1st Annual Church Backpacking Trip

This past January, Susanna and I led the first dayhike for the newly created church hiking club. That got me thinking about leading a backpacking trip up into the nearby Trinity Alps. It had been nearly 14 years since I had last led an organized backpacking trip. It was time to change that! On July 21st, seven hardy explorers from our church began a 3000' climb up into the Trinity Alps on Canyon Creek Trail. After 7 miles, we found a campsite on an "island" surrounded by flowing creeks and a thundering waterfall. We then day-hiked a short distance up to the stunning lakes in the upper drainage of Canyon Creek.

The following day, we re-traced our steps back out of the mountains. It was a big success and we are looking forward to leading another excursion next year!

North into Oregon

In mid-July, brother John and I escaped to the PCT for a 5-day, 82 mile backpacking trip which brought us well into Oregon. We began the journey in Seiad Valley, a tiny town in Northern California (this is also where we started our trip last year when we went south to Castle Crags), and ended at Green Springs Mountain along Highway 66 in Oregon. With the crazy amounts of snow that fell over the winter and spring, we still had many snow obstacles to get through. Most of these were on N and NE facing slopes. In some of the forests, we found snow to still be drifted to 5 feet high. This made for very interesting problems, as we lost the trail several times and had to rely on map, compass and good navigation skills.

On days 1, 4 and 5, we had beautiful sunny skies with occasional white, puffy clouds and temps in the 70's. Day 2 was mostly cloudy with temps in the low 60's and day 3 was mostly foggy with temps in the 50's! This was mostly a pleasant surprise as it was much more comfortable to hike.

Here are a few of the highlights:

Avoiding snowfields on Day 1

Echo Lake (Campsite #1)

Bearground Spring (Campsite #2)

On day 3, we happily entered Oregon!

Heading cross-country to avoid a HUGE snowfield covering the trail...the wildflowers were INCREDIBLE as we summited Observation Peak (7,340')

Lots of snow on the PCT!

On day 4, we left the Siskiyou Mountains and entered the Southern Cascades. This is Pilot Rock

Day 5 breakfast stop with a view. Hobart Bluff (above) and 82 miles later, this (below) is our destination!

Above the Lost Coast

In late June, we escaped for a weekend above the Lost Coast. We drove south to the Mattole River in King Range NCA. After a night of car-camping, we headed out on the trail on a foggy, windy morning. The trail brought us down to the coast, where we caught the Cooskie Creek Trail, which immediately begins an 800 foot climb in barely over half a mile. The fog soon turned to beautiful sunny weather. The trail then meanders through meadows and trees on it's way to Gorda 2, a 2,378 foot mountain. The views of the ocean way below were incredible!

After a long loop, we turned back toward the ocean and dropped to sea level, where we set up camp. The following day, we hiked out along the pounding surf under blue skies and a light breeze.

Our campsite near the Cooskie Spur Trail:

Sea Lions cover these rocks:
Classic "Lost Coast!"

Solitude in the Alps

This past weekend we escaped into the western reaches of the Trinity Alps. This part of the Alps is known for its rushing rivers, abundant wildlife, rugged mountains (which are smaller than the Alps peaks to the east and therefore snow-free in June), and amazing solitude. Oh, and one more thing: Poison Oak! The area lived up to its reputation in every way. We saw exactly zero people on the trail, saw lots of wildlife, camped along a beautiful rushing river, swam in frigid water, looked up at rugged, forested mountains and were nearly overcome by more poison oak than you could imagine. In fact, the poison oak was head-high in places and got so thick, that we eventually turned around. Still, this side of the Alps has an incredible sense of wildness and we had a wonderful weekend!

Still smiling before the onslaught of Poison Oak!
Susanna is surrounded by Poison Oak! Our beautiful campsite sat along this rushing river:

Rafting down the Eel River

In late May, I had a chance to do a 4-day rafting trip with the BLM down the Eel River, a long stretch of remote river in northern California. The purpose of the trip was to look for archaeological sites and to patrol areas of the BLM which are inaccessible except by river. The BLM land that we got to is extremely difficult to reach. In fact, one long-time BLM employee told us that we were likely the first BLM employees to get to some of these lands!

The trip was a blast, despite cool and damp conditions. We saw eagles, osprey, peregrine falcon, two gray foxes and a bobcat. Not a bad work week!

100 Mile Views on the Hat Creek Rim

The PCT has been calling my name all winter long! Finally, I had a chance to backpack on a section which is a little bit lower in elevation. I did this 31 mile stretch solo, so in order to avoid doing a out and back trip, I ended up biking 29 road miles at the start of my adventure! I began the trip by dropping off my backpack at the PCT along highway 299. I then drove to the PCT trailhead on highway 44. From there, I biked the 29 road miles back to my backpack, stashed my bike and then hiked to my car! It was awesome!!

The trail ended up being everything I had hoped for. The temp was cool but the sun warm. After getting through a few storms on the afternoon of day 1, the blue skies returned. On day 2, I hiked up onto Hat Creek Rim and had about 20 miles of near-continuous views of mountains and valleys. To the north was the massive bulk of Mount Shasta. To the south was another massive giant in Lassen Peak. To the west was Burney Peak and Thousand Lakes Wilderness, both still white with winter.

I tried out my new tarp (photos below) and was mostly happy with it, although a cool wind came up on the second night which made me quite chilly. All in all, it was a big success and gets me dreaming about the next PCT adventure a little over a month away!!

Burney PeakOld firetower on Hat Creek Rim

Second campsite with Lassen Peak behindNear the end of the route with Lassen Peak glistening to the south

Spring along Highway 1

Spring has arrived along the coast! We recently took a trip south along part of U.S. Highway 1. The wildflowers were blooming, the sun shining and the breezes blowing. Here are some of the highlights...

Wild Iris blooming (below)

A windy, but beautiful hike with gray whales in the distance!

The dramatic highway along the Pacific Coast
Relaxing at our lodge in Gualala
Point Cabrillo Light Station