Not a Total Fiasco Trip

 First trip to see McArthur Burney Falls with a bit of excitement! 

Since it is a six hour drive to the Falls, we stopped at Red Bluff Recreational Park just off of I-5 for an overnight and rest. The park is right by the Sacramento River with three miles of trails and a California native botanical garden. 

While hiking the trails, we saw this California King snake, a non-poisonous snake.  There were lots of birds at the campground too. 

Next day, we drove to Burney Falls to see the wonders of such a beautiful falls. The Burney Creek flows over the top of the falls and continues down to Britton Lake. All the other water flowing down is spring waters. 

There are two layers of lava formation. Where the spring waters comes out defines the layers. 

You could even see springs flowing on one of the hillside across the creek, next to the falls.

The other slope was a complete hillside of lava rocks. 

We took the trail down to Britton Lake, which is a very large man-made reservoir. We were the only people hiking on the trail. The campground was very quiet too with only five campers, mainly retirees. 

After a peaceful and restful night, we decided to hike a portion of the north-bound PCT.  The trail starts out in a grove of Ponderosa Pines with some firs, then the trail pararells a road that goes by the lake. 

The road had a sign saying no trucks. We saw a large semi driving down the road and shortly afterwards we heard the beeping of the semi and then saw the truck slowly backing up to get back off that road.

 The road leads to the dam, which doesn't allow trucks over it. We walked across the dam.

And down to the Pit River, where during high waters kayakers can put in. The Pit River flows into the Sacramento River. The PCT continues on from the top of the dam, but we had gone three miles and it was hot in this area; so, we headed back to camp.

Now for the FIASCO!

While settling up camp, we noticed one of the trailer tires was loosing its tread.

Luckily, we had no major blow-out while traveling. We replaced the bad tire with the 13 year old spare, but didn't feel comfortable driving on a spare that old. While changing tires, we discovered that our car jack isn't designed to be used with the travel trailer; so, we were again lucky that a fellow camper had a jack that worked. We were also lucky that in Burney was Les Schwab Tire Center, just six miles away. So the second day before hiking the PCT, we headed into town to get a new tire and a jack for the travel trailer. Now, we aren't done yet! With new tire on and 13 year spare back in where the spare sits on the travel trailer, we decided to cut our stay short and head home. We had seen everything and done all that was planned. While hooking up trailer to car, I noticed that the other tire was showing signs of failure. Yup, back to Les Schwab for two more tires, the spare got replaced too! 

Fraser Flat Again!!

 Or should I say before the car can no longer tow. Yup! It's about to die. So, off we went to a lower elevation campground in the Sierras; one of our favorites!!

We even got lucky with one of our favorite sites there!! Normally this site is easy to back into, but I was tired and having some difficultly backing straight back...hahahaaa! I stayed up late and got up too early. 

After lunch and a bit of a rest, we headed up to the Philadelphia ditch. There was one camper from overseas camping up there. 

We did a short hike along the fire road that parallels the ditch on the far side of the ditch. I was still feeling a wee bit tire; so, we headed back down the hill to the camp to take it easy the rest of the afternoon. A total of 2.5 miles for that hike, but we did get a  good cardio workout with the strenuous climb up to the ditch.

So many mountain irises were in bloom up by the ditch. 

After a good nights sleep, 12 hours, we hiked the Sugar Pine Railroad Trail into Strawberry. 

For a Saturday, there weren't very many folks hiking the trail. An older couple with their 10 year old white Swiss Shepard, and a number of younger folks, but not as many folks as I would have thought for such a nice warm day. 

The forest service folks must have cut the tree to form stepping stones in this section. Ming was impressed with them doing so.

Ming also started calling the Snow Fungus Plant, fire hydrants. I love seeing them in bloom, such deep reds agains the browns and greens! Total hike to Strawberry and back to camp was 10 miles.

The South Fork of the Stanislaus River will have to wait for our next time, or should I say again!

Blue Heron Colony

Went back to Ironhorse campground at New Melones Reservoir since we were in need of a couple of days of "different wallpaper". 

It was the first time staying at site 40. All of the sites that we have stayed at in the past were already booked. Site 40 doesn't have a view of the reservoir....

...but it did provide us with wonderful entertainment of a colony of blue herons. Blue herons tend to be solitary birds, but during mating season they come together to form a colony with lots of nests. This colony seemed to have about 6-7 birds. They would fly in just an hour before sunset. 

The campsite is nice with a private feel to it. The only downside was that it isn't very level. Out came our extra leveling blocks, thank God for them!

