lazy and it's storming this weekend so I didn't even leave the house till about noon. Drove up to Colfax and took 174 then turned off onto You Bet drive and was hoping to make it via some side roads to Highway 20. Unfortunately, the road isn't plowed all the way through so I was forced to turn back. It was an interesting drive though.

They were stopping traffic in Applegate and not allowing any semis to proceed over Donner Summit. It was sad to see all of them parked along every exit and by the side of the freeway from Auburn north. I sure hope there is a plan to provide them with food and some shelter because if they're trapped there for a while they could get into trouble.

Drove back and parked under the Foresthill bridge and hiked up one of the American River forks. It's a nice jaunt for a rainy winter day because in the summer this is all jammed with people. Commando happily chased sticks and smelled stuff and we had a good time.

Local miscreants had painted part of the bridge supports and 3 of them were good. The pic of the smiley face is actually made with some rocks that have been cemented to the surface. I assume these particular miscreants are rock climbers making a climable surface. It was interesting.

Bowman Road Exploration

On Saturday drove up to Bowman Road off of highway 20 to explore. I could see that from 80, most of the snow had melted. At the Yuba River crossing, there was a sign for the Pioneer Trail so that's what we took. This segment connects with a trail to Spaulding Lake, although we didn't make it that far.

I didn't even take my snow shoes because the ground was so clear. The trail is relatively level, paralleling the river, with a few minor up and down switch backs. Some pretty big boulders had rolled down onto the trail and someone with a strong back and a lever is going to have fun shifting them.

Perhaps 1/2 mile along, there's a big meadow and there was an interesting sight. At the edge of the meadow there are about 10 pine saplings with the tops torn off. I'm going to guess bear, but I considered beaver and a buck scratching it's horns. I thought beaver would be tidier and would have taken the tops down. I thought if a buck had been scratching velvet I would have seen lots of damage on the ground from hooves and perhaps quite a few broken and bent branches. I picked bear because whatever did it had a LOT of strength. It looks like the tops were bent over repeatedly and violently. At least 2 of the trees were too big to wrap a human hand around. Also, a couple of the trees had dead needles although most were still green so it looks like it happened over time. Still, with the bear theory, I would have liked to see some bite or claw marks and I didn't see any damage other than where the trees were ripped apart. Except for one tree, the tops were just left where they lay. I'm not sure what would motivate the bear either. I picture them mainly eating and none of the trees looked eaten. Perhaps violent butt scratching?

I decided that humans would have used tools, possibly burnt the wood, and left trash around. Take a look at the picture and see what you think.

We stopped shortly after crossing a lively creek and then headed back. This is a good trail for early, early spring and late, late fall because the summer crowds are gone. We only saw one other hiker along the trail.

On Sunday we drove up to the other end of the trail (near Fuller Lake) and headed out. This time I took snow shoes because there was a lot of snow on the ground still in spite of the bare dirt patches.

I was glad to have them because some of the hills were steep and icy. I didn't take the official trail because no one had gone before and the snow was deep and unmarked. The weather was bad and I didn't want to get into any trouble.

We headed where snow mobiles had gone and ended up at a water pumping station taking water from (presumably) Fuller to Spaulding. I forced Commando to walk on a thoughtfully provided metal walkway and he didn't enjoy it. Once he made it to the rodent land beyond he was much happier.

Both days were cold and windy. Saturday was sunny but Sunday was gloomy and overcast.

Snow! Hallelujah SNOW!

Friday night it snowed. Saturday I rented some x-c skis and headed up to the Peavine Ridge road in the Ice House area. It's nice and flat there and I figured I could practice x-c skiing without too much trouble. As a backup, I brought my snow shoes too.

We first stopped way, way down the road where it intersected with a snowed over dirt forest service road. I picked it because the snow plow had made a parking space off the road. Although the road trended uphill, it wasn't too steep and didn't look too long and I was going to practice anyway so I might as well practice on a hill. After struggling for about 15 minutes trying to get over the chunky snow berm, I re-thought my cunning hill plan and we drove back to the intersection where one could turn off to Union Valley Reservoir. It's flat, flat, flat there.

