Jamison Creek Trail, Plumas National Forest, October 12, 2016

Fall is here in the mountains and the perfect time for hiking and the leaves are turning and the crowds are gone.  A huge storm is looming so I figured I'd better get out and gets some miles on my boots.

Jamison Creek Trail head is located in Plumas National Forest, but the trailhead is located in Plumas-Eureka State Park and is part of an eighty miles trails system in the Lakes Basin. It's just outside of Graeagle and about a 20 minutes drive from where my trailer is parked.

The first 1/2 mile  ascends over some huge steps that seem to never end and once the trail levels out you skirt the beautiful Grass Lake about another mile up the trail.  The trail continues on towards Jamison Lake and eventually intersects with the Pacific Crest Trail in about 3 1/2 miles.

 Look at all the red berries.

Just off the trail one can view Jamison Falls.

Grass lake

The Smith Lake Trail is another trail that forks off the Jamison  Creek Trail.  Fall or Spring is the best time to hike  this as it is out in the open with an elevation gain of over 200 the first mile over very rocky terrain full of tree roots.  Once you get to the top you traverse down to Smith Lake.

Looking down at Smith Lake

 Tara and Hyde (Jason's dog) Enjoy cooling off in the clear water of Smith Lake.

 Dispersed camping is allowed at Smith Lake, and there is even a bear box provided.

 Views of Plumas National Forest and Mohawk Valley  from the ridge above Smith Lake.

Camping is allowed at Smith Lake, Grass Lake, along with Wade and Jamison Lake in Lake Basin while camping is only permitted is designated camp sites at the other lakes in this area.  Its a wonderful place for short overnight back packing.  While hiking I encountered a very large group of back packers.  All looked college age and were too clean to have been through hiking the PCT so I asked one of them where they had been.  They had packed in about 3 1/2 miles near the PCT for the weekend. They were part of a Chico State course on how to back pack.  Your tax dollars at work.

Laguna Mountain Recreation Area, San Benito, CA September 25-October 1, 2016

From 2005-2007 I volunteered with a group called "Wilderness Volunteers".  It's a service group which works with BLM, Park Service, and Forest Service, to organize service projects which typically include trail maintenance, trailing building, eradication of invasive species, building maintenance just to name of few.  The organization is loosely modeled after Sierra Club trips but are all volunteer and less expensive. After I purchased my motor home in 2007, I seemed to be too busy traveling and the service projects didn't seem to jive with my schedule and itineraries, or were in areas I wasn't interested in.

A new service trip was being offered in the Laguna Mountain Recreation Area south of Hollister, California and Pinnacles National Park. I didn't even know the area existed and it sounded interesting, so I signed up for it. Hollister isn't that far from my home town, Pacific Grove, and late September seem like the perfect time to car camp in the area due to warm days and cool nights.  Also my friend Sandi wanted to do another service trip so she also signed up for it  and decided to drive her Road Trek which she could camp in.

Sandi was able to park her Road Trek on a pad but we set up tents for sleeping and stowing most of the gear.

Our project was working with BLM  to "brush" about 10 miles of trails to make it more appealing to hikers and mountain bikers. "Brushing the trail" is lopping vegetation that is overhanging over or in the middle of the trail.  Generally, Wilderness Volunteer groups number about 12, but our group was small...only 8 which I found really nice.  My experience has been that a group of 12 tends to break into small cliquey groups of 4, but our group seem to stick really close together despite the age differences.  

A major heat wave occurred during the week. Temps that were usually in the 80's were in the high 90's (mostly 95-97) which made hiking and working on the trail challenging...actually brutal.....especially carrying enough water and Gatorade. Also due to the immense amounts of poison oak we were required to wear long sleeve shirts and long pants.  Ugh! (Even with precautions, I did get a small patch of poison oak rash on my arm which took nearly a weak to clear up).

If you look closely you can sees the trail at the bottom of the photo.  Yes, we did have to hike to the top where I took this photo!.

 The crew hard at work.  We are cutting back scrub oak.

