Moments in Dirt and Ink

California Coastal National Monument Click for interactive map After poking around Ocean Ranch , I headed up the hill to Lighthouse Ranch, one of the 6 pieces of California Coastal National Monument that can be visited along the mainland. There's a loop trail, interpretive signs, picnic tables, and a toilet. If you are trying to get a stamp for your National Parks passport, you probably have to go to the Arcata BLM Field Office. Other nearby pieces of the National Monument are the Trinidad Head Lighthouse to the north, which is only open during certain hours on certain days; Lost Coast Headlands to the south, which has a little more trail but the road in can suffer winter damage; and of course most the rocks and islands you can still see at high tide. This is the easiest to visit. The pathway entry from the unpaved parking at Waluplh-Lighthouse Ranch. The path is well established and the edges get mowed. Taking the right side of the loop, the trail comes quickly to t...

Patapsco Valley State Park interactive map link I returned to the Ilchester area, this time parking in a lot the park considers more acceptable, up the hill from where Ilchester once stood ( and where I parked before ). There was a small lot closer, but it had a locked gate. The small, unpaved lot is free and has some informative signage and was getting toward half full as I pulled in. Two trails diverging, one to start on and one to finish. You can take both! A downy woodpecker was finding good stuff on one small tree. My plan for the day was to head down the hill and cross over the river for a low route over to where I first hiked to the little waterfall . Then I would cross over and stay low a little longer until a collection of trails that rose to an area marked Soapstone. I sort of expected some to be on display along the way, somewhere. Then I'd wander along a high route back. This would be a little more complicated navigation, but I've got a map and the S...

Patapsco Valley State Park interactive map link The multitude of ruins marked in the Ilcheter Area of Patapsco Valley State Park drew my attention, so I made a rough plan of wandering among them. My first choice for access was a public lot in Ellicott City. The whole area doesn't show much "heat" on the Strava map, but what there is shows this as one access point that is actually used, so it was a bit disappointing to see a bit of new fencing across the access. As this access follows the active railroad right of way for a distance, it wasn't completely surprising. I also see some heat suggesting the end of Red Stag Court is an entry, but decided against trying this one. My next try was the hunter parking. This was open and has a lot of information provided at the lot, including that to park there legally, you need to place your hunting permit in the car window. My third option was a parking area next to Ilchester Road. Although a sign across the hiker bridge su...

Redwood National Park Click for map In the once upon a time, after backpacking around Redwood Creek , I stopped by Lyons Ranch and Dolason Hill Prairie . Then I only hiked down the trail as far as the historic barn, about a mile. I decided it was time to take on the whole trail. With temperatures climbing a bit inland and it being wise to consider this a mostly inland trail, it would be a warm day for it. The current conditions page lists the trail as only "partly open" due to downed trees. On the one hand, this page still lists the central portion of Rhododendron Trail as closed for the collapsed bridge that was cleared away and trail smoothed to make the small creek crossing easier years ago. It makes the bold statement that the seasonal bridges in Fern Canyon are both in place and removed. On the other hand, this is a National Park page and they might be better about the conditions of trails that are actually in the National Park, like Dolason Prairie Trail. (On...

Stillwater Field Office BLM ( map link ) The bit of geocaching at the mining areas on the way up to Mable Mountain seemed quite successful, so I set out to find a couple more before stopping by the library in Hawthorne and then finding a new camp with easy access to Corey Peak. They were actually on the menu for the day I drove in, but the faint roads that lead to them proved so hard to see that I went right past before knowing it. With a lot more care, I got stopped in the right places on the way out. Since absolutely no one would care if I parked at the side of the road, I decided against challenging off road parking spots and didn't repeat throwing the car into a sand trap. First up, Lazy Man . I approached it from a hill that had been cut, but not for a road. Buildings and other structures and tailings from the Lazy Man Mine, worked around the 1930s?, lie below. The mine spreads out all around the hill. I headed down the hill, trackless on the south side, to hav...

