Recently in Photos and Trip Reports Category
A last minute change of plans due to permit availability had us going into a different wilderness than originally planned. Rick (the Naviguesser) had invited the two of us along on a weekend to Dinkey Wilderness and I eagerly agreed, excited to check out a new area of the Sierra. When permits were surprisingly long gone when we arrived, we chose an alternate destination, Upper Twin Lake in Kaiser Wilderness.
I had no complaints - Kaiser is another area I've been meaning to check out, and having been there before, Navi assured us that it was a good destination. We twisted out way up into the mountains and watched the temperature outside drop from the car's interior indicator. While almost 100 degrees at 1300 feet at 9:30 am, by the time we reached the trailhead at 8000 feet the temperature was a perfect 72. The only weather concern was the clouds around us, which were building in a way that indicated we might face some thunderstorms.
Upper Twin Lake is a short hike of about three miles from the trailhead we started out from, and we got there quickly. After finding a nice campsite and setting up, Dave and I both tried fishing for a while with no real luck - only a couple of nibbles. A couple of thunder clouds rumbled in the distance but we were never rained on. We tried fishing again a couple of hours later and this time had some luck. Within a short amount of time Dave had caught two rainbows and I had caught one. At about 8-10 inches long, the three made a perfect dinner for the two of us. Cooked in aluminum foil over the fire with wild onions, then lightly seasoned, I didn't need the ramen noodle backup dinner that night!
Chatting around the campfire, relatively warm temperatures, and stars made it a lovely night at the lake. By the next morning Dave was eager to fish again and managed to catch a breakfast of brook trout in minutes. Better than oatmeal!
Pictures from this overnighter are here: Upper Twin Lake, Kaiser Wilderness
There is a reason that Highway 1 heads inland at Fort Bragg to join 101. The coast north of this point was simply too rough and rugged for a highway to be built, and this stretch is known as the Lost Coast. Difficulty in trail access, unpredictable weather, and roads that make people nauseous just by looking at them on the map are just a few of the reasons that make the Lost Coast a wild and secluded destination.
This year's trip fell on Memorial Day weekend, and I was surprised by the numbers of people who made it out to the Lost Coast other than our group. While it is typical to see only a few other hikers out there, I would say we easily ran across 50 other backpackers over the course of four days (outside of our own group, that is). Paige had organized a great trip for fifteen (sixteen? I lost count) of us, with half the group heading southbound from Mattole to Black Sands, and the other half heading northbound from Black Sands to Mattole, both groups hiking the ~25 mile stretch over four days. We met on the middle night and camped together, also exchanging car keys to make the shuttling situation less painful. We would all meet again on the last day for lunch in Garberville, where cars, keys, and gear would be switched back to the proper owners.
Hiking the Lost Coast is completely different than Sierra backpacking. For starters, it's damp. The sea air gets in everything and gear doesn't dry out as quickly as it does in the dry mountains. You also have to pay careful attention to tides - if you don't plan your schedule around the tides you can find yourself waiting for hours to get around certain points. The other big difference is the beach walking. It contorts your muscles in ways you are not used to (really seemed to bother my hamstrings and hips, more than anything else), it slows your pace, and fills your shoes with sand. So, four days for 25 miles was a great pace - not too many miles to cover (we made it to camp around noon every day), but it gave us flexibility to deal with tides, vary our pace on the slow beach stretches, and dry our gear out during the sunny afternoons.
It was a great trip, and my pictures are uploaded here: Lost Coast
I almost forgot to post my photos from last weekend! Before it gets too hot, I wanted to visit a new East Bay park. I settled on Pleasanton Ridge and met a couple of others there for a day of hiking and geocaching. It was a good place for wildflowers, but I wouldn't want to hike there in the heat of summer - 80 degrees was warm enough. Pictures available by clicking on the photo.
Thanks to some prodding from Theresa, this weekend we decided to check out an area that's been on my to-do list for a while: Cache Creek Natural Area. Cache Creek runs through the range between the central Valley and Clear Lake, and is generally too hot for comfortable hiking in the summer and too muddy for comfortable hiking in the winter. Our timing was perfect, hitting the area while it was still cool, but sunny and dry. In addition, the wildflowers were at their peak, with purples, yellows, and blues exploding all over the green hillsides.
We were planning on hiking in the short three miles to Baton Flat, then once there we would decide whether to set up camp there and dayhike the additional four miles one-way to Wilson Valley, or continue on to camp at Wilson Valley. It turns out we had no choice - Cache Creek was high compared to normal, making the crossing at Baton Flat possibly dangerous. We set up camp and decided to spend the afternoon lounging around - napping, exploring down the creek, photographing wildflowers, reading, fishing, and wandering. Later, some other backpackers came by and were able to scout a passable route and crossed slow but successfully, but we were already comfortably settled in to our camp.
No fish were successfully caught (though enormous carp were seen), and the wildlife was surprisingly scarce. We saw a bald eagle or two soaring in the distance, a turtle struggling upstream against the current, a frog, rattlesnakes, lizards, and ducks flying up and down the creek. The highlight was the coyote I saw on the drive along highway 20.
