August 11, 2014 - Bass Lake Area

Red-McLead Hike; Yellow/Purple-Chilkoot hike

Title: August 11, 2014 - Bass Lake Area

Trail head: McLeod Flat Road

Hike Info:

Type:  Hiking

Trail: Meandering along 4-wheel drive roads and Willow Creek

Destination:  Exploration

Distance:  1.89 miles

Start Time:  9:43

End Time:  11:51

Travel Time: 2:07 (0.89 mph)

Moving Time:  1:12 (1.58 mph)

Elevation Rise:  417'

Maximum Elevation:  4.515'

Description:
Jerry J is the campground host at Chilkoot Campground close to Bass Lake. As such he is asked for local points of interest and things to do. So he likes to have a ready stock of answers. There was a couple of places he wanted to explore so he invited John and Cathey, Sherri and myself up to his campsite to help him wander around. A neighbor of John and Cathey, Clare, joined us for the fun.

After last night's full moon hike and getting back in at 1am, Cathey took pity on us and had us over for a breakfast of eggs, hash browns, bacon and muffins. A pretty good start to the morning-thanks Cathey. John drove us up to Bass Lake-thanks John! I would have been OK going up, but coming back would have required some concentration on my part. Jerry's site is pretty nice. He has the upper spot, a bit close to the road, with a trailer and a nice canopy of mosquito netting to cover the table.

Cathey, John and Sherri

While we are glad to be up with Jerry to visit, we have business to attend to. The first order of business is to go to McLeod Flat and figure out can we hike to Jerry's campground. There is a sign showing that there is a trail coming out of McLeod. But the road down quickly turns into a four-wheel drive road. We stop after about 3/4 of a mile and unload ourselves.

When we got home I looked at a Forest Service map and  I saw our first mistake. I suspect that the trail heading UP Willow Creek was a bit higher up than where we parked.  Our path, and I use that term lightly, is a four-wheel drive road. It heads pretty steeply down towards Willow Creek. Not too much good can be said about it. Fortunately we are going down in the morning, but already it is a bit warm-soon to get hotter. The road, or I should say tracks-plural-sort of meander around. But as long as we head down I think we pretty much get to the proper place.

Jerry crossing Willow Creek

I have taken off on a few promising leads to the side, but do not really find a trail. We get down close to the bottom and there is a trail, not just a low place. Why do we know this? There is a set of wood planks across a dry creek, followed by a few more wood planks and a tree crossing some water. Jerry says this is Willow Creek. Right now the creek does not look to promising. But as John might have said, you can imagine what it would look like in a non-drought year. The area is pretty lush. It must be crazy with wild flowers during the Spring and early Summer.

 

Willow Creek

Our trail is short lived. After a hundred and fifty yards it leads us back to a four-wheel road and we do not see signs of a trail again. But the road loads us further down the creek. Notice the word down as this is not where we want to go. Since it is fairly flat so we do not realize that down is the direction of travel until we come out at a campsite, the end of the road and spot Willow Creek. We cross a large slab of rock to see if there is a trail we can find around here-none, but there is a nice little trickle falls coming out of Willow. Lots of pot holes where the water had worn away rock. Very pleasant. The rock which we are on would be slippery when wet.

Willow Creek

We spot a couple of people on the other side of the creek. They are from a jeep we saw up close to our "trail". The indicate that the Willow Creek trail is just above them. After looking at a map, we were about a quarter mile above the Devil's Slide area. We decide to cross Willow Creek and return via the Willow Creek trail.

Sherri, Jerry and Clare

We sort of follow a path, but it is more of a meander through shrubs, trees and over rock-sort of what I call Great Fun! Nothing too exciting, but definitely nothing I would tell Jerry's guests to follow.  I think I must still be a bit disoriented. Earlier I had set a waypoint around our "trail". So I have been navigating us around towards it. But I am also noticing that we are getting close to our GPS tracks. So we head to the tracks and meet up with the road a bit higher than I anticipated. This is a good thing. So we do not have much to walk up  to get to our vehicles. An enjoyable meander, but I am not sure how well we could re-trace our steps.