I geared up again and tentatively headed out across the virgin snow. It was about as physically hard as snow shoeing, although the few slipping sensations were scary. The snow was only about a foot deep, but these skis were really engineered for groomed trails not "back country" conditions. The springiness was nice. After plowing through some snow for a while, I took the skis to the road, which had a few inches of snow on it and could be classified as a groomed trail.

I got into the whole gliding motion thing and could see that these would be faster under some circumstances. Soon though, I was getting a bit tired.

Commando ran around like a loon. The snow was chest deep for him so while I was getting my ankles wet and making slow progress, he was bounding around and pushing through much more mass. He demonstrated the terrier interest in rodents and spent a lot of time with his ass in the air and his head shoved under the snow terrorizing some poor beasties.

We also played the "catch the snowball" game which both of us find pretty darn entertaining. He really makes some spectacular and athletic leaps and gets good water from chomping down on the snowballs.

We drove down to the reservoir and walked about 1/2 across the dam. The tracks are some tiny mouse-icle tracks. For some reason, several teeny rodents had crossed over the top of the dam in many directions and their tracks were all over.

The view of the mountains is of the Crystal Range and the reservoir. My pathetic cell phone doesn't do it justice, but maybe it will remind me of the majestic view.

Dog Mobile at Heart Association

Saturday we took two dogs, Spike and Becca to the American Heart Association walk in Land Park. Becca (my dog) was a sweet, sweet puppy who is very smart and already knows a lot of tricks. She was a little uncertain a few times and did NOT like the band, but she was happy and willing to trust. She knows sit, down and touch! She was learning not to jump on people and showed real progress by the end of the day. She also is learning to walk on the leash.

I picked her because she greeted me at the cage door with a toy in her mouth. That's the kind of happy, playful thing my dog would do and I found it charming. She happily chased balls in the ball yard and came willing to me when I called. She wanted to play with all dogs and people that she saw and she wasn't phased at all when an owned pug dog growled at her. She thought Spike was awesome and really wanted to play with him. She happily accepted petting from everyone, adults, men, women, children and even the whole cheerleader squad.

What a cute, cute dog.

Spike was very dignified and happy to meet everyone. The picture I took of him shows him getting belly rubs from several people. One person had just taken her hand off his belly and he had opened his eyes.

Schneider Camp

I wanted to hike from Schneider Camp to Showers Lake but got a late start to the day and it was hot and I was really feeling the altitude. Turned back after a short distance and explored around the barn and the crossed the meadow and got back onto the road. It's late spring in the high country now. There are still plenty of flowers, but it's clear that they've seen better days and it's only a matter of weeks before everything turns golden.

This view is of the flapping door to the barn which Commando did not find as amusing as I did.

After that, drove to Burnside Lake and splashed around to cool off. There was a family of ducks at the lake, but the kids were almost grown and Commando gave them a cautious look, but didn't chase them. After we'd been splashing around for about an hour, another family of ducks came by. This time, the ducklings were small and cute so I hustled Commando back to the truck and leashed him up before he could commit a war crime.

Duncan Peak

Drove up to Foresthill to Robinson Flat and then to the Duncan Peak lookout. The road had been closed last weekend due to the fire and we wanted to see the damage. It's not too bad. There are plenty of live trees left and the forest should recover quickly.

Commando and I moseyed around the fire lookout, but didn't go actually up to very top. There was someone there, but they shut the door and didn't say hello or anything so I let them have their privacy. It's an interesting volcanic outcropping with some cool looking colored rocks.

Then we hiked the trail to Little Bald mountain which is the other end of the ridge from Duncan Peak. Neither of these are very tall...they are both right around 7000 feet.

The trail was easy but a fire a few years ago has left the ridge mostly bare of trees so it was hot and sunny. There were lots of fresh cow tracks (and fresh looking manure) so I kept scanning for cows ahead of us. Sure enough, just before we got to what looked like the end, we saw about 20 or so cows and calfs lounging around in the sparse shade. I put Commando on the leash and decided to keep hiking. I thought they might stroll off and we wouldn't disturb them too much.