I think our group did a great job cleaning up the trail given the tools we had to work with and the very hot days.  Due to the major drought in the area, the Laguna Falls were not flowing so our group didn't even attempt hike down to the falls on our day off.

Break time under a nice shady tree. 

 Evening were spent relaxing. Elaine brought her Yuke and some sheet music

 Danny was the youngest member of the group (20), from Minnesota and had never been to California  much less volunteered for anything like our project.  What a great kid!

This little guy decided he/she wanted to join us.

Typically, the group works Monday and Tuesday with Wednesday off for exploring and then back to work on Thursday and Friday.  On our day off we headed over to Pinnacles Nation Park for a hike on the Peaks Trail.  It was very hot...95 degrees (it seemed like 100) so I personally did not hike the whole Peaks Trails.  I hiked to a nice overlooked, turned around, and headed to the  cool Bear Caves.


Pinnacles

The Peaks Trail was hot and long.  This was about as far as I made it before turning around. 

 Elaine and I sought refuge in the cool caves.  Elaine is a retired science teacher and what a great asset to the group.  I felt like we had our own private naturalist.

The group.  

Steve, our co leader and cook extraordinaire.  The gourmet meals included French Toast for breakfast and Quinoa with nuts and fruit for dinner and Haystacks for dessert, just to name a few. 

Leader Steve singing along with friend Sandi.

On Saturday, we  broke camp and my friend Sandi and I headed over to the Pinnacles for a quick over night stay and to repeat the hikes I did on Wednesday.  RV camping is limited at the park and reservations are a must if you want hook ups.  There is one large loop that is for tent camping and which could accommodate Sandi's small Road Trek.  Fortunately, it was slightly cooler.

We headed back towards Reno to hopefully some cooler temperatures.  Yep, we got cooler temperatures alright...it snowed as we drove over the pass, but the clouds parted are we approached Reno.  My body is going what the...100 degree weather to 32 degrees in one day!!

Lakes Basin and Round Lake Trail, August 28, 2016

I've been staying at my property in Portola, California, which is just a few minutes from from the Lakes Basin Area.  As the name suggests there are many small alpine likes and trails to hike.

The day was perfect...temps in the mid-70s and crystal blue skies.  My son Jeremy said he wouldn't "mind " hiking with me since he had not hiked on the Round Lake Trail.  It's a short  loop trail, about 4 miles long, which not only goes to Round Lake but meanders by several other lakes including Little Bear Cub and Silver Lake. Once you arrive at Round Lake the trail forks and continues to intersect with the PCT.


Round Lake

Jeremy, enjoying the view

Note how clear the water is

Typical Alpine Trail

Long Lake off in the distance

Click on the link for a map of the Lakes Basin.  http://www.lakesbasin.com/hikes.html

Obsidian Dome, California and more, August 18-22

This summer is going way too fast since I last posted.  Although, I have spent most of the last few months on my property in Portola, I have ventured out on a few short trips with the airstream trailer.

Last weekend I ventured south towards June Lake which is is near Mammoth Lakes, California, to catch up with a small Airstream gathering at the base of Obsidian Dome which is in the Inyo National Forest and part of the Ansel Adams Wildness.  Well, this group is not for the faint of heart when it comes to boon docking.  I caught up with the leader at the turn off to the Obsidian Dome Road  and followed them in on a dirt road which turned into a Jeep road to our destination at the base of Obsidian Dome.  We were about 3 miles from the main road.

I must admit I would not have attempted to navigate  this road by myself towing the trailer. There were several turnouts which would have allowed me the opportunity  to  bail out, but since I was following our leader who was using a B-Van as a tow vehicle towing a vintage 28 foot something trailer , I figured I could do it.  The last 50  yards were steep, bumpy, and narrow.  I told myself that if there was a turn around at the bottom  I was bailing!   However, the bottom was our destination!.

The site was nestled up at the base of the Obsidian Dome and there was a nice creek less that 50 yards away.  We backed our trailers in ( I didn't back in, because I found the perfect pull up/pull through) and settled in.

