Mustang Ranch Trail - Flooded (Washoe County, Nevada)

I had wanted to get quite a few miles in today. Searching for a new nearby trail, I stumbled across the Mustang Ranch Trail, which also might be known as the McCarran Ranch Preserve Trail. According to the site I found the trail on, it's a 20 mile round trip if one completes the entire trek. 

I left home about 9 AM and headed for the trail head about 15 miles east of town just off of Interstate 80. After parking the jeep, I headed out down the flat dirt track. The Truckee River flowed rapidly alongside the trail. This time of year, the snow melt from the Tahoe Basin fills the Lake Tahoe and pushes the access over the damn to flow down the Truckee River, through Reno, and on it's way to Pyramid Lake to the north. With all of the snow and rain we have received this winter, I and most others have been concerned about possible flooding.

Reaching just about 0.7 miles down the trail, a construction barrier has been posted indicating the trail has been closed due to flooding. Dagnabbit! I venture just a bit ahead and find exactly what I was hoping I wouldn't. The Truckee River flows right over the trail here. The water is probably around three feet deep and I'm not really wanting to go for a long swim, especially given the rate at which the water is flowing. Ah well, you can't fight mother nature. I turn and head back to the jeep after having covered 1.4 miles round trip. No where near the 20 I was hoping to hike, but perhaps I'll revisit this trail later in the year.

Dutch Creek and Johntown Falls (El Dorado County, California)

Having brought my wine group to Placerville, CA for the weekend to enjoy the El Dorado Passport, I thought I would try to convince those I was rooming with, Michael, Ann, and Kendall to join me for a short hike to get our blood pumping. I had reviewed some of the local hikes prior to the trip and suggested the trail along Dutch Creek to Johntown Falls. I had no specific experience with this trail, but the waterfall looked nice and it seemed easy and short enough that anyone of reasonable fitness would have an easy time.

Driving the ten or so miles to the Marshall Gold Strike State Park, we quickly found a place to park just up the road from the trail head. We put on our hiking boots and started up the short trail. In the distance, a large green hill overlooks the creek. A sign indicates the trail is not maintained, as it just outside the park boundaries, but it still well worn. The creek has washed away much of the hillside and the trail itself now passes very close to a steep muddy drop off. As long as one is careful though, its still a safe route.

As we make our way up the shallow grade, I notice a number of California newts crossing our path. My friends stop to admire the little guys for a minute, but we do our best not to disturb them. A couple of side trails break off, but quickly disappear. It doesn't take us long to find the right path in these situations. Of more concern are the short steep inclines. With recent rains, the trail is fairly muddy and some of these little climbs are a little challenging. 

Below us, the creek thunders away. We can see piles of river stones, presumably used by gold-seekers in decades past to dam or partially dam up the creek. After about a mile, we finally find the steep climb down to the base of the double waterfall. This is is the steepest descent yet and will likely be the most challenging climb back up in a few minutes. 

The waterfall itself is flowing well. The stream splits into a double fall, each dropping about 15-20 feet before hitting a large pool and then continuing downstream along a number of rocky obstacles. We take a few minutes for pictures and then eventually start making our way back to the car. In total, we hiked just shy of 2 miles, but it was a great way to start the day and I think my companions enjoyed themselves.

El Dorado Passport Weekend (El Dorado County, California)

 

For several years now, I have been traveling down to the Placerville, CA area for Passport Weekend. Essentially for two weekends in April, many of the El Dorado County's wineries form a cooperative and offer tastings, food bite pairings, music, tours, etc. to visitors. A single pass grants the purchaser access to all of this at twenty or thirty wineries all within a short drive of each other. It really is a fantastic way to spend a weekend. In addition to all of my hiking adventures, I also lead and teach a wine education meetup group. Starting last year, we turned this into a sort of field trip. 

