A Last Visit to Weaverville

The day before we left the Trinity Alps, we headed back down to Weaverville for an art fair they were having.  The fair itself turned out to be underwhelming, but we enjoyed hanging around the town, talking to folks and having some lunch at Mama Llama's, the local hangout.

This fellow was from Quebec and he looked REALLY stoned

Both the dog and owner had incredible blue eyes

This fellow was walking his pig down the sidewalk. Even in Weaverville this seemed to be a bit unusual.

Joe did nice beadwork and was very friendly

We never talked to this guy, but his Native American crafts were beautiful

Mamma Llama had coffee and 250 kinds of beer...great salads too

Another Mamma Llama patron relaxing and escaping the heat today

Weaverville is still a big logging town.  This HUGE pile of logs was right on Main St. near the grocery store.

Back into the Trinity Alps Wilderness

We rode out a day of drizzle and clouds by doing some projects around the house, then when the next day promised to be nice, planned another hike into the mountains.  This time the goal was Little Boulder Lake, which was described by local guides as an easy 2 miles each way to a pretty lake in the peaks.  What they DIDN'T say was that to get to the trail head, it was an 11 mile, 3,000 vertical foot drive up a skinny one-lane dirt road! The fact that there was no cell service at all, no other cars in sight the whole trip and some of the road had vertical drop offs of hundreds of feet on one side or the other just added to the tension.

Anyway, we survived the drive in and hiked through beautiful and fragrant evergreens to Little Boulder Lake and ate our lunch and hung around for an hour or so.  The hike down was quick and we were rewarded by a view of Mt. Shasta (snow-less at 14,000 feet this year, unheard of).  Nine miles into the bouncy drive back down the dirt road, we came face-to-face with a semi truck pulling a HUGE tractor on a wide-load trailer heading up to the logging areas.  We (that is, Lynnae) had to back the truck uphill for about 1/2 mile until we found room to pull off the road and let that baby pass. We were glad when we got back to pavement, but also thankful that these logging roads allowed us to penetrate 13 miles into the very rugged and steep wilderness out here without being Sherpas or marathoners.

Tucker got to swim and fetch a stick for a while.  He doesn't mind the cold.

This picture shows how clear and green the water is in the lake

There was an established campsite by the lake with a stone fire ring and this "throne" 

I had to try the seat of honor and it was comfortable!

Mt. Shasta 14,180 feet (second highest in CA) about 80 miles away

Weaverville Farmer's Market

Being in California, where about 50% of the fruits and vegetables grown in the US are from, you get used to getting great produce in the supermarkets.  But like in New England or anywhere else, it is in the farmer's markets where you can find the really great stuff.  We happened to pick farmer's market day to visit the nearest town of Weaverville, founded in 1850 (which doesn't sound like long ago to our New England friends, but in California terms, it is pretty old).  Weaverville is a logging, mining  and forest service town that now depends on tourism to a great extent to drive the economy.  In other words, it is a home to many rednecks and mountain folk, and it is also a hippie enclave that feels like a time capsule of the 60's.  The farmer's market was a great place to take in the local scene.

The farmer's market was in a meadow right on the highway through town.  Logging trucks were constantly going by. There was a live band playing too.

These folks sold many kinds of peppers, dried herbs and tomatoes.

The produce was beautiful, inexpensive ($1/pound for the heirloom tomatoes for example) and varied.  We bought lots and also some locally grown organic beef that we cooked up in our slow cooker today.  It was awesome!

We saw more tie-dye that day than we have in 20 years!

 Everyone was super nice and we had lots of conversations with the vendors.  We both got chair massages and we look forward to going back on Saturday for the arts festival, featuring a blues band and lots of local artists doing demonstrations.  Fun stuff!

Trinity Alps

The Trinity Alps are a fairly remote mountain range up in Northwestern California.  This part of the state is much less-frequently visited than the Sierra Nevada mountains, being a couple hours further from the Bay Area population centers.  And they are incredibly beautiful.  We are camped at a National Forest campground near Trinity Lake and except for two nights when there were one or two other campers, we have been completely by ourselves here, not even a camp host on site!  We did a hike our first full day here and saw one couple on the trail the entire day, and this was supposed to be one of the most popular trails in the area.  There are several wilderness areas up here in addition to the Trinity Alps, there are the Marble Mountains, Russian Wilderness and Yolla Bolly Wilderness. All are best for backpackers because the mountains are steep and roads are few, so it can be a long steep walk to reach the high country and the true "Alps".  We did find some trails to explore and will report on these in the next few days.  Our first hike was up Swift Creek.  No lake that we could reach, but the creek itself was so beautiful and clear green that it was very rewarding.

Entering the wilderness area

The forest up here is incredibly green and thick!

The trail wound above the creek and we had a great view of this pretty waterfall. The water was really that green!

Our destination--the footbridge over Swift Creek

Multicolored rocks and cascading water

A nap in the sun after lunch

Tucker was there too

Did I say the water was really clear and green?

Hmmm.  Why are all Lynnae's clothes on the shore?  Where could she be? Wow, that water is COLD!

Last Hiking Day in Lassen

We were set to leave and head West the next day, so Sunday we took a last hike into the backcountry of Lassen.  We didn't want to go to another thermal area or volcanic site, but just find a lake or two in this pretty mountain area.  We found what we were looking for at Ledges Lake, Shadow Lake and Cliff Lake, all in a four-mile round trip hike without a lot of climbing. We saw very few people on the trail and we had Cliff Lake at the end of the hike all to ourselves to contemplate (or nap) in peace.

Looking down on Shadow Lake

Looking back up toward Mt. Lassen from the other side of Shadow Lake

Cliff Lake

Another view of Lassen over Lake Helen from the park road.

According to the Tahoe daily Tribune: "Annual snowfall at Lassen National Park is epic, the most recorded in California. At the Lake Helen snow survey site, elevation 8,200 feet, an average annual 660 inches (55 feet) of snow buries the area each winter. Some years more than 1,000 inches (83 feet) of snowfall has been measured there. Despite Lassen’s relatively modest elevation, the heavy snowfall sustains 14 permanent patches of snow in the park."

You can see from my pictures that not a speck of snow is seen on the mountains this dry, dry year.

The other thing that is epic at Lassen are the dark skies on a moonless night.  This shot is taken right outside our trailer looking South. Of course the camera exaggerates the brightness of the stars, but it still looks pretty good to the naked eye!

Birds and Lucky Timing

Hanging around the creek alongside our campground where Lynnae was fishing, I spotted an osprey in a nearby pine tree.  The moon was setting in the morning sky and I hoped to get a good picture of the osprey with the moon behind him.  Of course, the bird kept moving from tree to tree and I was scrambling around on the banks of the creek trying to get him lined up.  Meantime some crows were harassing the osprey which caused him to move even more.  By the time I headed back, I had a couple shots where the timing was just right to make them interesting.  It pays to be persistent and more than a bit lucky!

The next day we drove to Lake Amador to fill up the diesel tank, get some groceries and give Lynnae a chance to fish the lake.  We found a great looking spot, but she didn't catch anything and I forgot to replace the SD card in my camera, so I only had my spare.  This SD card was made about a century ago, so it was only 32 MB and the pictures I take now are about 15 MB each, so I had to shoot at a lower resolution.  In spite of that, I got another great osprey shot (this time with a fish!) and a nice sunset driving back to camp showing Lake Amador and Mt. Lassen with it's nearby peaks in the distance.