Archive for May 2006
You are browsing the archives of 2006 May.
Pioneer Trail - White Cloud to Skillman
(Click photo for all 27 photos)
Mary, Kendra, Josh and I joined Lisa on the first spring trip to the mountains. Now in May, you never know what kind of weather or conditions you will encounter up there. We had scouted the Carr Lake area last week and the road was snow-free for the most part; this week we head up and there’s a snow storm afoot! So we backtracked back down the mountain a bit until we found a trailhead that wasn’t under snow and we ended up at the White Cloud Campground. We suited up for winter/rain weather and headed down the Pioneer Trail towards the Skillman Campground. The trail parallels Highway 20 and on occasion we could hear the road, but mostly I didn’t hear it. We hiked along for quite a ways without encountering anyone else, until a couple of riders and horses came up behind us… at which point we learned there was an endurance horse race occurring up there that day. We came upon the overflow parking area and asked some non-racing nice folks where the race course was, to see if we should change our minds. All was good, as the race wasn’t supposed to be on the Pioneer trail after this point, but were to take another trail. We did encounter the same riders again as they backtracked, since they’d taken the wrong route for the race.. oops! At Skillman Campground, we found a picnic table that didn’t look like it was in the middle of anyone’s camp and we had a bite for lunch. As we started on the return trip, the temperature dropped and it started hailing. As we were all wrapped up in raingear, it was all okay and we hunkered down and headed out. On the way back, a riderless horse came up behind Mary and she grabbed his reins. Oh no, a riderless horse is not a good thing. Lisa headed back down the trail a bit to see if she could find the rider, no luck. Josh went to the fire road to see if a passing truck might be looking for the horse. Kendra and I walked ahead towards the overflow parking area to try and notify someone. Mary and Lisa, horse owners themselves, started walking the anxious horse towards the camp. Luckily the rider was okay and caught up with Mary and Lisa before we had a search party out looking for her; horse and rider were both okay. With that excitement done, we continued on, encountering more horses now, as the tail-end of the race came through this portion of the trail.
Approximate Stats (tree cover made the GPS sketchy): • Distance: 10.22 miles • Approximate Time: 5:30
American River Parkway
(Click photo for all 20 photos)
Kathie, James, Glenn and I walked today as the Rancho Cordova Walking Meetup Group. We headed towards Rossmoor Bar today, a peninsula that the river wraps around. The weather was great, the mosquitoes were thankfully non-existant, and we were all feeling good, so we decided to extend the walk and kept walking past our normal turn around point. And we were glad we did–as it got later, we spotted more animals coming out for the twilight. On our way back, we saw the police and emergency personnel searching the river. Unfortunately it sounded like another person underestimated the power of our little river, which at this time of year is pure cold snow-melt, less than 50′F, and moving extremely fast. Most people don’t survive if they get caught in the current. I didn’t see anything in the news, so hopefully it was just a false alarm and not another drowning.
GPS Stats: • Odometer: 4.13 miles • Total Time: 1:54 • Moving Time: 1:37 • Overall Average Speed 2.2 mph • Moving Average Speed: 2.5 mph
American River Parkway
(Click photo for all 13 photos)
Kathie, Nancy and I walked today as the Rancho Cordova Walking Meetup Group. The rains of the weekend caused the dust on the American River Parkway trails to settle down and it was a nice walk. No critter sightings today, but lots of flowers were blooming. When we reached the Sunrise Foot Bridge, we decided to cross over and walk on the other side for a bit. I learned that the little foot bridge is officially called “Jim’s Bridge”, dedicated to the man that helped save the bridge from being torn down.
GPS Stats: • Odometer: 2.85 miles • Total Time: 1:07 • Moving Time: 0:57 • Overall Average Speed 2.5 mph • Moving Average Speed: 3.0 mph
Sierra Discovery Trail
(Click photo for all 82 photos)
Today’s plan was for Lisa and I to head up towards the Sierra Mountains and see where the snowline was, to give us some idea of how long until we can get back to hiking in the mountains. We headed up highway 80 towards Reno and found the snowline around the 5500-6000 foot elevation mark. We backtracked a bit and cut over to Highway 20 and stopped at the Sierra Discovery Trail in Bear Valley. This is an interpretive trail that is managed by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) Company. We were about 2-3 weeks too early to see most of the plants/flowers in bloom, but we saw some and we saw all the signs identifying everything (what most of today’s pics are). The trail is along the Bear River and the Bear River Waterfall is also on the trail. After that gentle and easy stroll, we headed towards Carr Lake to see how far we could get before we ran out of road. We got to the turnoff, which puts us about 4 miles from the lake. Soon, soon we’ll be back up in the mountains <grin>. We enjoyed lunch by the raging South Fork of the Yuba River and then enjoyed a drive home in the pouring rain!
GPS Stats: • Odometer: 0.89 miles • Total Time: 0:49 • Moving Time: 0:23 • • Moving Average Speed: 2.3 mph Overall Average Speed 1.0 mph
Lake Natomas - Picnic and Paddle @ Negro Bar
(Click photo for all 11 photos)
I joined Theresa, Maria, Francis and Candace from the SHO Yahoo Group for a picnic and paddle at the Negro Bar area of the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area. I had not been to the beach portion of this area before, and it’s quite nice with picnic tables and ample shade. Theresa was just heading out for a second paddle when I arrived, so we got my kayak into the water and I joined her. She’d already found the Raising the Bar (GCRA1G) geocache listed on Geocaching.com, and was gracious enough to guide me to it. Afterward, we headed upstream, under the bridges towards the river that feeds this man-made lake. This was our first paddle of the season and when we got to the river entrance, we decided that both of us were too rusty to move into swifter water, cuz it’s brrrrr cold if you fall in at this time of the year! On another day we’ll paddle up the river as far as we can go, which is only to the Folsom Prison boundary! Back to the picnic area to munch and protect our food from the aggressive geese and squirrels!
