Moments in Dirt and Ink

Yosemite National Park DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7  |  DAY 8 Pink line for day 8. Click for interactive map One last day, and it would be a short one. The long drive home would follow the walk to the car. Half Dome casts a long shadow in the morning light. Our way back to the trail. I started a little earlier than the others and took some time to try to photograph the little birds that were zipping through the brush. Most the birds were Brewer's sparrows . But I also caught this orange-crowned warbler . An easy rolling terrain to pass through. While navigating the small creek, I noticed a tent around some rocks. Had we gone for the typical type of site with water, we'd have had to share the space! And the view wasn't anywhere near so nice.

Shasta-Trinity National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4 Red line for day 1. Click for interactive map Once again out to the more popular side of the Trinity Alps Wilderness, this time because Daniil really wants to visit some off trail lakes called Morris and Smith. He wants to get to them by rounding a lot of granite from Alpine Lake, which looks to me like the third easiest way to get there when looking at the map, but apparently this is the most common way people use. His plan was an afternoon to the ford, next day to Alpine Lake, next to Morris (or Smith, whichever looks more campable), then finishing by doing all of that in reverse. Could we at least just bomb down the drainage to the trail below instead of the long up and around? The maps and photography seem to show there's small cliffy obstacles that should be easy to go around and some possible thick vegetation and he wouldn't commit to that. Stuart Fork Trailhead. We ar...

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...

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 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...

Shasta-Trinity National Forest Click for map I had the coldest night of the trip (at 35°F!) at Philpot and it was tempting to stay to try to wait out the two really hot days coming up. I had the 5 gallon jug full and a couple gallons extra filtered too and was done sitting about before noon. Plenty of time for a short hike up to an old lookout site, which logically fit in as the next thing. Much of the road is high in a parched, but somewhat tree covered, country. Passing through Indian Valley, I found out where all the long trailers end up. (And the road to there is not just paved, it has two whole lanes!) The turn for Limedyke Lookout Road (2N16) is just past most of free Indian Valley Campground. It's marked as being rough, but passable in passenger cars and no OHVs allowed. (I'm surprised by how many area roads are marked with the white line of licensed vehicles only on the Motor Vehicle Use Map in this area.) Except for a short stretch after Friend Mountain, ...

Shasta-Trinity National Forest (green line for day 3, click for map ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5 My hope for the day was to finish off the Bigfoot Trail section of South Fork Trinity River Trail (the non-National Recreation Trail version of the name) doing some of the far southeastern end day hiking style like I'd done most of Smoky Creek Trail. As I started, I really wanted to get all the way back to Saint Jacques Place, but figured camping somewhere near Soap Creek was more realistic. After that, it looks like two miles high and dry and then probable camping right at the end beside South Fork's East Fork. Getting a bit extra would allow for trying out Saint Jacques Trail and Snow Gap Trail on the way back. It really best fit into the trip if I did it on the way out, but I wanted to have a look at the trails first. Honestly, I wanted to check them for basic existence. Snow Gap Trail looks good, arriving without...

Stillwater Field Office BLM ( map link ) I passed right by Grimes Point on the way out to see the annular eclipse , which quite definitively closes my circle through Nevada that started with the Pony Express and other ruins . (There's an introduction at the Lassen overlook , but that's in California, so that doesn't count.) I wanted to stop this time because there are petroglyphs. These aren't just any petroglyphs, either. Estimated to be at least 8000 years old, they're some of the oldest in the state. There are some that are probably at least 10,500, perhaps 14,000, years old, so they're not the oldest. One of a few information signs at the highly developed Grimes Point Trailhead which includes toilets, covered picnic tables, paved road access, and more information signs. My plan for the visit was to take a turn around the interpretive trail that visits some of the petroglyphs in the area, then head up the Observation Point Trail. There were some...