BFTA Trinity Alps: Rush Creek Trail

Klamath National Forest

Shasta-Trinity National Forest

(blue line, map link)

DAY 1 | DAY 2 | DAY 3 | DAY 4 | DAY 5 | DAY 6-7

We were on again for working and back on the Bigfoot Trail from the saddle to Rush Creek Lake. The specific trails we would be working are actually Deadman Peak Trail (9W16), Rush Creek Trail (5460), and ever so slightly onto McNeil Trail (5471) before turning down the trail to Rush Creek Lake to finish the work once more at a lake. Again we proceeded up to the saddle above Long Gulch and this time turned to the middle trail which progresses somewhat level around the top of South Fork Coffee Creek.

102: burned trees hide green patches ahead — Back in the saddle again, this time with our attention turned to a trail that stays fairly level to continue through that next saddle to the left.

103: tree across trail — We found work quickly. A couple trees needed logged out.

104: How green is my valley? — South Fork Coffee Creek seems to have come through the 2021 Haypress Fire well.

I had a limb saw this day and plenty to use it on. The thing about those heat twisted trees curved over the trail is that they are also fire hardened.

105: trickle of water — Up here, South Fork Coffee Creek (marked as seasonal, but running today) is a line of green through burn.

Through the saddle, we found patches of vicious torching and torturing burn as well as lush green spots. Some more views will open up eventually.

107: bent over burned trees — Torched and tortured trees above a patch of green.

108: pleasing arrangement of flowers — A collection of color in one lush spot.

109: burned trees, burned hills, much more hills beyond — The views are opening up.

112: peak with patches of burn on it — Not-actually-Deadman Peak looks like it would be easy to walk up, and has some lovely meadows where springs feed Taylor Creek.

113: pleasing flower and leaf pattern — These look familiar from Colorado, but it's the California version. California Jacob's ladder.

114: flower stalk with flowers — White-veined wintergreen

The trail nudges over a ridge and I found many of the crew there, stopped for lunch. The high peaks of the wilderness had just come into view and they were enjoying pointing out that the highest peak isn't the one that you would pick out.

115: gear and snowy peaks — Snowy peaks come into view past some gear and lunchers.

117: little purple flowers — Toothed owl's clover and coyote mountain mint in the nearby meadow.

118: Rush Creek — Meadows mean better views down Rush Creek to Thompson Peak and others.

We had a bit of trouble finding the trail as it drops into the valley around Rush Creek. There had been a post marking the corner, but it does actually mark a junction. Garden Gulch Trail, which continues along the ridges and the edge of the wilderness, leaves here, but we were probably having difficulty with an abandoned trail that shortcuts Rush Creek Trail. Past the junction, the trail bed cleared up again.

122: yellow-white flowers like a bonnet — The usual Columbian monkshood is white along the streams here.

126: clear trail — Trail toward granite, but I'm not sure where it climbs if one continues.

I didn't see Rush Creek Trail as it comes up for the junction with the end of McNeil Trail and I could guess where McNeil Trail continued instead of turning toward the lake, but still wasn't sure. The most obvious trail was going where we went, to the lake.

128: fuzzy red spikes — Giant red indian paintbrush

130: big flowers on thin stems — These primrose monkeyflowers seemed moss like in their structure.

131: lake among burned trees — First catching sight of Rush Creek Lake.

132: flowers and bees — The local cream stonecrops were attracting a lot of bumblebees.

Rush Creek Lake remains a little jewel even among the burn and there are still some good camp sites nearby and along the approach.

134: lake in green — Many flowers, including corn lilies, fill the meadow on the way to Rush Creek Lake.

138: wasp approaches — I stopped to record corn lilies for iNaturalist and found this western giant ichneumon wasp. It has a forked tail longer than the rest of the rather large body.

139: toad between rocks — A much cleaner western toad.

140: elongated domes of white flowers — Western false asphodel

143: tiny flowers — Hairy indian paintbrush

It took a while, but the group gathered together to hike out again.

145: bee on flower — A mining bee on a nettle-leaf giant hyssop.

146: trail among singed trees — Singed, burned, green... there will be fewer trees here next year and the year after.

And then it happened... we met an actual through hiker! Not just any through hiker, this fellow was trying for a Fastest Known Time. While people have hiked it through before, no one has actually recorded their time where it gets tracked. He was specifically wanting an unsupported time, meaning everything he had, he started with. It wasn't going to happen. (But we never know what we're really capable of unless we bite off a bit more than we can chew sometimes.) The past many miles over Packers Peak and down to Rush Creek Lake are hosed after the 2021 Haypress Fire. (I watched the faces of Members of the Board droop at this because, although they knew it already. Some of that trail had just been worked right before the fire.) He could get himself to a store under his own power for a resupply and then be self supported, which would still be acceptable to him... but even that was looking tough. But the next five miles was clear of trees! There's 360 miles total.

147: clouds over Coffee Creek — Heading back under puffy clouds.

On the way back I played with my Trail Sense app. This is something I found poking around F-droid, the FOSS (free and open source software) package manager, and is a random collection of possibly useful totally offline tools for hiking. It identifies clouds. These above could mean rain and lightning in another 12 hours. (Not this time, but we weren't surprised by that.)

149: black beetle — White-spotted sawyer beetle, which moves into burned forests and eats the dead and dying trees. Not a tree killing bark beetle.

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