Lunch with Llamas

An excellent hike today up near the Pilot Hill area off of Salmon Falls Rd and Hwy 49 at Cronan Ranch. My kids and I hiked with the American River Conservancy group and some folks from Vacaville with Llamas. Overall, a pretty easy hike about 2-3 miles to the South Fork of the American. Water is still flowing and a few ripples. Even deep enough for a lone Kayaker today. The kids were able to lead the llamas round. Ended the hike with a view of parasailors floating off of a nearby hill.

Palisade Creek Lost

I finally got a chance to do a more difficult trail sans kids. I had this idea that I would take advantage of a neat trail I had heard and read about. I was all excited to finally get down the the Upper North Fork and explore some of the river bed in this area and witnessing some spectacular scenery.

My expectations were suddenly devastated after I lost sight of the Palisade Creek Trail that comes off the right side of a granite face. I searched all over along the creek that the trail is supposed to run down, however, I never found it. I also ended up more East than I intended when I went searching for it, so about an hour of my 4 hr hike was spent bushwhacking in the manzanita. Cursed Manzanita...evil, vile! Looking at the topos and coming off the granite face, I was not sure if I was too far West or East of the trail. I thought I might cut over East since it "looked" kind of easy to traverse and it wasn't "that far." I was only about 1-2,000 meters from the said trail and thought I might go South to pick up the junction of the Palisade Creek and Long Valley trails. There is supposed to be a little upside down "heart shaped" lake that is also just East of the trail. I am pretty sure I came upon this (completely dry and full of dead grasses this time of year), but still could not see any indication of the trail. So I decided to head back, since I was beat from traversing manzanita hidden granite. Enough of that !#@$*, said I.

Luckily, I had my GPS and my Topo maps with me, which if I did not have, I would probably still be in the "thicket" of things.

Let this be a lesson to you....who am I lecturing. I was the idiot that got lost!

I finally made it back to where I lost the trail and had some deserved lunch. I was wiped out.

I hiked down the trail a little to about a 1/3 mi out from the parking area and I came across another "Bearing Tree for Section 32 in the Township 17N, Range 14E, XXX Topo Quad. The Bearing Tree is 83 links S72N.

A link is: "a traditional unit of distance used by surveyors, equal to 0.01 chain. In Britain, one link is exactly 0.66 feet, or 7.92 inches, or approximately 20.12 centimeters. In the U.S., both 66-foot and 100-foot chains have been used; for a 100-foot chain the link is the same as the foot." University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, Units of Measurement Dictionary

I did see some pretty country and an interesting geographical feature.

Next time, I will be sure and go with at least one other person, so I can't blame getting lost on myself.

Palisade and the North Fork will have to wait, yet another day.

NMC (not feeling too cartographica on this one)

Compost Bin ca. 2009

My new compost bin is finally completed. It took me several weekends to complete since I deviated from my project to go hiking in the various places mentioned below. The plans came from a Lowe's site that I found in a Google search. Pretty sturdy. I did not put in a wooden bottom as per the plans, but left it open. I did put in the middle support, though. The top sides and middle are open to the elements to allow moisture and air circulate and keep the critters out. They are made from 1/4" x 36" roll of "hard ware cloth." It will likely be found in the garden section of Home Depot or Lowe's.

Iowa Hill Ditch to Tadpole Creek

View Iowa Hills Ditch/Tadpole Creek in a larger map

We made it a bit further than last time. At least we made it to Tadpole Creek. The hike to this point was extraordinary, me being with my kids and all. Some parts of this section of trail (~2 mi to Tadpole Creek) have several washed out spots that are too narrow to cross and force one to bushwhack up and down hills. Luckily, a fire came through here in 2008, which made it much easier.

As one will see in the slide show, because we did bushwhack, we came across a section corner for Township 16 NRange 15 E for Section 31. Also we saw a tree with a "Bearing Marker" on it to indicate which direction and distance from the tree the section marker is located in case it is obstructed by brush.

It was a good day for to hike this section again after a couple of weeks. The fact we were out on the trail much earlier and we didn't run across the squatter again. He left is mobile homestead and must have parked somewhere else.

We came across many interesting features of the Iowa Hill Ditch (or what remains of it). We found numerous hand hammered nails from ca 1850-1880. I am not sure of the exact dates as well as wire, iron stakes sticking out of rock, and splintered wood from when the nails actually held the wood together to form the Iowa Hills Ditch. This ditch, from what I read, was built by Chinese labor and ran for 40 miles. This section is at the 5500' elevation mark and runs the contour for a number of miles from Beacroft trail head East to Iowa Hills. It also continues along West, but I am not sure how far. Consult the USGS topo for more information. This "abandoned" ditch is on the USGS maps. You can also find out more here, at Russel Towle's blog.