While some of my group drove down early, we all met for dinner at the Heyday Cafe in downtown Placerville. It was a terrific dinner and we had nine members in attendance. As we enjoyed the local fare, we drank our way through a few bottles of locally produced wine. We also made our plans for the next day and finally departed for our respective accommodations. Four of us had rented an AirBnB, which had turned out to be pretty nice and perfect for our purposes. The others were staying in various local hotels.

Waking early Saturday morning, I suggested to my housemates that we should do a nearby hike to get our blood pumping a little bit. I'll write of that in my next post, but the entire group seemed to enjoy our trek to Dutch Creek and the Johntown Waterfall. Returning to the house, we cleaned up and then headed to our first winery of the day, Lava Cap, which just so happens to be my favorite in the area. 

We tasted their offerings and snacked on some wonderful hor d'oeuvres. The VIP library tasting was particularly tasty and our group walked out with several bottles in tow. Throughout the rest of the afternoon, we bounced around between a number of wineries on and around Carson Road. In total, I think we hit about seven locations through the afternoon. I would know the exact count, but as I did not have to drive today, I had taken advantage of some of the finer offerings and was a bit tipsy at this point. Eventually, we ordered a few pizzas and invited the entire group back to our house for the evening. We chatted, played games, and snacked well into the evening.

Rising early again the next morning, I wanted to get in a run. I had the tiniest little bit of a hangover, but still managed to get nearly five miles of rolling hills in before returning to the house to get cleaned up. As today was my turn to drive, I planned on only tasting ever so slightly along the way. Our first stop was Narrow Gate, followed by Mira Flores, followed by four or so more wineries. 

Around three o'clock, everyone had pretty much had their fill and agreed it was time to head back towards Reno. We had learned from one of the winemakers that an avalanche had occurred over highway 50, which was our best way home. Instead, we were forced to return via CA 88. It added a little time to the return trip, but with good company, no one minded.

Cottonwood-Marble Canyon Loop (Death Valley National Park, California)

This will be my third attempt at doing this short backpacking trip in Death Valley. I tried two years ago and was foiled by poor weather, and then again last month, only to face similar conditions. Originally, I had planned to be in Buckskin Gulch in southern Utah this weekend, but after talking with the BLM, it sounds as though the gulch is currently flooded with deep water. So as an alternative, I decided to take one more attempt at the Cottonwood-Marble Canyon Loop just north of Stovepipe Wells. My friends Gen and Emily joined me. 

We met last night and camped in Sunset Campground near Furnace Creek. Arriving late, I decided to cowboy camp under the stars and it was a great experience. Temperatures and winds were just perfect. After packing up, we did a short hike down the Salt Creek board walk, before driving the out some fairly rough roads to the fork of Cottonwood and Marble Canyons, which would be our starting point for this trip.

From the area where we left the vehicles, the canyons open up widely and as we head up Marble Canyon, we get into a discussion about clockwise versus counter-clockwise. Some comedy ensued, but eventually, we agreed that we would do the hike in a counter-clockwise direction, which leads us into Marble Canyon first.

For the first few miles the trail is pretty easy. The dry wash is surrounded on either side by slopping cliff walls that will close in tighter and tighter as we make our way up the canyon. After about four miles, we reach our first obstacle, the boulder-jam. Sometime in the distant past, a large car-sized boulder has rolled down the dry creek bed and blocked off the upper canyon. While we know there is a way around the jam from our trail research, we decide to take this opportunity and the shade of the large boulder for a short snack break. Hundreds of butterflies are in this part of the canyon and Gen, takes the opportunity to play among them. It is actually a pretty cool scene to see so many of the small orange beauties flapping their wings. 

After we make our way up the canyon wall and around the boulder jam, we push onward. The canyon narrows into much more of a slot canyon and we begin to find signs of past visitors. Some historic scratches on the wall tell of pioneers making their way up this dry canyon over a century ago and being helpful, they mark that a water source is a further five miles up the canyon.