Trail head: Chilkoot campground

Hike Info:

Type:  Hiking

Trail:  Chilkoot Campground to Willow Creek

Destination: Willow Creek

Distance:  0.92 miles ¹

Start Time:  12:49

End Time:     2:09

Travel Time: 1:19 (0.70 mph)

Moving Time: 0:58 (0.95 mph)

Elevation Rise: 271'

Maximum Elevation: 4,719'

  ¹Because of the type of terrain, I set my spreedsheet filer to not record anything less than a quarter mile per hour instead of a half.

Description:

Trail down

We took a bit of a break from walking... and the heat by relaxing at Jerry's camp. Jerry served us a sausage roll and cheese-definitely is good. After an hour break, Jerry suggested we go on a little hike down to some pools at Willow Creek. We leave right from Jerry's camp site, pausing only to pay homage to the outhouse.

Then it is down a series of paths until we hit what may have been a fire break put is now the main path. The path is pretty steep with the steepest part dropping about 30' right before Willow Creek. After crossing Willow Creek right above the junction with Chilkoot Creek, we head up a small ridge, only to drop down into Chilkoot Creek. This is not for the faint of heart and I would suspect some of Jerry's guests turn back when they see this. But not us! We drop down some rocks, putting additional wear on the seat of our pants until we get to Chilkoot Creek.

Chilkoot Creek

Jerry would like to explore a bit more up the creek, but with the heat, most of us want to just sit and enjoy the creek. So Jerry and I cross the creek and clamber up the other side and head up. But this is not the way to go as the creek's sides on the south side goes steep and we can only go up maybe an eighth of a mile before needing to turn back. Jerry said that some of his guests has said there are some nice little set of pools with a water fall back further. But they did not go this way, I do not think. We save the north side of the creek for another day.

Western Aquatic Garter Snake-underwater

When we get back to the rest of our group, Cathey has seen a water snake, probably a Western Aquatic Garter Snake. Looks like the snake is fishing as he looks like he is searching for a fish or two. Jerry takes us back via another route. Definitely more pleasant than how we came in. This way is by the creeks so we see a bit more plant life and enjoy a bit of the shade.

Reflections

But then we head back up the slope and it is one of those, take your time, enjoy and breath type of walks. Before we know it, we made it to the top.

Reflections

While these hikes I do not think will be part of my top ten list, at certain times of the year they have potential to be developed into something which will have good memories.

On the way back, John said he wanted to go back through a more scenic route-through North Fork. In reality, he wanted to take us by a trail head called Brown's Ditch. I suspect this will be a subject of a future meetup hike. A good thing about riding with John is he has a wide range of experiences and is willing to spin a story about them. Enjoyable traveling, especially when you are tired.


Trail Lesson:

Get it or forget it.-From John

August 10, 2014 - Buena Vista Full Moon Hike

Title: August 10, 2014 - Buena Vista Full Moon Hike

Trail head: Buena Vista trail head

Hike Info:

Type:  Hiking

Trail: Buena Vista Trail

Destination:Buena Vista Peak

Distance: 1.96 miles

Start Time:  6:41pm

End Time:  11:43

Travel Time: 5:01 (0.39  mph)

Moving Time: 1:12 (1.63 mph)

Elevation Rise: 641'

Maximum Elevation: 7,642'

Description:
Tonight is the night of the full moon. Not only a full moon, but a Supermoon-that is a moon which comes close to the earth. This happened at 11:09am. Shawn invited Rose and her husband Jeff, along with Sherri and I to go up to Buena Vista Peak near Grant Grove. Steven was interested in going as well.  So there will be six of us enjoying the full moon.

In awe of the Rock Monster

We left Fresno's round 4:45 with sandwiches for dinner. We get up to Big Stump. Shawn and her car had also pulled in  to use the facilities and have dinner. So we dined together and then headed out to south to the Buena Vista Parking lot . We pulled in around 6:30.