Iowa Hill Ditch (short)

I spent more time driving here than hiking (again). With my 7yr old in tow we set off for another adventure in the North Fork. This time I was hoping for an "easy" trail that we could stroll along for a couple of miles or so. The hike didn't last long due to a washed out area that I didn't really want to take my daughter on in the middle of nowhere and the fact we passed some squatter at the trail head in his beat up trailer and truck. I will definitely come back here, since the ditch is noticeable in many places and covers several miles to the east and west of Beacroft trail head.

Fire ripped through here in 2008 as one can see from the photos.

North Fork American River - Stevens Trail (attempt) and Codfish Falls

Stevens Trail/Codfish Falls Trail Map


View Stevens Trail/Codfish Falls in a larger map

Stevens Trail (attempt)

This weekend, I had in mind to do a less strenuous hike with my 7yr old and I wanted to start looking over Ron Gould's North Fork Trail guide, so I settled on Steven's Trail just outside of Colfax. I even wanted to get an earlier start which I did, however, we didn't get very far on Stevens.

We reached the parking lot about 10:45am with the plan to take our time and hike as far as my 7yr old could tolerate (I was hoping most of the way 6-8 mi). We ambled down the trail about 0.5 mi just past an old road coming in from the right when we spotted a bear (sorry, no pictures on this one). Luckily, he turned our way, took a look, then headed up the hill from the trail.

I decided to turn around and leave the trail. So our all day hike on Stevens turned out to be short lived.

On our way back we ran into a couple hiking with the same idea in mind. I told them of the bear siting. They decided to turn around as well. Back at the car, they asked me about other hikes in the area. Being a new hiker in the NF and a recent contributor to the North Fork of the American River Alliance, I told them about Ron Gould's guide, the NFARA.org site and Russel Towle's North Fork blog and remembrance site and suggested that Codfish falls might be a good alternative, now that the time was approaching noon. Turns out that the woman of the pair teaches at American River College, like myself. They actually had this trail downloaded from the Internet. I told them we may meet up with them later after my daughter ate a bite.

Off we went to Codfish Falls...

Codfish Falls

Using Ron's directions and taking the easier of the two ways to get to Ponderosa Bridge, I decided to take the Foresthill Road to the Ponderosa turn off and then take the 3 mi drive down, down, to the canyon and parked at Ponderosa Bridge. We did meet up with the pair we met on Stevens and they were just getting ready to head out. The commented on the drive down that it was a lot rougher than they expected. I replied that at least they did not take the 6 mi drive from Weimer. I told them that many of my "scouting" adventures to check out trail heads along I-80 to the NF had been met with driving very "questionable" roads and that a high rise vehicle and possible 4WD would be recommended. I am glad I have one for these such adventures.

So on we went through the stifling heat and the very low NF. To me, its all good. Just getting out exploring these wonderful places with the seed planted from Russel Towle's blog posts and Ron Gould's guide. I definitely plan to revisit some of these places in the spring time when the water is high. I also plan to visit some of the more impressive adventure spots that is profusely described in Russel's blogs. They seem amazing and, checking other related posts and blogs (see above), the are truly amazing, especially earlier in the year.

The trail was not too long, but seemed longer than I would expect because of the heat and my 7yr old likes to talk more and walk less. Eventually, we reached what would have been the falls, except it is September and the falls are just a trickle, perfect for the little frog my daughter spotted and tried to catch. We hung out for a few and then did our return trip. On the side at the confluence of Codfish Creek and the NF, we pulled off to the right and dropped down to the bed of the NF to take some pictures and experience the NF right at its base. So awesome being in the canyon.

We finished off the hike with my daughter jumping in the pool just at the base of the Ponderosa bridge while I hung out on the shoreline and watched the crazy young-folk jumping in different forms off the bridge.

It was a good day. New adventure...more to come.

NMC

Loch Leven Lakes Trail

View Lock Leven Lakes in a larger map

You may need to open the larger map to see the captions under the photos.

Loch Leven Lakes trailhead is just off I-80 at the Big Bend Exit. The trail is mostly an uphill climb to to the Loch Leven Lake. From there you can hike about 1/4 mi to the Middle Loch Leven or about another mi to the High Loch Leven. On the west side, you can pick up the trail for Salmon Lake which is another mi or two. Loch Leven will make for a good day hike where one can experience some or all of these lakes in a day. Water is much lower in the summer than the spring.

American River Links Added

I have added a separate link section for the American River for links that include other "forks." The Canyon Keepers link has portions of its trail book in PDF format for download, some with pictures.