Nine hikers decided to do Stevens Trail while others re-did Table Mountain. Someone from that group should send me a message to post...
Stevens Trail was cloudy most of the day but at least not rainy and kind of a busy place. On the way down we encountered a tick-counting group, from Placer County Vector Control - the ticks had been collected in two vials, one for female and one for male. The bigger, more colorful ones were the female, wouldn't you know. They had been separated that way to block reproduction on the way to be tested for Lyme. Nothing as lovely as vials crawling with ticks.
Somewhat further we met a guy who had just carved a trail over a rather large landslide. He advised taking the low(bike) trail as crossing at the falls required walking in water. So lower we went and soon came across a group about the size of ours which was part of the American River Conservation Group. They picniced near where we stopped at a tributary creek that just wasn't about to be crossed.
After lunch we headed back, hoping the gray clouds would just hold their rain for a while longer. We were in luck and all streams seemed just a little lower. Most of the group took the bike trail back while John and John (Kim's friend) decided to test the waters near the falls. Elly, believing John would be waiting for her at the crossing, followed a long distance behind and came upon the crossing with no help in sight. Luckily she managed to cross and met up with the rest of the group at the trail merge. On the trail back up to the parking lot, Jim managed to do a tricky maneuver to save his impending lack of balance on a stream crossing. We complimented his grace and pluck (or luck?) and headed up, passing yet another group coming down the trail.
Hikers: Jim, Marily N., Jo, Teanna, Akiko, Kim and John, John and Elly.