Just beyond the pioneer markings, we begin to see more ancient markings in the form of Native American petroglyphs. This is one of the things that attracted me to this trail and I'm glad to have found them. We take a few minutes to observe and try to interpret their meaning. I've been interested in rock art for some time, but Emily is actually an archaeologist who searches for and studies these ancient markings as part of her job. It's nice to hear her educated perspective on the symbols.

Further up the canyon, we reach the next big obstacle in our path - the dry falls. Today though, it's not quite dry. A green, mossy flow of water trickles over the white alabaster to form a tiny stream of water flowing further down the canyon. We knew this was coming, but pause for a moment to determine the best way to overcome the 8-12 foot climb in our path. Emily checks out the holds on the right of the canyon and I explore the left. I'm not much of a climber, but I clumsily manage to pull myself over the edge and reach the top. I had left my pack at the bottom and Gen rigs a para-cord on it before I pull it up over the edge. My companions are much better climbers than I am and manage to make it up part of the way with their packs on before handing them off to me and pulling themselves over. Gen slides a bit and scraps up her leg, but we take care of it at the top. 

The dry falls will be our last big obstacle for the day, but before moving on, we decide to take advantage of a pool at the top of the fall to refill our water. While we have reports from the rangers and other hikers we have encountered to this point, it's always best in a place like Death Valley to take advantage of every water source you can find.

Moving into the junction of Marble and Deadhorse Canyons, we begin searching for a spot to put down our tents for the night. We finally settle on a previously used site under a large cottonwood tree. We all take a short time to relax before pitching our tents and preparing some dinner. At this higher elevation, the temperatures are a bit cooler and we take major notice of this as soon as the sun dips down behind the mountain to the southwest. Originally, I had not planned to put the rain fly on my tent, but my companions convince me that it might get colder than expected overnight and that the rain fly will provide one more layer of warmth while sleep. I agree and attach the thin fabric over the top. As the evening darkens and the stars begin to appear, we decide to turn in, each heading to our respective tent set up in a triangle pattern around a dinner circle.

Day 2

It seems whenever I camp in the backcountry, I wake with the sun, and today is no different. Waking up to birds chirping in the nearby cottonwood, I change clothes in my tent before unzipping and heading out to relieve myself. It seems I'm the first to wake and I decide to get some breakfast going before waking my hiking partners. Granola with wild blueberries and milk will be the featured dish this morning. I've had this selection previously and it's quite tasty. I also prepare my normal earl gray tea for that little caffeine boost.

My companions begin to stir and make their way out of their tents and over to the dining area to prepare their own breakfasts. We talk about the best way out of this canyon. We know the direction we need to go, but we also know that the path over the two ridges separating us from the wide section of Cottonwood Canyon is steep and somewhat elusive. From reports I have read, past visitors talk about not really have a trail and just finding the most doable path over the two ridges.

We break camp and start up the sagebrush covered hills toward the high point of the trail. It's steep and pretty slow going with full packs on our backs, but we eventually make it to the top. My altimeter shows our elevation to be nearly 4,800' on the top of the ridge, which is quite high considering we started yesterday near sea level. From here there is no particular trail down, but we make our way into the wide canyon, more of a valley really, and eventually the wash a the center. Along the way, we encounter a couple of other groups going in the opposite direction. It seems that clockwise is the most popular route, but from our experience so far, we have made the correct choice by going in reverse.

We find a few more worn petroglyphs in this wide valley and a number of interesting plant specimen before finally reaching the mouth of Cottonwood Canyon, our next and last major obstacle. As the spring feeding Cottonwood Creek is much more generous than it's companion in Marble Canyon, the vegetation has grown to be a thick tangled mesh of living and dead cottonwood trees, bushes, and other assorted flora.

We spend the next few minutes finding a passable route through the mesh, before stopping at clear pool in the stream to refill our water and take a snack break. From here and for the next hour or so, we fight our way through the net of brush, the muddy stream, and the steep cliff sides of the canyon choke-points, eventually dropping out down canyon in one piece.

