Posted by Karen on 14-Mar-2010
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Lori and I went to Capay Valley to check out the Almond Blossom Festival, but when we got to the first little town and saw the tons of cars and bikes and no place to park, we decided to just skip the festival and go for a cruise around the Capay Valley to see what there was to see. We cruised Highway 16, stopping along the flowing Cache Creek to enjoy the view, and when we reached the end of Highway 16, we took Bear Valley Road. Bear Valley Road is a less traveled graded dirt road that traverses through the hills and offers nice views and occasionally views of cows that are closer than you expect. As we meandered down the back roads, the signs for Lodoga and Stonyford caught our attention, so that’s the way we went. We stopped for a late lunch at the Timberland Bar & Grill in Stonyford, which is a small town of about two blocks at the crossroads. While lunching and chatting with the locals, they recommended that we check out East Park Reservoir before we headed home, so we did, and it’s a pretty and fairly large reservoir. After checking out the reservoir, it was time to find our way back one valley over to the east, back to our own Sacramento Valley and head home.
Posted by Karen on 13-Mar-2010
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This afternoon, I took a drive out to Rancho Seco to visit with Tersha and Vic and to see their new trailer in their favorite camping spot. This was my first visit to the decommissioned nuclear power plant and the recreation area they’ve converted it to. While the towers still stand, and probably will for many more years, they’ve not been active since we voted the plant closed in 1989. Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) operates a large solar farm and a natural gas plant out there now. The park area is very nice, there is a large lake where people were wind surfing and enjoying a fishing contest. There is also a trail through a wetland area that should be full of flowers here soon, but not yet.
Posted by Karen on 04-Feb-2007
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Theresa, Tanya, Maria, Cassanda, Richard and I headed over to Point Reyes National Seashore and enjoyed a wonderful hike along Drakes Estero to Sunset Beach. I’d attempted this trail last year with some other friends, but the rains had made the trail a near-impassable mud slog. This year it was a much different story, since we’ve not really had any rain for a month. The trail gentle rolls along the estuary to the coast, through a forested area, over the little bridge at the end of Home Bay, across cattle grazing territory, next to the mud flats and finally onto the beach. The weather couldn’t have been more perfect, tank tops and shorts type weather in February! We encountered a deer carcass along the trail and wonder what dined on it and with the rash of mountain lion sightings around the State, we really did wonder. When we reached the beach, we did a little bit of tide-pooling as the tide was going out. Theresa had the eye and was pointing out all kinds of finds, from starfish to sea slugs. On the way back, the water in the bay was low from the receding tides and we were able to see the oyster farms from the Drake’s Bay Oyster Company. The tide channels and mud flats were also exposed on our way back, which makes for a totally different view of the estuary. A really nice trail, combined with perfect weather and good friends.
GPS Stats: • Odometer: 9.41 miles • Total Time: 5:31 • Moving Time: 3:50 • Overall Average Speed 1.7 mph • Moving Average Speed: 2.4 mph
Posted by Karen on 30-Apr-2006
(Click photo for all 110 photos)
Lisa, Mary, Theresa, Jason, Paige and I headed to North Table Mountain in Oroville again to tackle the waterfall loop as described on Leon Turnbull’s Water Falls West webpage. The highlight of the Waterfall Loop route is Phantom Falls. There are no trails in this area, so it was a cross-country trek all the way. We had our GPS units to guide our way and we headed towards Phantom Falls. Along the way we saw a wide variety of wildflowers, an occassional butterfly and we saw a swarm of swallows gathering mud from one of the little creeks to build their nests; coincidentally, the swallows were building their nests over as Phantom Falls, as we delightfully discovered when we arrived over there. As we continued towards Phantom Falls, we saw and admired two unnamed waterfalls cascading down a ravine edge. And shortly after, we came to Phantom Falls and enjoyed lunch there on the ledge across from the falls. After lunch, we headed back to pick up the loop and try find the other four falls that are in the area. This was the first warm spring day (finally the rain has take a break!) and the 90′F weather took it’s toil on all of us. The area has very few trees, other than those in the ravines, which also have a lot of poison oak that we were trying to avoid. We made our way to two more falls and we found California Newts swimming in the creek feeding one of them. Heading back to the car, we all decided to skip the last waterfall and the map and make a more for a more direct route out of the area. It was a long day, but a good day. We grabbed a bite to eat in Oroville and then hit the road home.
GPS Stats: • Odometer: 8.21 miles • Total Time: 6:46 • Moving Time: 3:42 • Overall Average Speed 1.2 mph • Moving Average Speed: 2.2 mph
