Moments in Dirt and Ink

Redwood National Park Click for interactive map On the prior Thursday, I joined the California Invasive Species Advisory Committee's invasive species tour of Eureka. It was at the last minute because I figured I knew all about these things since I spend a bit of time each week hacking them down as a volunteer. Of course, they were talking about the lesser known things and the tour started out with aphids that affect Sitka spruce terribly as we toured Mouralherwaqh, a patch of land that is Wiyot again. This one is not open to the general public, but we also visited the 'O Rew Redwood Gateway, a piece of land that is Yurok again, and is open to the public as of 1 Aug and where I discovered a new trail. I also noted that although this was most recently an abandoned mill site, there are some nice rounded tree tops poking out of the forest nearby, one of the signs of old growth. I decided I would be back to try that new trail. The sign at the after hours/overflow parking a...

Mendocino National Forest DAY 1  |  WORK DAYS 2-3  |  DAY 4  |  WORK DAYS 5-6  |  DAY 7 Orange line for day 4. Click for interactive map Wednesday is a free day, and while one chose to simply rest, there evolved two excursions among the small group. The more relaxed characters who still wanted to do something planned to head over to a small swimming hole tucked away above camp just out of sight of our trail in, then off to Solomon Peak for the views and memories. Unfortunately the swimming hole was dry this year, but the peak hadn't lost its views. I dreamed up the "Double Peak Extravaganza". First we would continue along the Summit Trail to where the Bigfoot Trail joins it coming out of Ides Cove. I mean, here we were on a BFTA trip and we weren't even expecting to touch the Bigfoot Trail? So we would tag it. Then we would continue a short way further on Summit Trail to where someone has marked (on OpenStreetMap) the "Sugarloaf Tra...

Shasta-Trinity National Forest Klamath National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Tan line for day 3. Click for interactive map With morning it was time to deal with whatever exactly it was we had gotten ourselves into. Since I had splashed through the very last tributary crossing, I left my grungy socks on from the prior day so they could be the ones getting wet, then I found a way across without getting my feet wet and so didn't have to drag all that extra water uphill. I had a good look at the sign still mounted on a tree and couldn't make it mean anything other than the old ditch for the trail up. Animals are short cutting a way to the ditch next to the sign and that remains the only trail-like thing to see. Then there was the challenge of the log. There was suggestion of passing packs underneath, but the ground was soft and smooth and there was enough room to just wiggle along, pack and all. From there, it was clear. Well, there's a tributary to ...

Shasta-Trinity National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Blue line for day 2. Click for interactive map My muscles felt abused from the day before, or perhaps from the insufficient activity over the week or two before that. Or maybe there's a little age creeping in. I've passed another 100th birthday! This one was base 7. Preemptive naproxin sodium seemed to have helped it not all be so bad and this day would be comparatively relaxing. Depending on trail state. A little bit of sunrise on Cabin Peak. New River (East Fork) over the local trash pile. We packed all of ours out because we know better. We didn't see the closer connection to the Morrison Gulch Trail the day before and while looking closely, we only saw a candidate for where it used to be. We continued on to the obvious further junction instead. Unsigned but distinct quicky became difficult to find as it passes along the bowl of land between the two ridges. Following gently upward gets aro...

Six Rivers National Forest Shasta-Trinity National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2 Brown line for day 2. Click for interactive map (Note that a free permit is required for backpacking in Trinity Alps Wilderness. They are available at Lower Trinity Ranger Station in Willow Creek.) We had the coldest night of the winter with the temperature hitting -3°C on Daniil's thermometer. Mine only got down to 27.5°F just after I started breakfast. He also complained that there was moisture in the early night coming down the mountain and settling on his tent. I had my tarp up against the wind (which didn't gust or even blow much more a little after sunset) leaving my gear vulnerable to wet air from above, but noticed none. I was maybe a foot higher in the meadow, but I guess it made all the difference. The tent was dry by morning anyway. Farewell to the meadow camp surrounded by severe burn. Full of lovely water before the presumably dry section of trail to be followed for most th...

Six Rivers National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2 Blue line for day 1. Click for interactive map (Note that a free permit is required for backpacking in Trinity Alps Wilderness. They are available at Lower Trinity Ranger Station in Willow Creek.) In the bright morning sun, we headed up Big Hill Road to the Mill Creek Lakes Trailhead (car passable except the last mile or two could be a challenge) once more, this time for an overnight. What will the trails be like? That's a bit of a mystery and we had a loop to try them out. (I actually had a bigger one, but Daniil nixxed reduced it to this minimal one saying something about a dense pile of trees for miles where it dropped low.) I've been tracing out trails in USGS's elevation profile, which isn't quite the gold standard of where trails go, but it's better than the lines the Forest Service provides much of the time. It gave me predictions for how this would go. The worst of it looked to be along the first half of...

Klamath National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Green line for day 3. Click for interactive map Daniil decided to head up Kings Castle before heading down, but didn't get a very early start. I think he was expecting me to want to go up, but I didn't want to add the 1.5k feet of descent from it to the 4k feet already waiting for me. I got to watch the newts and read from Teddy Roosevelt about his trip through South America . The snow around us, at least that which was left, now had a very distinct crust to it as I plowed through it to the lake. Morning by the lake when the light is still colored. I can confirm that Daniil made it to the top of Kings Castle. Rough skinned newt minding its own business. Away it goes.

Klamath National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Red and orange lines for day 2. Click for interactive map I had a selection of possible day hikes for our middle day. We could go south to tag Box Camp Mountain that I have become fixated on (probably because its smack in the middle of everything) and maybe tag Black Marble Mountain once more. We could try hiking a loop with the old trail that passed on the west side of Kings Castle and down to Bear Lake, probably tagging the peak on the way. It's an easy up from that trail. Morning comes to the bumps near Kings Castle. Remembering the terrain to the south and seeing how covered with snow that sort of terrain was, anything going that way wasn't very attractive. There's similar terrain to the north, but then it opens up to a ridge, or so the map says. North to Big Ridge (or even Buckhorn Mountain, which sounds more like a "real name" but is a lower point) looked like the most pleasant use of the day....

Klamath National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Purple line for day 1. Click for interactive map In the continuing saga of going to high places because "it's like June out there", Daniil and I headed to the upper trailhead of the Kelsey Creek Trail. For this episode, however, there was a spring storm through on Wednesday, so we weren't quite sure what travel would be like in the high elevations. Copernicus sailed by after, but took pictures of clouds. Just a little mystery to keep us on our toes. Regulations and map on the left, a little history in the middle, at the trailhead. This is the easternmost portion of the Kelsey National Recreation Trail, which will take you at least as far as the west side of Siskiyou Wilderness, admittedly with a big chunk of road walking and a name change in between. The historic Kelsey Trail was a major supply route from Crescent City to Fort Jones in the 1850s. This day's travel would complete my travel along the ...