Buena Vista Peak

We have hiked this trail several times. Each time enjoyable. The last time was to enjoy a sunset. It is only about a mile to the top and a 300' climb. The hardest part of the trail is the start, where it chugs up pretty steeply before leveling off to a more humane slope. Several years ago while coming up here, we thought the trail went up on one side of a rock outcropping. That was a mistake as we scrambled straight up to the peak instead of the more gentle way around the peak. We made the same mistake this year, but corrected it before going too far up.

Sherri, Steven, Rose and Jeff

Gary and Sherri

We reach the top right as the sun goes down. Such colors! The clouds just accentuate the beauty we see. The forest fires up north are putting more reflective particles in the air. Bad for breathing; great for sunsets. And, as it turns out, for full moon watching. Pictures tell stories and are more effective than my words, so scroll down and enjoy what we saw.

Steven at Sunset

After watching the moon and sunset for awhile, we had a pleasant time just talking among the six of us. Rose and Shawn saw some shooting stars from the Pleiades shower-my score was zero. About 11, I said it was time for us to go back as we needed to get up for a hike. So all six of us went down the mountain, five with lights on; the sixth just enjoying the moon light. All got down safe.we made it back home by 1:00pm with Steven driving us.

Alta Peak

 Pictures

 Buck Rock

 Sunset

 Moon

August 6, 2014 - Nellie Lake

Nellie Lake

Title: August 6, 2014 - Nellie Lake

Trail head: Upper Billie Campground

Hike Info:

Type:  Hiking

Trail: Parts of the Kaiser Loop Trail

Destination:Nellie Lake

Distance: 8.44 miles

Start Time:  8:20

End Time:   2:15

Travel Time: 5:55 (1.43 mph)

Moving Time: 4:44 (1.78 mph)

Elevation Rise: 2,383'

Maximum Elevation: 9,059'

Description:
Another mid-week meetup hike with John and Cathey-always a pleasure. We gather at Kohl's at 6:00am. I drove with Jerry J and Dennis-good conversation on the way up upon a variety of subjects. We stop in Shaver for a brief re-fresh break. Daniel joins us there, making it a total of eleven people-almost all men except for Cathey. Then it is off to Upper Billie Campground and our trail head.

Meetup Group

The French Fire continues to burn a few miles on the other side of the San Joaquin, but it does not seem to be of bother to us. I think Kaiser Ridge blocks most of the smoke, so it is only a little hazy. The start of the trail is a pretty good up and so it is, rising just under 1,000' in a little over a mile and a half. That leaves us only 800' more to go up.  This is through some forested areas, so we get some nice shade. There is a meadow we cross over which John is now calling Cathey's Meadow.  Not much in the way of flowers though. Guess that season is past for this area.

Dennis at Cathey's Meadow

We do pass a junction for another meadow--this time it is Mary's Meadow. I am thinking of a friend of ours when we pass by here. But our brief level spot ends and we go up again. We come across a little creek, still having enough water to gurgle for us-this does surprise us since we sort of figured it would all be dried up. From what I can tell, this is Home Camp Creek. Nellie Lake drains into it, but we are on another off-shoot, so the water is not Nellie's water. But now we start our the final 800'. It is steeper, but not so draining. After that first uphill, this is shorter and less tiring, at least for me.

 

Daniel and Diamond contemplating Nellie Lake

We get to a saddle in a ridge above Nellie and drop in. We start to catch glimpses and a quarter of a mile later we are there. Time for a stop and enjoy the lake. Also to eat a lunch. Jeffery shares some chips and I share some Nutella Brownies. Just a pleasant place to be. Not even mosquitoes here, even though I did kill one in the parking lot at the start of the trip. I take a short walk to the far end of the lake. It is a typical Sierra lake, not the ones surrounded with granite like Precipice, but those where water has gathered in some bowls. A place you can enjoy an hour, a day or week at. Yes there is a campsite here and I think I will be adding it to my list of places to spend a night at.