We were close to the one tree when the slide was out. Sadly, no critters or birds came to check us out or visit the tree. At night we did hear the owls calling to each other. I love the hoot of the owls, so peaceful.

Friday's hike was the loop around the shore of the reservoir, Carson Creek trail, and up the Tower Climb and down back to camp, about 6.5 miles. Saturday's hike was 8.5 miles down to the Angles Creek trail and back. 

This stretching of the Angles Creek trail is so peaceful. Sometimes a boat motoring would go by, but most of the time the only sound came from the cow bells from the hill on the other side of the reservoir.

A very needed rest stop at the closed boat launch by Angles Creek was taken before heading back to camp. We saw some folks fishing in numerous places as we hiked. 

Ironhorse at New Melones

Went back to New Melones for our first RV camping of the new year. We were at site 21, which is towards the end of the one peninsula at the Ironhorse campground there at the Glory Hole side of New Melones Reservoir. 

It was a beautiful warm January day with highs about 70. After setting up camp and eating our lunch, we head off to hike the Frontier trail that parallels the road and comes to a junction at the smaller parking lot a the end of the road. 

As we approached the bridge, we could hear the water running down the hill. There was one other stream that's a seasonal one, but this is the larger stream that seems to run most of the year (minus the drought years). 

The picnic table is still just up from the bridge. Last time we came here we could barely see the top of the picnic table. When we arrived at the Buck Bush parking lot we decided that we had time to hike the Angels Creek Trail. 

We took the shorter route by traversing up the hill and over to the other side, which cuts off a small portion of the trail.  Manzanita is in bloom already. It smelled so sweet!

Since it was getting late and we had at least two miles of travel back to campground, we decided to walk the road. We could see a portion of a halo around the sun as we were heading back. The sky now had clouds and a portion of a rainbow formed because the ice crystals in the clouds were refracting the sunlight. This is also a sign of weather change. 

When we got back to camp a group of Scouts had set up their camps near to us. At first I thought they would be loud since it was a group of teenagers with older adults, but I was wrong. As darkness came, they got quiet. We had a quiet and peaceful night. 

The morning sky proved to show that there was a change in the weather with what looked to be snow clouds forming. No rain was in the forecast for the day or the next couple of days; just a change in the sky with clouds. 

We took a walk around the campground. Walked down to see if the osprey were building a nest or had one. Instead we found a turkey vulture sitting on the tree that once housed the osprey's nest. I do hope the osprey find a better location this year for their nest. We will find out in future visits!

 

Ironhorse 19

Headed back to New Melones before the weather gets too hot. We got lucky with a site that has a view of the lake. 

A turkey and...

came to our site to check us out, while the opsrey and bald eagle observed us from above. We could hear the woodpeckers and see lots of turkey vultures. It was a birder's paradise. 

We did one of our favorite loops, the Tower Climb. It was nice seeing the lake full again.

Most of the time the trail is just dirt and rocks with occasional pretty flowers. We were surprised to see a rib cage from some animal long gone. The turkey vultures must have enjoyed that meal too. 

Second day's hike was around Angel's Creek trail. It was a long moderate hike that day, 8.3 miles. Happy to be back at camp to relax and enjoy the views. Did I say how quiet the campground was both nights. First night, Saturday, had tired fishermen, while second night, Sunday, was just one person next to us. 

February Getaway

 We headed back to our favorite spot at New Melones since spring weather was in the forecast.

We hiked one of our favorite hiking routes with wonderful vistas of a fairly quiet lake.

Along the hike, we came across a white ceanothus in bloom! It smelled so sweet and the bees were enjoying the blossoms.

I did not know that there are white ceanothus since all I have seen in the nurseries are the blue to purple flowering ceanothus.

Down by the closed boat launch, there were two seaplanes parked at the water's edge. Most likely two pilots having a meetup. We later watched the planes take off.  One plane headed west, while the other plane headed north.  Such a fun way to spend a beautiful day! And it was for us too!

We Back!

 Did a one nighter at our favorite spot at New Melones!!

Only six campers in the entire campground because there were no boaters camping over the weekend. The Parks closed down the lake to boaters due to the invasive mussels. Normally there are a couple of boaters that camp overnight in the area we like to camp; they always pick the pull-throughs. Since they weren't there, the campground was the quietest we have experienced. 

We did our favorite hike along the shore and marveled at how still the water looked and how quiet the lake was too!

We entertained ourselves in the evening with making pomanders for Christmas. Got two done, more to go!

Finished our overnight stay with a hike down to the picnic table on the Cougar Point Trail. We almost always find some thing interesting down at the point. This looks like a bird carcass.