Fordyce Falls

Seventeen of us headed up the trailhead at Spaulding Lake to the cascades.  Hiking was comfortable with NO SNOW.  Warm woods, lupines, a few mosquitoes, and stable footing brought us pretty quickly the 3 miles to the cascades.  We ate a leisurely lunch enjoying the noisily rushing water as it sculpted the magnificent rocks on it's way to seeing lower ground. 

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Interestingly, the GPS's did not match up on mileage - Clarence and ours did - Frank's appeared to give us less miles.  Those who went to the falls clocked 9.5, whereas the cascades were 6.5 (approximately). 

Frank submitted an interesting picture comparison of Fordyce Falls this year and in 2008:

 

A carpool of 5 decided to take a quick look at the falls 1.5 miles beyond and then another carpool decided to go up there, too. The trail to the falls was through many wildflowers and over fallen logs. It appear that mountain bikers built the log ramps up and over them, making the going easy enough. 

Pictures roughly Maureen, Clarence, Frank - top to bottom...paragraphs all messed up with formatting attempts.

Castle Peak

destination from the valley

from the top: Basin ridge trail

Two groups - both went similar amount of miles but one went high up in the Sierra and one stayed near 20.  

Our group of 9 decided to go to Frog Lake Overlook.  Access to the the Sierra being limited due to construction and snow, we parked on the north side of 80 at the Boreal Exit.  We headed across the meadow, figuring on getting to the proper trail on Jim's "shortcut".   The stream in the meadow stopped us cold...no way to cross.  Re figuring our plan, we decided to head up either Andesite Peak or at least to the pass above the meadow.  Trudging over huge snowbanks was exhausting work as we wended our way up the road/trail - too snowed in to see the Andesite trail, we headed up to the pass.  The ridge was relatively clear of snow so we decided to head up Castle Peak, not the top.  But the hiking was easier on terra firma and pretty soon we were headed up the steep part.  Two of us decided to stay back with two others who had stopped pretty far up the ridge, one of whom was a driver...the view was already fantastic and the driver needed to get back home at a decent time.  Five of us went on to the peak. The weather up there was delightful - not that heavy wind we sometimes experience.  We ate lunch while enjoying the view from Lassen to mountains beyond Heavenly, the Coast range to Nevada.  Dave named the peaks in his usual knowledgeable fashion.

remaining photos by Maureen, including

Heading down was the really hard part, knees complaining as we slipped and slid in the loose gravel, mostly upright but not always.  The flowers were abundant:  Mule's Ears, Lupine, Phlox, Stick seed, Penstemon, various lower tufted plants - buck wheat family and Pussy Paws.  There were a few Mariposa Lillies as well.  Corn Lillies were trying to grow where the snow was melting lower down but it looked like they needed to flower low due to the delayed season.  

The snowpack in the woods seemed just as bad as earlier only this time we were doing more boot skiing heading off of them.  Miraculously we were back at the cars at 3:30, apparently only an hour after the other group.

Penner Lake

The group divided in two: some going to the North Fork of the Yuba, others heading up 20.

Eight of us decided to see what the snow pack looked like heading up from Carr/Feeley Lakes, hopefully to Penner.  Our first hurdle was to cross the outlet of Feeley Lake which ran high enough to make crossing more difficult than usual.  Wading the road was possible if you didn't mind getting water in your boots, but hiking up to the dam meant crossing a big log which was not too bad with help.  From there we went up and onto mostly snowbanks on the other side of Feeley.  The trail habitually went under them and would often be a stream on the low side.  So over the snow we went, slishing and sloshing and sliding our way, trying desperately to stay upright as we searched for the trail this way and that.  Dave proved to be the master at this so he led us up to that small lake, this side of Island Lake.  Crossing the outlet on the snowbank was dicey as the snowbridge was thin in places.  Finally one of us fell through.  It was Tammy who, in her shorts, cotton socks, and non-waterproof shoes had one foot in the icewater outlet and the other on top of the snow.  Luckily she was game and went on with no complaints, squishing the water out with each step.

The snow hiking continued with some firm ground respite up to Island Lake.  It was all so beautiful with glacier lilies abounding.  A family was camping there.  Later when we returned,  the children were wearing jackets and warm woolen hats.  We could see the Grouse Ridge lookout and Black Buttes - it all looked so snowed in.  We figured the trail to Penner would be on a south-facing slope and hence, free of snow.  What we didn't figure on were the protected areas mostly around Island and Crooked Lakes.  Once again, lots of sliding around and trail hunting.  The steeper trail to Penner was relatively clear except for a few areas. Besides the drifts of glacier lilies, there were phlox, wallflowers, and penstemon. We were the only ones there and it was stunning.  Dave taught us about white chert rocks, which adorned the area of our picnic.

All the lakes had snow banks clear down to the water in some areas and ice floes.   Crooked Lakes were very large, and there were some "lakes" where no lakes had been seen before.  Some trails had turned to waterfalls and some trails were tunnels under snowbanks.  By noon a wind caused the build up of clouds, some very dark and threatening.  We ignored them and were lucky not to have to contend with rain (or snow?) on the return trip, as the air had turned rather chilly. We took a nice break on the peninsula at Island Lake, enjoying the views and warm rocks.  The 7.5 mile hike was difficult and had taken much longer than usual but was lots of fun.

Pictures by Maureen and Elly