Nellie Lake

Our return trip is back down the same trail. That drop into the lake's bowl is now a climb, but a short one. One of our members is feeling sick, but fortunately he is able to walk, but a bit slow. So we have a chance to discuss books and operations-what a combination!  Not too much excitement on the way down. Just a good day of hiking.

The Trail

Since it is a bit early in the day, we all decide just to head back to Fresno, instead of stopping and grabbing a bite to eat. Our car, and it looks like John and Cathey's, went down the Big Creek Road. Definitely is slower, but shorter than going all the way around the lake. Plus we got some excitement when a monstrous SCE truck pulls up behind us with lights flashing. I do not think he had his lights flashing at us, but it was a bit disconcerting. I let him pass. Then about a minute later I pull for to let five, yes count them five CHP car pass by. Why they were up there, I do not know. But I am now following them. We get back to Kohl's at 4:10. I am tired, but feeling good about the hike.

August 1, 2014 - Muir Grove

Title: August 1, 2014 - Muir Grove

Trail head:

Hike Info:

Type:  Hiking

Trail:  Muir Grove Trail

Destination: Muir Grove

Distance: 5.43 miles

Start Time:   10:32

End Time:      2:08

Travel Time: 3:35 (1.52 mph)

Moving Time: 3:01 (1.80 mph)

Elevation Rise: 933'

Maximum Elevation: 6,952'

Description:

Our group

Each year at our church's family camp out, a group of us goes for a hike. Sometimes it is only a few people, other times we have had 10 people. Today the hike has attracted eight of us: Jordon, Barbara, John, Johnathen, Sara, Sherri, Carol and myself. We will be going down to Dorst and hiking to Muir Grove.

It is a bit of a drive, about an hour from our campground to Dorst. We park at the amplitheater's parking lot and walk back about 150 yards to the start of the trail. Just this little walk you can tell it will be a warm hike-one report said it was 102, but that may have been Fresno.

The first little bit is downhill-I do not like trails where we go down on the way in. My feet turn to lead when we come out. But after a half mile, we start-up to the top of the first ridge. There is a nice view from here of where Dorst Creek drains out of. Plus we can see the broccoli tops of the Sequoia's at Muir Grove on the next ridge. That is always an encouraging view.

Carol and Sherri viewing Muir Grove

Barb, Carol and Sherru

By this time our group has divided like an amoeba. Those with more energy, the young ones split off and speed ahead while the more mature get to enjoy the trail at a more leisurely pace. We see things like dogwood leaves starting to change color; logs crossing a little rivulet and the wildflowers growing.

Dogwood

Lunch time

The last quarter mile is a gentle climb up to the grove. There we have lunch and enjoy the Sequoia's. Just general trail chatter goes on at lunch. So I slip off and go a little ways south and find a small social trail which I follow for just a short ways. But in that way I see many more redwoods in this little scoop of land. Also the sunlight features many interesting looking areas. So good to be out.

Carol contemplating walk-through tree

White Fir on granite

Afterwards, Carol and I go and explore the rest of the main trail. It leads us back up on top of the ridge where a giant sequoia grows despite being burnt  halfway around and all the way through. Carol, and later Barb, can walk through it. The trail continues around the ridge to a point. Even though it is hazy, we can see Alta Peak and that whole crest-line. So good to be here. Sherri joins us a few minutes later. We marvel at a couple white fir growing on what appears to be bare rock. When we return Barb comes up-she has given Sara her car keys and the speedsters are going back to camp. I accompany Barb to the point and we look around as well.

Alta Peak

 The return trip is much the same as coming. We do get to see a deer wander around the trail. Also I make snide remarks about a couple cutting switchbacks. But on the whole just a pleasant walk back to the car. When we get to the final trail sign, I glance at it and realize there was a warning sign on it. At least it looks like someone screaming in terror, but not us! Just a good trip.

Sequoia's lined up

Sunlight and bushes