Moments in Dirt and Ink

Shasta-Trinity National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Blue lines for day 2. Click for interactive map With morning came potential to see the lake. I toured the camping area on the way to grab some water. I watched the mist flow across the lake from the mushy area of some swamp alders toward the distant cliffs. Eventually, I even managed to get some breakfast. One of the built camps with a concrete base for an ice can stove, now one side for a rock fire ring. Mist wafting delicately across Tangle Blue Lake from the swamp alders to the far side. Western yellow pond-lilies grow in a few spots at the edges. Then to decide what to do with the day. One wanted to stick around and fish and look after the tiny dog. One initially wanted to go to Little Marshy Lake, but since that is private property was persuaded to set the better Big Marshy Lake as a goal instead. And the rest were out for East Boulder Lake, but as near as I could remember anywhere f...

Shasta-Trinity National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Red line for day 1. Click for interactive map For this weekend, Daniil's plan was to head out to Tangle Blue Lake to camp two nights and then walk off to wherever, there's lots of trails around, for the middle day. Since Tangle Blue Lake got cut out of my lake visiting plans on the 5th day of a mighty loop from far west , this was my opportunity to see it after all. But I wasn't so sure about there being so many trail options. Also coming along were his wife, their tiny dog, and a new backpacker. We got started a smidge later than planned getting together gear for the new backpacker, but that's okay because people must be exposed to backpacking! We had almost 4 miles to get to the lake from the trailhead, and expected it to be dark before we got there. Already in shadow at the trailhead. The trailhead is a bulge in the road just before a section of private land, part of the checkerboard lands gi...

Shasta-Trinity National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 Blue line for day 4. Click for interactive map The lake didn't brighten up so much as the day before as weather was coming in. Bits of clouds passing over Alpine Lake. And just up the hill, there's a valley covered over by clouds to see, too. But this was all a preview of things to come and passed over. Still, it wasn't quite as hot as it had been, which was nice.

Shasta-Trinity National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 Green lines for day 3. Click for interactive map I decided that hiking back what had been given 3 days to hike in and then driving hours back to Eureka would not be wise, so getting to the lakes over the ridge would need to happen as a day hike. The morning sun comes to Alpine Lake. It takes a little time, but sun gets to our side of the lake, too. Daniil was wanting to have evening light and morning light by the lakes for photography, but relented easily to the idea that it would be a long return. It made us a lot lighter and a lot thinner as we trotted back down the trail again, now looking for signs of a sort of trail going up, possibly in a gully. Back past the pond. Happy to be climbing away from that smoke sitting in the valley. I found a fallen cairn in the middle of a slot of rock that clearly runs with water sometimes, although it was dry. How can you tel...

Shasta-Trinity National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 Orange line for day 2. Click for interactive map Unfortunately, the smoke had moved in overnight. I mean, I've seen worse, but I prefer a little less. We packed up hoping the afternoon would bring similarly clear skies as the last afternoon. What view can be seen from the somewhat clear areas near the ford is looking a bit murky with smoke. With a little difficulty finding where the ford is meant to be, we found something with a bit of trail on the far side. With a "Splish, splash!" we plunged in, boots and all, to cross the river. One spot did go over the knees. The ford across Stuart Fork Trinity River on the Alpine Lake Trail. And then we sogged our way back downstream. I think the ford used to be a little downhill of where it is now, but there's a bit of a climb on the west bank of the river there now. It's not the only spot that has been experiencing erosion. While...

Shasta-Trinity National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 Red line for day 1. Click for interactive map Once again out to the more popular side of the Trinity Alps Wilderness, this time because Daniil really wants to visit some off trail lakes called Morris and Smith. He wants to get to them by rounding a lot of granite from Alpine Lake, which looks to me like the third easiest way to get there when looking at the map, but apparently this is the most common way people use. His plan was an afternoon to the ford, next day to Alpine Lake, next to Morris (or Smith, whichever looks more campable), then finishing by doing all of that in reverse. Could we at least just bomb down the drainage to the trail below instead of the long up and around? The maps and photography seem to show there's small cliffy obstacles that should be easy to go around and some possible thick vegetation and he wouldn't commit to that. Stuart Fork Trailhead. We ar...

Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge and more interactive map link The Humboldt Bay Trail is meant to be one continuous trail connecting the local communities with a multiuse path. For years there has been the "Bay Trail North" and "Bay Trail South", but now, finally, it is all one trail! This connection was meant to be completed last November, but the contractor (who is of the area and knows the weather) miscalculated and didn't get the paving in before the rains softened everything too much for the heavy equipment. So we waited very impatiently for this last four mile stretch between Arcata and Eureka to finally be completed. It's more than a decade in planning and haggling and work. As of the last Saturday of June, it is officially open. I joined the Volunteer Trail Stewards cleaning up the "north" section from Arcata Marsh to No Longer Two Rocks on that day, but decided to hold off actually walking it until it was a little less busy. It...