Moments in Dirt and Ink

Six Rivers National Forest Daniil decided he wanted to see the Lassics, which is a rather long drive, especially with CA 36 closed due to the inherent instability of the mountain side it crosses. He bypassed that using the good county road (only half gravel) past Kneeland and filled up the car to help make it feel a little less wasteful for a single day outing. Evelina (his wife) and Carl also came along. It's a bit of a triumph to get Carl to come out and do something fun because he's usually pursuing the destruction of those invasive plants that pursue the destruction of the local environment instead. It was particularly great to get him on this one since he got to poke around some childhood memories while hiking. His family would come to this area when he was a kid and would climb some peak, which we decided was probably Black Lassic, but he hadn't been back since. Black Lassic interactive map link Meanwhile, I was working with just 2 year old memory when I s...

Six Rivers National Forest ( map link ) I stopped at the junction of Coffeepot (2S08) and Senteney Rock (1S07) to explore the area of Goat Hill. The motivation was largely to sort out if I've mapped the area properly, but had I paid a little more attention, I might have found another reason to do exactly this hike. As it was, I first wandered over to the far side of the intersection to where Coffee Pot has climbed from the Ruth-Zenia Road to see if there really is pavement. Down under all the pine duff there really is some smooth and hard pavement. Checked! Then I turned to the South Goat Hill Road (2S72), my actual aim ever so slightly north of the large intersection of good roads. This one is high clearance, but legal to drive. It was obvious no one has tried in a while. As South Goat Hill Road leaves Senteney Rock Road. Except for stepping over a couple tree trunks, hiking up this road was easy at first. It obviously got more use than 2S08C when it was in use. Just li...

Six Rivers National Forest ( map link ) I found a few explorations at the south end of the Mount Lassic Wilderness, then had dark thoughts about just doing them some other time. The thing is, one was labeled "Dry Lake". Something tells me that this is the prime time to visit. In addition, I found another lake that had been expunged from the Forest Service topo for reasons unknown. The space in the green vegetation layer was still there, but the water has become a dot. So that shall be "Not-A Lake". I parked at the intersection of Coffee Pot (2S08) and its spur C, which is surrounded by, but outside of, the Mount Lassic Wilderness. I actually started out on an abandoned Jeep trail a few feet west. Boulders block the track of road I meant to follow to Dry Lake. Trees line both sides of Coffee Pot, but if I looked too closely, I saw there weren't very many of them behind the most obvious trees. This is the southern edge of the 2015 Lassics Fire. I hiked ...

Six Rivers National Forest ( map link ) Mount Lassic actually has a trail up it, I just didn't know where. It was built (possibly by California Department of Fish and Wildlife, but still official and maintained) but not drawn on a map nor described except that its purpose is to move feet away from the rare lupine that grows over less than 4 acres in the whole world. All but a garden sized plot is on this mountain. I wanted to visit it, but not to stomp across its whole territory. (Also, I made really certain that my shoes were completely purged of any seed before arriving in the area. After Clover Gulch, that was a challenge, but worthy.) I decided to start off on a small trail I found by my parking. It was minimally flagged and marked and probably not the one meant for the public. There's a faint trail just to the left of the smaller tree here where the road drains its water. Weather seemed to be forming over the Lassics, as it had the last few days, but then roam...