Stillwater Field Office BLM ( map link ) If I could figure out a way to make permanent travel work, I'd have turned south to finish wiggling around Nevada. I've not, so I turned north to finish circling Nevada. However, there were still a few days of good weather left, so I stalled out in the Garfield Hills to check them out. Reports for getting to the high point on Peakbagger indicate Garfield Flat Road is rather rough on the east side, where it starts in Mina almost at an NDOT station. I came by the west side, past a tiny NDOT sign stating this road gets "minimal maintenance", and up some wash crossings. It looked like that minimal maintenance was quite recently done. I decided I would go up Mable Mountain. I read it as "Marble" and was a little upset there's no obvious marble like spots on it. There is a marble quarry half a mile down the road from my camp, though. There's no hint of marble on this Mable Mountain. I considered combini...

Tonopah Field Office BLM ( map link ) Corral, it says. Cave Spring, it says. Ruins, it says. There's a couple prospects and a building marked too. Okay map, I thought, we can stop there and see what all the fuss is about. That's quite a few little marks. Cabin, corral, and Rhyolite Ridge. I did find myself deciding that the way up Rhyolite Ridge was up the valley north of the road and pick one of the later minor ridges to the top. The only trouble is the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project. (Sponsors of Radio Goldfield , oldies western and a whole lot more. Strongly Appalachian sounding when I first stumbled on it, playing "Christmas songs for folks who don't like Christmas songs" later, and highly recommended.) There's a bit of activity south of the road including "no unauthorized entry" signs and seemed like even more activity north of the road. No exclusive signs, but still worrying. So I discarded actually doing my plan for the Rhyoli...

Great Basin National Park (redder lines, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2   I certainly needed a rest day after my short, but hard, trip up Eagle Peak. Since none of my backpacking food was sorted out, it was good to have that time to pre-make some breakfast mixes of couscous and spice and fruit and cheese for breakfast and discover that only one of my dried beans packets was in the car. Turns out not seeing it in the room doesn't mean it's in the car already. I decided to experiment with wasabi peas as a dehydrated legume. Then I had the time to weigh it all and decide that if it's 20 pounds, camera and all, I could certainly toss in a second coat. (Eagle Peak Campsites must be a cold spot because it didn't turn out to be any colder at Baker Lake, but one does expect a higher place to be colder generally.) I even had some time to write even if it wouldn't get posted until I stopped by the county library in Ely. Then I headed back up the rough and narrow, but st...

Mount Lewis Field Office BLM ( map link ) I never want to do a long drive, and this was quite a long drive, without finding a little something along the way. Well, next to a random toilet in the middle of generally Bureau of Land Management lands along the so called Loneliest Highway in America (US-50) are three little pieces of western history all in one clump. Across to the left is an old Overland Stage and Mail stop. Across to the right, a telegraph repeater and maintenance area. On up the hill at a nice little 1.5 miles is a Pony Express stop. So many ways to communicate across the expanse of what was already, in its way, flyover country even before planes. Oh, they also could stop along the way, same as the planes. Just a big dirt and gravel lot for a short trail and two shorter trails to history. I decided first to cross over the highway to the nearby locations. There's a paved lot on that side with a state historical marker and claims to an ADA compliance all the ...

Medicine Bow-Routt National Forest (light blue line, map link ) DAY 1  |  DAY 2 I didn't quite have enough water for breakfast, so packed it all up and got the quarter mile or so up the trail to the next tributary to eat, drink, and make merry. I couldn't help poking around a little and found that there's at least a little bit of use trail going up Jordan Creek, or perhaps it goes on the Drunkard Creek side. I didn't get far, but it seemed to be going somewhere. I didn't really get along the trail until 9AM, which is better for having a little light down into the canyon. The river is still in shadow, but the shadowed rocks of yesterday are well lit. Here comes the sun. Rocky Mountain maples have a collection of winged seeds now and might be colorful later. Getting some high (and wide) ledge time on the trail above the river. I actually spent a little more time taking in the plants than the river as I walked the return.