The real highlight of the weekend (other than the company, of course), was the wildflowers. Larkspur, Chinese Houses, Lupine...everywhere we turned there was color. I spent Saturday afternoon wandering around and gleefully snapping photos of every wildflower I came across...until I startled a rattlesnake, at which time I was spooked enough to go back to the safety of my tent for an afternoon book and nap.
I'm glad to have finally visited this area. I'm not sure if I'll go back - as mentioned before, the heat is a deterrent for most of the year. I was also surprised that the majority of the other people we saw were hunters, and it makes me a bit nervous to be wandering around in the same area as people with bows and shotguns. The fishing isn't the best, with carp being the common fish (to the best of my knowledge). However, I'd definitely come back for the wildflowers!
Photos are here: Cache Creek Wildflowers
Russ, the famous winehiker, invited us for a Tax Day night hike of Mission Peak. It was a training hike for some people planning a Shasta climb over Memorial Day, so it was no slow stroll in the park - the intent was a good workout, and a good workout is what we got. I managed to snap a few photos before the sun set, leaving us hiking by moonlight and headlamp.
The funniest part of the hike was a group of turkeys harassing a cow. The turkeys would sneak up behind the cow and start tapping at her back legs. The cow would then turn around and chase the turkeys, who would respond with a loud 'gobble gobble gobble'. Satisfied that the turkeys had been taught a lesson, the cow would go back to nibbling on the grass, unaware of them wandering back into her space, starting the process all over again. Entertainment like that on the trail is hard to come by!
"What wonders lie ahead?"
This is how Dave started us off on the trail every day of our six day trip into the Grand Canyon. Our group, (me, Paige, John, Dave (Paige's Dave), and David (my Dave)), spent an incredible week exploring some remote corners of the Clear Creek canyon, while also enjoying some civilization at the Phantom Ranch down along the Colorado River.
View the extended entry for the trip report and links to pictures. It's a long one, but I decided to keep everything in a single entry instead of posting a separate entry for each of the six days on the trail.
Anyone from the Bay Area is familiar with that cone-shaped peak just outside of Morgan Hill. You know - that one just west of 101. As a hiker, this peak has been calling to me for years, just asking for me to stand on top of it. Unfortunately, this peak (El Toro) is on private property and the only legal way to climb it is to participate in the once-annual Morgan Hill Historical Society sponsored hike. At 1,420.3 feet, it's a Bay Area 'Fourteener'.
We met Tom and Russ, fellow hiking bloggers, before 8 am and joined the throng of people just itching to summit El Toro. After a brief lecture from a geologist the hike began, and hundreds of people swarmed towards the peak.
Gaining about 1000 feet in a mile, this isn't an easy hike by most people's standards. It's steep, gravelly, and has poison oak just waiting for you to make a mistake. There's no warm up stretch - it's just straight up and then straight down, no time for breathers unless you stop. I'm glad I just got back from a good strenuous backpacking trip - made this hike seem a lot easier than it would have been if I was in my normal sluggish winter form. They even have ropes up for the last gravelly stretch to assist people on the slick gravel.
My pictures here: El Toro, Morgan Hill
Tom's report of the harrowing El Toro Ascent here: The Fourteener of Morgan Hill
We headed up to Lava Beds for the cold easter weekend with Paige and Dave and their kids. It was a fun and simple trip - car camping in the cold (17 degrees on Friday night) which kept the park quiet and uncrowded. We pretty much had the caves and the park to ourselves.
Time was spent playing tourist - we've seen so much of the park and so many of the caves, it's fun to pick and choose from our favorites to make a nice short weekend of it.
The itinerary included:
- Cox Ice Cave
- Golden Dome Cave
- Sentinel Cave
- Skull Cave
- Captain Jack's Stronghold
- Petroglyph Point
- Valentine Cave
It has been four years since the Northern California Hikers formed and met for the first time. Dave and I had been backpacking in California for a few years but hadn't connected with any other people who enjoyed it like we did, and I was looking for other people who shared our interest. A post on the backpacker forums about forming a hiking group for people in Northern California caught my attention, and I joined up with the group right at the beginning.
Our first meeting was for a dayhike in Henry Coe, and a short time later we did an overnight backpack in the same park to Los Cruzeros. I knew right away that we had connected with a great group of people, and the rest, as they say, is history. The initial small core of people has grown over the past four years and we've gotten to meet many incredible people. We've made great friends, shared amazing adventures, and created hundreds of fantastic memories. Thanks, guys!
This weekend Paige managed to pull off a dayhike plan that would get eighteen of us together in one place - a near impossibility. Maria, Theresa, and Heidi were camping at Coast Camp, so Paige asked if anyone wanted to do a nice long dayhike loop through the park to visit them in camp on Saturday. There ended up being fifteen dayhikers and it was great to see several people that I haven't seen in a while - it was kind of like a high school reunion.
While it rained and was ugly inland, the sun was shining in Point Reyes and we had perfect hiking weather. The rain started to fall only at mile 12.6 of a 12.7 mile hike - within sight of the cars. Pictures of the hike are here: Point Reyes Dayhike Paige's Photos Theresa's Photos Karen's Photos Maria's Photos Frank's Photos
