Moments in Dirt and Ink

Shasta-Trinity National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Brown line for day 3. Click for interactive map We had nothing to do on the final day but retrace our steps back down to the trailhead. We had plenty of time to do it, so I could record, on this final day of summer, the few flowers we had passed on the way up. It must be said that the canyon looked a bit better under the morning sun, too. Mount Shasta is hiding again. Thin clouds over the very pointy bear teeth of the ridge around Big Bear Lake. Folks weren't ready as fast as I was and I was deeply aware that I hadn't gotten the likely most common photo of Big Bear Lake from near the end of the trail, so I headed up the short way to the lake. The group that had arrived after us to camp there was still packing up and would start down just barely before us. At the edge of Big Bear Lake. The whole of Big Bear Lake in poorly executed panorama. Everyone was already moving down the trail wh...

Shasta-Trinity National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Yellow and orange lines for day 2. Click for interactive map After finding that we had selected a camp site with a view of Mount Shasta, we got ourselves fed for the morning explorations. Dawn light on the clouds around Mount Shasta. We got ourselves together for a little day hiking and headed out. Judging we were already to the point of starting the cross country required to get to Little Bear Lake, we headed out into the somewhat trackless, but cairn rich, granite. Up on the granite on the far side of the creek from Bear Creek Trail. We generally followed along ledges. A lot of uphill on granite with a lot of views of Mount Shasta. There are a lot of possible trails, all a little hard, but most not too hard. We didn't all follow the same trail sections, cairns, or ledges, but we stayed pretty close. We could all see each other. After a lot of maneuvering along granite rocks, I found...

Shasta-Trinity National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3 Blue line for day 1. Click for interactive map Daniil decided to go up Bear Creek for a couple nights, allowing a hike about on the middle day. Bear Creek Trail is just south of Tangle Blue and is surrounded by sufficient contour lines to make it look interesting. Indeed, I got interested in going there when looking over the Tangle Blue route, so I went for it. We had a big group along this time, 6 of us and 2 dogs! The plan was an afternoon hike up to find a camp, a day probably devoted to hiking up to Little Bear Lake and around the area, then back down after another night's rest. Signed Bear Lakes Trailhead. The trail starts at a washed out bridge for Bear Creek. The sign beside the trail has been edited by sharpie just because it quite randomly points at a spot halfway up a mountain from the nearest trail and states "you are here". While they had the marker out, they added that the trailhead...

Klamath National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2 Green and blue lines for day 2. Click for interactive map As nice as it would have been to bag Boulder Peak again, it turns out I tired myself out the prior day, and the timing expected for finishing the hike would be cutting it close. I didn't want to miss at least climbing up to the second lake, and ended up waiting to the last minute to start up the trail for it. By the time I did get up, it was quite a lovely day. Not quite so late in the morning yet. Lower Wright Lake in the light. With a minimum of gear, I headed for Upper Wright Lake. The old trail into the camp area is a failed thing with trees over it right at the top and a gully of erosion at the bottom. It's the trees that make getting on the main trail a bit of a fight. Climbing was easier once there. The flowers were at a different stage than those in the valley to Deep Lake and I was glad to have done the spur just to see the gentian blooming. The rain ...

Klamath National Forest DAY 1  |  DAY 2 Red and orange lines for day 1. Click for interactive map We headed up to the Boulder Creek Trailhead the night before and stayed in the equestrian parking area, a much quieter camping area than the remains of the pre-bridge ford I stayed in before. It is a large, fairly flat area just past the small parking area by the trailhead sign. The trailhead was sporting a brand new sign with the same old trail behind it. The new sign at the old trailhead. Shortly after light, someone else drove up and a collection of chainsaws started up with enthusiasm, sounding like they were opening up the closed road and maybe taking their motorcycles down it, or some other decidedly illegal activity. It turned out to be a fire crew tasked with thinning the forest. We passed by many a fresh burn pile from their work of the last few days. A whole lot of burn piles, but the trail is freshly cleared too. All with the tones of half a dozen chai...

Six Rivers National Forest Daniil decided he wanted to see the Lassics, which is a rather long drive, especially with CA 36 closed due to the inherent instability of the mountain side it crosses. He bypassed that using the good county road (only half gravel) past Kneeland and filled up the car to help make it feel a little less wasteful for a single day outing. Evelina (his wife) and Carl also came along. It's a bit of a triumph to get Carl to come out and do something fun because he's usually pursuing the destruction of those invasive plants that pursue the destruction of the local environment instead. It was particularly great to get him on this one since he got to poke around some childhood memories while hiking. His family would come to this area when he was a kid and would climb some peak, which we decided was probably Black Lassic, but he hadn't been back since. Black Lassic interactive map link Meanwhile, I was working with just 2 year old memory when I s...

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.

Yosemite National Park DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7  |  DAY 8 Purple line for day 7. Click for interactive map While we thought we'd met quite enough people on the previous day, we were prepared to meet even more on this day. Still, it is super annoying to have to wait for a bathroom miles into the backcountry where no fewer than 4 are provided side by side. It's on the side of the camp where the day hikers, with their precious permits won in a lottery or their hopes that someone with an extra spot will let them through, slide past and they frequently stopped for it. Half Dome looms over the camp at Little Yosemite Valley, just about to get hit with dawn sun. We headed back to the trail on the opposite side of camp from the stream of day hikers. That trail joined the John Muir Trail soon enough and every few minutes another group came along. The Merced River...

Yosemite National Park DAY 1  |  DAY 2  |  DAY 3  |  DAY 4  |  DAY 5  |  DAY 6  |  DAY 7  |  DAY 8 Blue line for day 6. Click for interactive map The location of the Merced Lake Ranger Station is deep in a canyon in a thick forest and it wasn't much less dark and dreary in the morning than it was in the last of the light. I know Daniil would have preferred to go that last little bit to Merced Lake the night before. There's only a few little things we would have missed in the last of the twilight. Following bridges and trails through the flats above Merced Lake, surrounded by tall trees. Then everything opens up as the rocks take over the bottom of the canyon. Merced River pours into Merced Lake. We found the High Sierra Camp in its winterized state, and some of that in a bit of disrepair. Apparently these haven't been open since 2018 although 3 of 5 opened briefly last year. The park service...