Sierra Buttes and Plantation Trail

Frank and Ellen drove Akiko, John, and me up to Packer Lake where we hiked up the fairly long, steep trail to the lookout tower. The weather was clear and pleasant: hot at the bottom, cool and windy at the top. As we neared the top, a truck load of French college students arrived at the 4WD parking area. They hopped out and loped up the mountain, full of the youthful energy we were lacking chatting with us going up and going down. One of the highlights, besides the tower stairs, rocks, and view was the sight of a couple climbing up a chute near us. We returned down the steep trails the same way we came up to avoid the road. My thighs are killing me but we won't go there. It's hard to return to high country from Bay Area sea level where we are trying to close out our apartment. Another highlight was a good old ice cream cone in Sierra City.

Next week: Penner Lake from Carr/Feely.

From Clarence:

Nice weather and a short drive from town we went to the side road off of Hwy 20. We walked on bike trails, foot trails and dirt roads to the reforested area of the Diamond Creek Plantation.
We never saw a bear this time, but we had another dusty trail walk. In the dust we saw MANY critter tracks, including bear tracks. They were probably running in the opposite direction from the noise we made.
A longer than usual lunch time, as we looked across the Bear Valley to the railroad and Hwy 80. We got a welcome nice cool breeze. 7 + miles but we were back to Glenbrook around 2:30.

Suggestions for the future sounded like the 8:00 group (but a scaled back version) to hike to the Peter Grub Hut ~ and to hike to the top of Sierra Buttes,(driving to the upper parking spot.) Good ideas for the fall season and before the snow flies.