Plantation/Bowman Mountain

Some photos from Frank.

Fall color on top.

Fall color at near Loney.

Sierra Buttes

John looking down on the climbers.

Tiana climbs the last hard bit.

Getting near top of Bowman Mtn.

Lightning tree 3 photos from Clarence.

8:30 hike notes from Clarence:

We were looking for shade all day on this unseasonably warm day. Seven of us hiked to the Bear Valley overlook. Then Grace, Tammy and I went another 20 min. to the wide view of the Yuba River Canyon.
We saw a tree that had taken a recent direct hit of lightning. Major damage! I wonder why it didn't start a fire. We also saw bear tracks and bear scat on the same dusty trail. I wondered if we were being watched!
We made a loop trail, back to the cars. I pointed out a "geocache" container that I had located a couple years ago. It is still hiding there for the next explorer.
The suggestion for next week's hike is to go to the Rocky Rest/ North Yuba trail. Fall is a good time for this hike. I remember it to be mostly in the shade. Barbara Gable remembers this hike for other reasons! Swimming available for lunch or at the end of the hike

8:00 trip

Nine of us met to attempt Frank's idea of a Bowman Mountain climb: Frank and Ellen, Tiana, Akiko, Paula, John and Elly, and new (to our group) hikers: Jim and Darlene Ward, who hiked Old Man Mountain with us a month ago. We parked at Loney Meadow and hiked up toward Rock Lake, making a hard left at the trail that goes around Bowman Mountain. That's when things got somewhat difficult. We waded through brush, some of it higher than we were, until the rock outcropping was visible. Since we had no trail, we crawled, stomped on branches, climbed rocks, etc. to divine our way to the clearer areas. If we were lucky, we climbed scree and often got to climb over talus with our hands and feet. Finally, we got to the bottom of the rock outdropping that would be more challenging. We were lucky that toeholds and handholds seemed mostly abundant and a good scramble brought everyone to the last pitch, which wasn't too difficult or brush-covered. Believe it or not, most of us enjoyed the challenge immensely even as Frank kept apologizing. Like the 8:30 hikers, we also battled the heat and dust. I doubt it was any cooler up there - maybe a bit of a breeze, but not enough. We ate lunch with the most incredible 360 degree view and great discussion ensued as to the identity of each lake and mountain. The Fall color was lovely with its colorful contrasts as we walked along the north ridge to the trail around the mountain. It was definitely the easier route to descend our 1600 foot elevation gain. We wended our way back on the dusty trail to the Loney Milk Barn and out.

Next week there are two options: North Fork of the Yuba/Rocky Rest, and a high Sierra hike: along Island Lake on the Round Lake Trail with some cross-country over to Crooked Lakes and back on the Crooked Lake Trail. We will all meet at 8:30. There probably aren't too many more hiking days for the high country and the colors are lovely.