Pine Marten the Campground not the Animal

 After five years of waiting for a site, campground was closed for a year and then covid, we snagged a spot at Pine Marten campground by Alpine Lake in Bear Valley. 

The first night, Friday night, the campground was very quiet since most campers were coming in on Saturday. 

The sites beside us were all taken with older folks that go to sleep early. Yes, that is our campfire! 😂

To get acclimated to the elevation of 7,335 feet, we did an easy five mile hike around the lake on Friday. The water level is low, but surprisingly not as low as other lakes in California. This might be due to the fact that this is an alpine lake.

On the south side of the lake we only saw one other person and on the west side only a 4x4 coming back from Slick Rock on the 4x4 trail. 

The north side of the lake has more folks all due to the proximity to Hwy 4 and a paved walking trail. The arrow is pointing at Inspiration Point. A fun hike up to the first vista point with a spectacular view south with sight of Utica Lake, Union Lake, and Dardanelles.  We have never made it to the very top and never will due to the very narrow trail at the last portion of the trail that has many areas with loose small rocks. That last section is just way too dangerous for this old gal.

OMG! What happened to that picnic table? Heavy Snow! The picnic table was put on soft soil and a heavy snow pack sunk the table. We saw many tables like this on the north side of the lake. South side of lake doesn't have any picnic tables.

The view from south of the lake looking north gave us a peek of Saturday's hike, that high ridge.

Saturday's two mile hike up Bee Gulch trail to this point was strenuous, beautiful, and very rewarding. The elevation gain was about 1,000 feet. This was an awesome view of the Dardanelles and south towards Yosemite.

Eating lunch before taking the grueling 4x4 trail down to Hwy 4 and back to Alpine Lake.  I thought the 4x4 trail was a fire road. It might have been a long time ago, but now it is a very rocky road. Some sections that we descended were so difficult due to the soft dirt and small rocks on a very steep grade. I can't believe we hiked down that way. That hike tired me out! 

This old gal is very happy with flat trails like this! 

Fraser Flat Campground

We made it back to Fraser flat Campground; it had been three years! We snagged site 7 which is a very easy site to back into and a site away from the main loop. 

First day, Friday, we went for a 5 mile hike along the Stanislaus River on the side we had never hiked before. The Philadelphia Ditch runs above most of this trail, but a portion of the trail goes up to the ditch and the road. 

The Philadelphia ditch or canal is owned by PG&E.  The water is used to produce electric power to a number of towns in the foothills of the Sierras. 

The ditch runs for miles. We only hiked a short section of it and saw the starting point just off of this road.

Day 2, Saturday, we hiked a 10 mile loop from campground up to Strawberry and back. 

It was about 4.8 miles to Strawberry, where we rested and studied the map for the direction back to campground. 

We took the Fraser Flat Trail back to camp after hiking a bit on Old Strawbery Rd that took us by extremely large second homes. 

This monument tells of story of how Strawberry came to be named after the wild strawberries that grew here.

An easy gentle grade filled with peace.

The Wedding Trip

My daughter and fiance got married in Jackson, WY. Husband and I did a road trip across boring Nevada, interesting Idaho, and beautiful Wyoming without the RV to attend their wedding. 

Two days before the wedding, hiking along the Snake in Jackson Hole!

The Snake River is a very long river that travels from Twin Falls to Jackson-- and beyond. 

The Wedding Tree, totally gorgeous!

I could have stayed there all day taking in the views of the Tetons.

Later at Mormon Row.

The reception, the cute Old Wilson School House with beautifully planted flower beds.

The day after was a day to explore with first stop Schwabacher Landing. 

One of the branches of the Snake at Schwabacher Landing.

The moose could not be bothered with humans.

Off to Jenny Lake for a short hike; very short hike due to a bear on the trail.

My son and his girlfriend soaking their toes at Jenny Lake. 

Hunting for lunch at north end of Jenny Lake, only to find this baby grizzly munching some berries on the side of the road.

After a yummy lunch at beautiful Jackson Lake, we explored Mormon Row. 

Beautiful in summer, and I'm sure beautiful in winter. 

I'll take late spring, summer, and early fall to enjoy this beauty.

On the long drive home, a stop to check out Twin Falls.

A short but steep hike down to the Snake River.

Folks enjoying a very hot day on the Snake.

Shoshone Falls just one of many waterfalls on the Snake River.

Looking west from the Falls.

Nevada, so brown, so dry, and so boring to drive through. One day husband and I will explore the green side of Nevada.

The Ladybugs

On the weekend of May 14th, we went to Wakalu Hep Yoo campground off of Hwy 4 near Sourgrass. Last time there was spring 2019. We got the same site near the host site. Again the host wasn't there yet since the campground wasn't official open due to no water.  The Stanislaus River had water! Low for this time of year, but at least there is snow melt and water flowing. And the fishermen were there too.

We took the hike down stream.

We were the only ones exploring the trail downstream.

On one section of the trail were thousands of ladybugs that were flying around. They were coming out of their hibernation. 

Eastman Lake Wildcat-- or Coyotes

On Superbowl weekend, we headed to Wildcat Campground at Eastman Lake to hike the entire Lakeview Trail up to Raymond Bridge.

Last time we hiked the Lakeview Trail was with Meeks. We went from the campground to the bench at the 1 mile marker on the trail and back to campground, total 4 miles. That was in May 2021 and Meeks was still able to hike that distance. Sadly, she passed away at the age of 17 at the end of January 2022. 

Since we no longer had to worry about long distances, we decided to try completing the 8 mile roundtrip from the parking lot to Raymond Bridge and back. Last time we tried this hike in May 2017 the water level of the lake was so high that we could not complete the hike. This time on a very unseasonably hot day, 84 degrees, we made it! 

The water level is extremely low! California needs rain or this year's snowmelt better be enough to fill the lake like it looked back in 2017. The Chowchilla River is so low that sandbars are visible. 

Back at camp, we enjoyed our favorite quiet spot away from the crowds, which are located over the knoll in the other campground. There was one other camper during the day and another couple came in right before dusk. Although numerous times through the night we heard the coyotes howling, the howling didn't disturb us since we knew we were guest in the coyotes' habitat. 

We woke after a very peaceful sleep to sunshine and warmth. We sat outside for our breakfast and enjoyed the view with sounds of the birds chattering. 

Ming checked the screws on RV before heading down the trail by campground to the spillway area. 

From the spillway area, we took a trail that turned into an animal trail down to the lake. This area is normally way under water. The dam is in the background of the photo above. California needs rain because I doubt the snowmelt will fill this area to how it was in 2017. 

We passed many areas that had mooring balls resting on the ground beside rocks. So sad to see this, but at same time interesting to see how many mooring balls are positioned around this area of the lake. 

A bit of Spring's sunshine to remind us that Winter is almost over.