Moments in Dirt and Ink

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 fro...

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...

Klamath National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Light blue for day 3. Click for interactive map The trail crew had come in on the first sunny day in a while and enjoyed a lack of rain. It wasn't planned that way, they were just lucky. Now the weather was turning back to rain. We were headed out. They would head out, too. On the trail again. The Tolmie's pussy ears had opened up. I got hit with three whole raindrops early on, but nothing more came of the heavy clouds. I focused on getting a few of the neglected flowers on the way out.

Klamath National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Red and orange for day 2. Click for interactive map We headed out in the morning with the trail crew. There were a couple miles to the start of work because they had already gotten as far as the access trail to the private inholding along the way. Wooley Creek, wild and scenic river, rages below. The trail crosses Deer Lick Creek toward the right, wet foot currently, but the crew decided to brave the high log bridge using a long stick for extra balance. Getting some little waterfalls on the way. Some few western trillium .

Klamath National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Dark blue for day 1. Click for interactive map Daniil wanted to hike and have evening chats with the Bigfoot Trail Alliance supplied trail crew, which would be clearing the Wooley Creek Trail to the cabin once more. Would I like to go? Well, I seem to be failing to plan my own thing and it's been a while since I was up the trail. He kind of wanted to head up toward Black Mountain, which has also been on my agenda once. I warned there wasn't much there to follow. So we headed off with a plan of an evening hike into camp only 3 miles along, a day of wandering about, then a finishing hike out. A little of the large parking and some trail, somewhere up there. We go off on the left, but we'll be back high up. We neglected to factor in the time required to admire the wildflowers for our inbound journey. Purple-pink bushes of western redbud burst from the hillsides. Loads of yellow wingstem monkey flow...