Rice's Crossing

The BYLT recently acquired some large contiguous sections of land that extend from the place we used to stop (the old crossing bridge abutments) down to Bullard's Bar.  Looking at the land on Google Earth, it appeared that it would be quite difficult and costly to build a trail that went along the River. Frank wanted to see if we could forge a route either down by the water or high up on the bank. The Land Trust wants to make the area accessible to the public for hiking, fishing, kayaking, etc. we drove up the hill to the "caretaker's" house replete with travel trailers, chickens, goats, and a trashy burn pile.  There was some talk of re-locating the family up the hill closer to their solar panels.  This would leave the lovely level area for parking and hiking a smallish loop in the more open area. Our group of 9 (including BYLT's Sean), charged down to the river to see the spectacular, rocky bar (French Bar), 

  We retraced our steps and headed off on a lateral that was sort of parallel to the river, passing the abandoned skeleton of the caretaker's permanent house. We clipped the overgrown vegetation, attempted to avoid the vigorous poison oak, trying to make headway  down and up rocky, steep slopes. Realizing the public would be as uninterested as we were becoming, we returned to the cars to discard some clothing and tools. We headed straight up from there in steep but lovely open oak grasslands. It would be too steep for the public which would necessitate building switchbacks. Towards the top, and now possibly off the BYLT land, we started getting into serious poison oak. Unavoidable poison oak. After wallowing in it for a while, most of us turned around to find an open, poison oak-free, lunch spot. Just as we were sitting down, the explorers joined us.  

Later, back at the cars, Sean, Dave, and Frank did some more exploring while the rest of us got a good hike in back to Bridgeport. The exploring guys met us there with the cars. Depending on who was reporting, we (I) had hiked 7 miles with a 1300 foot elevation gain.  Some of that was in the trailess morass of vegetation. 

Lunch spot

Abandoned permanent house

French Bar

Franks map

Steven's Trail

Eight of us hiked down to the American River and back. The south facing slope was resplendent with wild flowers. And HOT!!  

The chart from Frank says 8.5 miles and 3500 feet elevation gain. Hard to believe. Maybe it was easier due to the entire hike being at low elevation. 

Slope of Tifted Poppies were open on our return from the river. 

Redbuds

Indian Pinks

Caterpillar Phaecia

Bush Poppy

Canyon Dudleya

 

Kellogg's Monkey Flower

Lupine

Leisurely lunch at the American River. 

Snow shoe Lake Flora

Eight of us hiked the 3.5 miles from Boreal to Lake Flora and return. There was enough snow (finally) to make donning the miserable snowshoes somewhat useful. One of us got too frustrated and walked in just boots. Snowshoes are particularly difficult for short legged people. We couldn't have asked for better weather or better snow. Well, actually we could have asked for more snow but who's listening anyway. But the white blanket was beautiful, especially the shadows. 

Lake Azalea and Lake Flora were solidly frozen and covered with a thin layer of snow. 

Lake Flora

Lunch spot. 

Poormans Creek

Excuse this blog. The software is doing something odd and making it difficult to work with. 

Six of us drove to Washington to hike Poormans Creek to Canyon Creek and return. Depending on whose device you.believed, we hiked somewhere over 9 miles. 

K

Thank you for the map, Frank. 

What flower is this?

Grand Hounds tongue. 

S. Yuba was so clear, you could see right to the bottom. 

Beautifully crafted trail. 

Falls at Canyon Creek where we ate lunch. 

Frogs hopped around wet area along trail. 

  

Molokai

Last Friday we took a small Cessna from Maui to Molokai. The ride was bumpy, as they say, and one of the 7 passengers (not one of us) was miserable and begging the plane to stop it. A storm was approaching Molokai. Our luck. The rental car lady cringed when we told her we were staying at the Pu'uohoku Ranch. In the sticks, she said. What she neglected to say was that it is on the rainy side and has usurped the land of her ancestors. Bad relations abound on Molokai and the guide book warns of stink eye for tourists. Well the only stink eye we got was from Pit Bulls. 

The ranch was gorgeous and remote. Our cabin was spacious and well windowed. By the next day, this became important as it rained heavily all day. The temperatures dropped and we were downright cold. In Hawaii!!   We saw not a soul. No one around. No other guests. 

The only animals were spiders (on hats) and a large flock of the endangered goose called a Nene. Later we had a begging cat come visit and make herself at home. 

The Halawa Valley was at the end of the road (2 miles away). Even in the rain it was fantastically beautiful. But to hike it was another story.  As ranch guests we were supposed to get to do that free but not in high water. Someone did try a few days later but a Pit Bull was tied to the bridge so that you couldn't proceed. 

Lighter rain the next day allowed some exploration of the rest of the island. We drove out of the drippy forest to a much drier side. There were a few beaches and fewer tourists. This Monk Seal (also endangered due to smaller brain than other seals) has pulled herself up on the beach for a nap. The wind blew the sand, the waves crashed very large, and the rain hit once in a while. Later we found better beaches for swimming.  (Which we did a few days later). We also explored the overlook of the Halawa Penninsula where Father Damien administered to those with leprosy. We didn't get to visit as the steep trail was muddy and covered with mule poop. 

Grazing Nene's

The next day we went on a long hike which included great views of Maui and Lanai. We were on the back roads of the ranch. Luckily a Danish inholder of a homestead -off the grid-drove by and offered us instructions. 

Lunch stop. 

Driving around the following day, we came across  a huge vegetable farm. They sell all over including the mainland. Like Whole Foods. 

Our cabin the last day. Yes, it got sunny. 

Time to get into the car. 

More churches than places to stay. We were back in Halawa Valley where a native named Greg filled us in on his take of all the wrongs done to his people and how he was related by 13 brothers and sisters of his grandfather to just about everyone around. He was quite eloquent actually even he was simply living off the land.  Molokai is famous for its infighting and no growth stance. The Molokai Ranch conglomerate pulled up stakes entirely - movie theaters, stores, money. The area has quite a few derelict and dying buildings. Palm trees with tops cut off. Vindictive stuff. 

Halawa. 

Western States going upriver

Six of us parked once again at Murphy's Gate (horseshoe tree) to try the Western States Trail going up the American River. Once again, we were impressed with this trail. It had mostly good solid footing with plenty of elevation gain and loss, and good signage. It follows an old RR bed, crosses the river and parallels Highway 49 as it ascends towards Cool. The only annoying part were the many logging trucks heading back and forth on 49. When the trail veered from the road, we found an open location above the trail to eat lunch. It would have been fun to hike to Cool but three of us needed to return at a decent time. This trail is suggesting further exploration in the future, perhaps starting from Cool or further along. It was fun to see a string of mules being ridden up the trail. The riders were all decked out with big hats and coiled ropes. We had hiked 8.5 miles with a 1200 ft elevation gain. 

Can you find our shadows?