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!

Fraser Flat

 

Fraser Flat Campground is one of our favorite campgrounds in the Stanislaus NF since there are numerous forest roads to hike and explore located close to the campground. 

We got lucky by arriving around 10 AM to snag site 7. We snagged this site last year. It is located away from the river and closer to the road 4N01, which means away from the crowds. We really don't use the picnic area of this wonderful site. Instead, it's fun sitting up by the RV watching other campers' children bicycle around the loop below the site. 

After settling in and having lunch, we hiked 4N61 from campground to 4N14 and back, about 5 miles. We noticed some bear scant heading up to the junction of 4N61 and 4N13, close to the flume. This year there was one person camped up the hill near the flume. 

On Sunday, we hiked the 4 miles along 4N13 that follows the flume/ditch on the north side of the Stanislaus River into Strawberry and another 1.5 miles to the Strawberry General Store. The General Store is just ok. Our return trip to camp was by way of Old Strawberry road and then the Strawberry Grade Trail down to Fraser Bridge. That trail is very pretty with a gentle incline since it was once a railroad bed. Total hike was 10.2 miles. The hike on 4N13 had four steep inclines.  Next year we'll just hike the Strawberry Grade to town and back to omit those grueling elevations.

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.