Moments in Dirt and Ink

Six Rivers National Forest Mendocino National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Blue line for day 1. Click for interactive map I've got a Caltopo map of fairly random maybe trips, including some along the more western side of the northern edge of Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness where I'd like to explore more and Daniil has never been. This is possibly the only part of this wilderness that can be visited on paved roads. He picked a small loop, about 15 miles, going out of Little Doe Wilderness Trailhead (perhaps better known as Waterspout, named for a spring the trail used to go to when traveling away from the wilderness) and traveling Yellowjacket Creek and Doe Ridge by Shell Mountain. It should be a snow-fest this time of the year, just not this particular year. We gave it three days, starting very early to maximize the time to cut away trees in the road. The trees are still down. Folks with emblems painted on their doors were working high up the ridge ...

Klamath National Forest Rogue River-Siskiyou National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Yellow lines for day 2. Click for interactive map Neither of us had quite got our boots open wide enough the night before and the frozen shapes were hard to put on in the morning in spite of preparing for it. I had elected not to bring along my waterproof socks and I was sorry for it as soon as my boots thawed out. The cold also left my camera battery devoid of sufficient energy to take sunrise pictures. The extra battery, which admittedly only registered 2 of 3 bars when I grabbed it, was also dead. I decided to leave the camera and be stuck with substandard photography equipment for the day. I was also sorry for being lazy about battery maintenance. Leaving Kangaroo Springs, just one pool visible from here. Shasta almost hides in the low clouds in the nearby valleys. Upper and Middle Devils Peaks where the Pacific Crest Trail goes. Our goal for the day was ...

Shasta-Trinity National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Yellow and orange lines for day 2. Click for interactive map After finding that we had selected a camp site with a view of Mount Shasta, we got ourselves fed for the morning explorations. Dawn light on the clouds around Mount Shasta. We got ourselves together for a little day hiking and headed out. Judging we were already to the point of starting the cross country required to get to Little Bear Lake, we headed out into the somewhat trackless, but cairn rich, granite. Up on the granite on the far side of the creek from Bear Lake Trail. We generally followed along ledges. A lot of uphill on granite with a lot of views of Mount Shasta. There are a lot of possible trails, all a little hard, but most not too hard. We didn't all follow the same trail sections, cairns, or ledges, but we stayed pretty close. We could all see each other. After a lot of maneuvering along granite rocks, I found ...

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...

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...

Mendocino National Forest Work DAY 1-2  |  Move/Rest/Play DAY 3  |  Work DAY 4-5  |  Work DAY 6-7 Yellow and brown for day 3: interactive map link Moving day! Also there is usually a do your own thing day on these week long trips and it was determined that if we were going to, this would be the day to do it. First up, moving ourselves and gear to Square Lake. Group gear had to be packed up in time for the packers to load it up as they liked. Packing our own gear was a little more relaxed. With bear canister and chair and hammock and tent and and and, it was a little heavy, but the hike isn't bad. Our new home for the rest of the week: Square Lake. The weekend campers had taken off mid-Sunday, so the lake was otherwise deserted when we arrived. Most the volunteers were gone again by the time the stock showed up. The packers were ready to drop everything in the same meadow the campers occupied until it was mentioned the crew all wanted the ge...

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.

Shasta-Trinity National Forest Click for map Monument Peak was a whim to fill in the day of hiking lost to not finding East Fork Divide Trail. It happens to have 1000 feet of prominence and isn't reachable by car. Others can drive a lot closer than I can. I actually drove a little bit of road (that has been downgraded from improved gravel to unimproved) until an easy parking spot. The peak had not been saved on my Peakbagger app, but a nearby and much less prominent peak had been. If I was feeling it, I'd take the extra 1.5 mile walk to that one and find out why. The number of hunters past inspired me to pull out the biggest wad of orange I had: my long sleeve BFTA shirt. It's very bright. The view out over Corral Creek. The Monument Fire was here in 2021 too. I walked a rather smooth road although the last bit I'd driven had been mildly rough. There was evidence of once having a thin paving. Bituminous surface treatment, they call it. It is long gone in m...

Clam Beach County Park Little River State Beach ( map link ) I decided the place I wanted to go for this window of sunshine between the rain was Little River State Beach, which I previously visited on an even sunnier June day full of flowers . There aren't quite so many flowers as March starts. It's not very big, so I decided I should take in some of the county's Clam Beach to the south and Moonstone Beach to the north. The tide would be out late in the afternoon, so I left the areas with cliffs for late. I started in the county's North Lot, which was quite busy at one end and flooded at the other. Lots of dogs out, but all but one with obedient people leashing them. North of the lot is Little River State Beach which only allows dogs leashed on the waveslope. They take their position as critical snowy plover habitat seriously and loose dogs are huge threat to the ground nesting birds. Plenty of parking under the bluffs at the beach. There's trail aroun...