Within about 20 paces, they leapt up (well, as much as a cow can leap up) and galloped off a few paces. I've been trained not to harass stock so we turned around and went back. Commando kept looking back because cows sure seemed like something that would be fun to investigate and maybe chase, but I kept telling him no and eventually he resigned himself to the small rodents that are really his specialty.

We then drove down to French Meadows Reservoir for a cooling dip. This is really one of my favorite areas to visit. Even with the lake down a good 50 feet and plenty of haze from the fires it's still a pretty lake.

Fork's House - Not

Drove up the Foresthill road with no particular plan other than to go as far as the snow would let me. The road was snowed in and blocked with the gate at China Wall OHV. I decided to explore the Fork's House Nature trail. Although there was lots of snow, there was also plenty of bare dirt and I decided not to break out the snow shoes. When I got to the trail, it was snowed over and the path was not obvious. There was also someone shooting in that direction and I try to assume that they are dumb asses and not paying careful attention to where their bullets end up. Most of the shooters I've encountered have been courteous and safe, but it only takes one bullet to make my day very bad.

I think the trail is at Mitchell Mine road, but the map I have access to in not clear. The shape is right but the elevation looks funny. The road was clear of snow until I had committed myself and then it was all snow, sometimes up to three feet deep. Fortunately the snow mobile crowd (or someone) had been packing the snow down so it was relatively easy going with only a few instances of break through. We dropped down to what looks like a year round creek that was bursting with snow melt. Then we started climbing up a steady grade. We reached the heavy equipment that was responsible for packing the snow and continued on for a bit before returning to sit on the bench at that back of the snow vehicle to enjoy a light snack and some Vitamin water. This is a relatively pretty trail and will be nicer a bit later in the spring when the snow is more melted. It doesn't look there are any spectacular views though.

Gerle Creek Reservoir

Drove up to Gerle Creek Reservoir for a snow shoe. The main road is snowed over, but SMUD plows a gated side road to the dam so we walked down that. I wasn't quite sure where I was so I left the snow shoes by the side of the road and walked to the top of the ridge to look around. The reservoir was right there, about 700 feet down a steep slope. I heard a car door and saw a security guard truck (uh oh) and noticed he was picking up my snow shoes. I yelled out and we chatted for a bit.

He thought the gear might have been left behind by some campers and I chose to believe the story. It's not private property (well, it's SMUD property) but there is public access. I was surprised that he carried a gun and everything...I only thought police could do that.

As it turns out, you can't walk around Gerle Creek Reservoir...the dam is closed off. I was able to scramble around the side of the pump house to get to the shore and here the snow was a good three feet deep. Good thing I carried the snow shoes down the hill with me!

It was a bit of a chore traversing the side of the reservoir. It was steep and obviously I didn't want to trip or fall into a snow pit of some kind. We worked our way along the reservoir until we came to a stream inflow. I headed away from the water and navigated eastward along what looked like an old, old, old logging road (more a suggestion of a road than an actual one) to a small saddle. It was either that or retrace my steps because the hill to my immediate right was way too steep for me!

Just at what looked like the top of the saddle, there was another road with some old snow shoe tracks buried under 6 inches of snow. We headed gradually uphill on this track and eventually came to the main road where I'd left my car.

The snow was slushy and not tamped down so it was a bit of a slog cutting the trail. The picture shows the snow depth. It's funny though, because on the sunny slopes, it's bare dirt.

Nice trip!

Bassi Falls in Snow

Andy (he's a cute brother, ignore the stain on his leg), Commando and I snowshoed up to Bassi Falls. The weather was cloudy with the sun occasionally sending some faint rays through the clouds. A lot of the snow has melted so we had the shoes on and off depending on the snow. At the granite field by the falls, the snow had mostly melted.

Commando ran off and refused to come back until we had called several times. His tongue was black and dirty. Whatever he was hunting must have gone to ground and he must have spent some time trying to dig it up. He was pretty tired on the hike back (so was I!) and slept most of the rest of the day and the afternoon.

We saw no one on the trip which was quite nice.