We were nestled at the bottom.  Note the black obsidian rocks.

Looking down from the trail at our camp.  I'm located at the lower left of the picture.

 We had a nice view of the Owens River Headwater Wilderness area

 That's my trailer a little away from the "crowd"

 You can see the trail which winds up the dome.

The next morning I headed up the trail to the top of the dome which is an old bull dozed road and now a quad trail.

 Lots of black glass, aka obsidian.

 Once on top the trail continued around the dome.

Next I headed up to the Owens River Headwaters Wilderness trail where I was told I would find some water falls. The trail head was a short distance from our camp site.  After about a steep,  what seemed like a 2 mile very steep climb, I came across some small falls, which I consider beautiful large cascades. I continued on the trail which finally leveled out, but did not find any other  "falls".

I ventured out one day on the "Mammoth Loop" and ended up walking up to the Inyo Craters.  I was able to walk to the North and South Craters but did not climb the trail up to Deadmans Craters.  It was pretty steep, and the skies were starting to open up and rain on me!

OK, that's about it.  I don't have any exciting trips planned for a while.  I am close to the Lakes Basin, near Graeagle, California   which affords lots of hiking so stay tuned.

Back at the Farm in New Mexico, June 2016

Well you have heard the old saying nothing is certain except change or plans are always in jello.  Both apply.  When I last blogged, I was headed for Reno mainly to clean out my stick house, get it ready for rent or sale, and tend to business for my mother's estate and then head to Alaska for the summer. . I'm pleased that I got most everything accomplished. ...except the Alaska park.  In the meantime,  Joel flew back to Casa Grande, picked up his motor home, drove back to Reno and loaded up his stuff and headed north to Oregon for the summer, leaving me with the truck and trailer.

I decided to stay put on my other  property in Portola, California, for a few months...that is until my son, Conlan called pleading with me to come to New Mexico and help out on the farm for a few weeks while his wife went to Texas to help her mother who was having surgery.  I towed my trailer down  to Tierra Amarilla, New Mexico and am staying in it while at the farm.  I'm still loving it!   My biggest challenge is backing it up.  Practice, Practice.

The farm has grown since I last spent any real time on it.  There are now 22 Yaks including five babies which are just darling, 10 Devon Cattle, a bunch of chickens, some pigs, 4 horses, two donkeys, and a huge garden!  It's a busy place and definitely not a 9-5 operation.  In addition to taking care of all of the animals, three days a week is spent a various farmers market selling meat, eggs, and produce.  Usually, my daughter-in-law does the farmers market in Los Alamos, Santa Fe, and Tierra Amarilla, but my son is doing it while she is away, so I'm the one who is dealing with the animals and the garden during the day.

A couple of the baby yaks.  The mama are very protective, so it's best to keep on the other side of the fence.

Two days this week  were spent bucking 300 bales of alfalfa/hay and loading stacking it  on  the trailer and truck and then unloading into the barn. (It took two trailers and two pickup loads, and a second trip for 300 bales), Those bales weigh a minimum of 50# each and were loaded by hand.  Fortunately, I got a reprieve and I was the one who drove the truck around the field while the guys loaded and stacked the hay.  Monsoon season has arrived, so once the hay is baled it has to be picked up immediately so it doesn't get wet, otherwise it will mildew and spoil.  Usually, there is not a whole lot of notice between cutting, baling, and picking up.

One of the main crops is garlic shown here.  Apparently, once it is harvested and dried it sells really quickly at the market.

My daughter-in-law didn't have time to finish putting in the garden and she left me with the task of planting nearly 40 hills of various variety of squash.

 All the plants had been started from seeds which Gayle plants inside during the winter.  She even grew her tomatoes from seed all without chemicals.  She mixes her own soil.

Well, that's all for now.  I'll be here one other week before heading back to the mountains.  It's been really unseasonable warm here even though it is around 7000 ft, and I'll be looking forward to a little cooler weather.