Moments in Dirt and Ink

Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park interactive map link The Rhododendron macrophyllum looked spectacular as we drove through Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park the week before. It is a little far for a day hike, but a group headed out to Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park, another bit of the Redwood National and State Parks, for a hike. No actual trail was planned at the point of arrival, but once when I hiked a loop climbing both west and east trails, I found only three Rhododendrons on the west side of the creek. Either Hope Creek/Ten Taypo or the Rhododendron Trail are better options than anything on the west. If you want the Rhododendron Trail for Rhododendrons, you really should be on the higher (more northern) end of it. So that's where we went, eventually, via Karl Knapp Trail, and a return along Brown Creek Trail. This last just happens to be a super nice area of trees. We parked across from it to start, then headed the other way on a short connector to Karl Knapp Tr...

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...

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 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...

Arcata Community Forest ( map link ) I decided it was time to take a lap with the camera to show off the flowers. They start in January, some of them only having taken a few months off. They haven't seemed all that thick yet. I started at the big entry on Margaret Lane. A map and some rules on entering under the 2nd growth redwoods. Follow the trail past a diversity of green. Passing tall redwood trees with thick, fibrous bark. There's not usually banana slugs hiding in the cracks, but today there is. Where the loop starts, one may choose a bit of a warm-up stretch with little ups and downs or head for a steady climb instead. I turned right for the first. One of the more ephemeral water flows in the forest. There's a couple segments of trail that are thickly lined with milkmaids .

Six Rivers National Forest ( map link ) My very last planned hike on my very last day. The goal: get to the top of Red Lassic. It's not a very long hike. There would also be one more chance to find little pink lupine in bloom. On the way, I planned to stop by a couple of small ponds. I started from camp, since it is almost to the 2WD starting point anyway. Red Lassic looks cliffy from camp. The spring fed pool at camp. It's a reason not to stay here if there isn't much other water. A rough road splits off from the main road and leads to the upper pond. I followed this up and to that pond. More rugged looking side of Red Lassic. The pond at the end of the road next to the Mount Lassic Wilderness.

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...

Six Rivers National Forest ( map link ) I headed up to the Lassics via the Senteney Rock Road (1S07), which is wide and smooth gravel all the way up to the county line where a small section marked as Jeep trail on USGS maps has a rather more dangerous feel when in a little car. I was looking for an old and rough road up to a "campground", or so the peakbaggers keep calling it. I didn't find it, but it is obvious when traveling north. There's no parking next to it and no driving it in a little car, so it didn't matter. I found a small turnout near the saddle between Black and Mount and decided upon a direct approach rather than looking for that road. Black Lassic from the turnout near the saddle. Black Lassic is the tallest of the Lassics and it sits in the footprint of the 2015 Lassics Fire. Besides the too many burned trees, I was struck by how absolutely dry it is up here. There's even a little patch marked "desert" just to the north of ...

Humboldt Lagoons State Park ( map link ) Since I didn't see many rhododendrons on the Lost Man Creek Trail, and those I did see were generally just budding out, I decided to stop by the azaleas on the way back. The azaleas bloom earlier than the rhododendrons and the one by the highway was in rare form as I zoomed past. I had time, so that's just what I did. The road seems a little rougher, but still not too much for the little scion to get all the way around to the little parking area among the spruce. Trail and trailhead sign under the Sitka spruce. Candy flowers among the roots. So I got ready to see some flowers. There's usually quite a few more than just the azaleas.

Arcata Community Forest ( map link ) We woke up Wednesday morning with snow falling. Big wet flakes were plopping against the ground after only half surviving the journey down and not surviving contact with the ground. More waves of snow came throughout the day, only sticking to the most exposed areas in a thin layer. As the light started to dim in the evening, it began to stick properly. It built up until the morning dawned with a blanket of the stuff. There was snow all the way down to the beach ! Things were less thickly covered by the time the sun got to shining a bit on the trees, but still plenty more than seen in a decade. A look along Panorama to a patch of backyard trees. The garden rhododendrons have been blooming a few weeks, but the wild ones won't be for a few months. Down the stub end of Margaret to another patch of private trees holding rare snow. Up the steps and into the community forest itself. Yeah, it's not all that much snow. Snow was on th...