Moments in Dirt and Ink

Klamath National Forest Six Rivers National Forest Smith River National Recreation Area Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 Blue and purple lines for day 4. Click for interactive map We woke to a mist rolling over from the low pass to the Illinois River and down through Youngs Valley. Imagine how it might look from the triple point, with the one valley full of cloud, bleeding over to another and the third, perhaps clear? And so the suggestions that we should go up Youngs Peak began. The clouds roll by, right to left, as they thin in the morning sun. We had our breakfast from our unchallenged bear cans and packed up to head out. From here, it is all a repeat with a long road walk. A lone incense cedar stands in the spotlight of the sun. A Nashville warbler sings out strongly to tell that nasty recording who is in charge here. The clouds still roll past, now left to right across El Capitan.

Klamath National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 Green lines for day 3. Click for interactive map Well, I hadn't been too crazy about trying to go up Preston via the route that some claim has several solid class 3 climbs while others seem to think is just a "high class 2" all the way when I had rested muscles. I wasn't any more interested when my legs still felt done over from fighting an overgrown trail for much longer than it should have required. We settled on trying for Copper Mountain with a plan to walk the ridge from Cyclone Gap. We packed up and headed down with a rather more than brief stop to saw off all the limbs of a tree that had fallen along the trail. Daniil carried in the saw and cut the limbs and all who hike the trail this season should be thanking him, because it wasn't very passable before the saw came out. A look back to the cirque of Raspberry Lake with Preston Peak rising up behind the false peak that dominat...

Six Rivers National Forest Smith River National Recreation Area Klamath National Forest Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 Orange line for day 2. Click for interactive map Morning light came to Sanger Lake long before the sunlight. Since I hadn't had time to make a loop on the trail around the lake in the evening, I went around in the morning. Around the far side, where Calypso orchids and Trillium grew and small streams delivered water to the lake, the trail got hard to follow. Morning comes to Sanger Lake. The colored western sky as the sun comes up behind. But the flowers I took pictures of were the thyme leaved speedwells along the north side. They happen to be invasive. After breakfast and packing, I had to go back for a bit brighter pictures before heading down the road to the trailhead. Looking south across Sanger Lake from a campsite that is far too close to the water.

Six Rivers National Forest Smith River National Recreation Area DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 Brown line for day 1. Click for interactive map Daniil said he wanted to go to the Raspberry Lake area in the Siskiyou Wilderness. Drive up and camp in the afternoon, then 3 days around the place. I've been wanting to hit that area, too, so I had ideas. Looking over the data on climbing Preston Peak, I noticed that it might be outside my comfort zone. Some say "high class 2" and others say "several class 3 sections". Looking at the map, the ridge up from Rattlesnake Meadow looks best, but they say there's a class 4 climb right at the end to get over the lower points to the peak. Taking it in, I said here's what I'd do: to Rattlesnake Meadow the first day, try the peak and fail the last little bit before contouring cross country to Raspberry Lake the second day, then wander back on the third. Oh, and there might be a seasonal gate 5 miles f...

Six Rivers National Forest interactive map link I've had suggestions that maybe I should wander around the area east of the Hoopa Reservation, but apparently I had to be dragged to it. The road is long, but only a small section a little scary. Turn at Big Hill and then there's many junctions to guess. Some don't matter and some will get you to the Big Hill fire lookout instead. It gets rougher after the turn to the trailhead. Daniil brought his wife, myself, and another along for maybe a 7 mile loop, or maybe less? He's not sure what the northern trails are like and has been doing shorter loops cross country on the snow. I said that we better tag the mountain since it's easy, just an easy 1/4 mile off trail. And I think the trail across the north end is probably fine, but the joining stuff could be iffy, but that's from satellite and others suggest otherwise. Looking back from the Mill Creek Lake Trailhead to the marine layer coming far inland today. ...

Six Rivers National Forest interactive map link Fish Lake has an island of trails that exists in a section of forest that is a tangle of roads. Some details of these trails as marked on the Forest Service topo seemed suspicious to me, but no one had bothered to place them on OpenStreetMap to help suggest what reality might be. Why are there two routes up to Red Mountain Lake? Why does the loop around Blue Lake extend well past the road? The only trail I was really certain would exist is the loop around Fish Lake. The lake has a campground and is stocked which suggests there would be plenty of users for a lake looping trail. So, for the public good of improving the map, I headed out to the campground area! Not to mention that the whole collection of trails looked like a good day's hike in a place I haven't been. (I have been to nearby Bluff Creek Historic Trail .) Although the seasonal Port Orford cedar disease closure listed for the whole of Bluff Creek Road (NF 13) goes...

Shasta-Trinity National Forest interactive map link Birthday hike! I thought I signed up for birthday work, but it's birthday hike instead. The crew had breakfast and headed up to the trailhead generally aiming to get to North Yolla Bolly Spring where the Yolla Bolly Guard Station once stood. The CCCs would be off somewhere else, it was just volunteers for the hike. Back at the West Low Gap Trailhead, but there's been a change in the weather. The low clouds are just about this high. Back to our "oasis" with trees and water. Once we passed the familiar, we were off to find Cedar Basin. There were lots of dips with incense cedars in them. Is this the one? How about this? There weren't many patches of whitethorn as encroaching as the one we'd been working on and none nearly as long. The trail is capturing water along one old forest now meadow. Rocking needed!

Shasta-Trinity National Forest interactive map link I signed up for two volunteer trips with the Bigfoot Trail Alliance , one at either end of the Bigfoot Trail as it crosses the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness. At this north end of the wilderness, it follows the Humboldt Trail, one of the emigrant trails of the late 1800s, before a few miles of road and connecting with the South Fork Trinity River Trail . This first is a "frontcountry" trip that only lasts a long weekend and where we stay at the trailhead. Or, in this case, at a well established dispersed camp site a couple miles short of the trailhead that happens to have actual shade. The trailhead has a corral instead, which wasn't really a feature for us. It also still had a couple logs down on the road as we arrived Thursday evening. Friday: 1 May 2025 There was a California Conservation Corps group coming in the morning to get those logs and then clean up what we had passed, which was to car passable s...

Shasta-Trinity National Forest Click for interactive map Daniil claimed he could get my snowshoes used rather than just floating around in the eternally not quite unpacked car. To that end, we headed up Canyon Creek, with Jeff, aiming at the snowed areas. Both have been up this trail at various times earlier in the year. It crosses largish Bear Creek almost right at the trailhead and I insisted on seeing what it was like the evening before to be confident about the return crossing the next evening when the day would be even warmer. It wasn't that impressive. It is big, so even at lower morning levels, it is a wide wet foot crossing. I elected to wait until after crossing to actually put on my boots and waterproof socks. My water crossers got stashed under a rock at the far side and we took off on rocky ground. Sun hitting the far side of the canyon and the peaks above. The Bear Creek crossing is made annoying by the logs in it, but it was no more than halfway to the kn...