Friday, November 3, 2017

A Haunted Hike

We headed back to New Melones Lake for an overnight R&R.


We picked the Tuttletown Area in hopes of seizing a site in the Acorn Campground. Sadly, that area was closed for the season. So we meandered over to the Manzanita Campground area, which we were lucky to find site 86, a pull-through site at top of the hill and away from the crowd down by the lake. We prefer the Acorn Campground area, even though there isn't any great views of the lake, since the sites there are better designed for travel trailers.

 

Our closest neighbors were a couple of campsites away. It was very quiet since most folks were out on the lake fishing.


After setting up camp and eating lunch, we headed off to explore the hiking trails that we didn't hike in April. We hiked Fox Ravine over to Cougar Point to find the picnic table seen on the map and then down to the shore of the lake.


We were surprised that the water level of the lake was this low, but it's higher than the past couple of years.


The rock formation by the lake looks like trees (center grouping in photo) that have turned to stone. The pieces of stones have sharp edges that can easily be broken apart.


After investigating the shoreline, we headed back up the hill to continue our hike by following Black Bear Loop. The views were spectacular! The flat looking ridge is the Inverted Valley Butte that we hiked in April. From this vista, one can see that the butte goes for miles.


Leaving Black Bear Loop, we took the Kingsnake Loop back to our campsite. Along this route, we came across an unlucky deer that was right next to the trail. I'm glad to have seen it in this state versus half eaten and smelly.


Back at camp, we rested. I took a short trek down the hill to look at the four walk-in campsites below our site. The walk-in sites are very nicely positioned sites, but I wouldn't want to lug camping gear down and then back up that hill. I was happy to have our comfy RV and not to have encountered any cougar, black bear, fox, or king snake on this trip. Instead, we watched the deer, California quail, and red-headed woodpecker enjoying the warm autumn day. 

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