As the canyon opens up, we take note of some wild mustangs starring at us from a distance. They are cautious, but don't run off as we approach. We leave the trail and make our way around them at a distance of about fifty yards, trying to stress them as little as possible while make our way down the canyon.

Reaching another wooded area of cottonwoods and then another, we finally reach the second spring, which is also flowing, but this time as only a trickle of water. Luckily, these lower two wooded areas are much smaller and tamer than what we encountered up canyon and we are able to quickly push through them. As we arrive at the end of Cottonwood Road, which is our planned campsite for the evening, we discuss the possibility of pushing on and finish the trail today. The campsites here are not as outstanding as what we had last night or even further up the canyon, and since it is only a little after 2 PM, we are pretty confident we can make it out before dark. 

Discussing it a bit more while we rest and get some calories in our bodies, we finally decide to make the push. We know that a passable road leads all the way back to our vehicles and that the hike will be easy. We've covered about ten miles to this point today, which means we will have another nine or so to push through before sun down.

As we thought, the hike is very easy from here on out with no true obstacles. We do find a few pieces of liter, including a grill grate, which we pack out with us. The canyon here is very beautiful, but nothing like what we have been through over the last two days. 

About three miles from the end, we find a large cave in the cliff wall and decide to explore it a bit. The covered space is probably about fifteen hundred square feet and their are signs that this is often used as a camping spot. It probably was for the ancient peoples in this area as well as modern adventurers. 

Finally reaching our parked cars, we remove our packs and consider that we've hiked 18.6 miles just today with full packs on our backs. The trail in total was 27.8 miles over two days. Quite and adventure and I'm thankful to my companions for joining me on it. We've had a terrific time and seen some beautiful scenery along the way. To reward ourselves, we head back into the saloon at Stovepipe Wells for some cold beers and warm food.

Salt Creek Trail (Death Valley National Park, California)

I'm in Death Valley for a backpacking trip this weekend, but knowing that we only have about 9 miles ahead of us this first day, my friends, Gen and Emily, and I decide to do a short hike on the boardwalk trail that parallels Salt Creek. It's just a short warm up, but it has been on my radar for a while.

The trail is only about 0.8 miles long, but offers some nice views of the wash and running stream. In the shallow water, tiny pupfish fight against the current. I've seen various sub-species of these little guys before in the region, but they are very interesting. In past ages, this entire area was covered with water, but as the climate changed and the waters dried up, the small fish were separated by impossibly dry areas. Over the eons, they have evolved into a number of slightly different species, almost all of whom are in danger of extinction. Hopefully, they will beat the odds and the dryness and survive into the future.

Linda Falls (Napa County, California)

I meant to do this short hike a couple of weeks ago while in Napa for the half-marathon, but time got the better of me. As I'm in the region again and it's not terribly far out of the way, I decided to knock this one out before heading home. There isn't much of a trail head, but there is lots of parking on the side of the road. A few other cars are here already, but I'm not sure if they are hiking to the falls or doing something at the adjoining baseball fields. Either way, I head into the wooded area on the other side of the road.

The trail is very easy and crosses a shallow creek before diving down a deep hill and circling back around to the waterfall. When I arrive, I find a couple sitting on a rock overlooking the flowing water and enjoying the day. It seems like a romantic spot and so I do my best to not disturb them. 

The waterfall itself is actually quite impressive, much more so than I expected. It's a split double fall that drops about twenty feet onto grey stone. The water is flowing very well, which isn't surprising given the amount of rain the area has received. I turn and return to my jeep. It was about 1.6 miles round trip and definitely worth a visit if you happen to be in the area.

Valley of the Moon (Sonoma County, California)

Waking early in my room at the Jack London Lodge in Glen Ellen, CA, I wanted to get in a few more miles. Before that though, I was obligated to try a croissant from an authentic French bakery just across the street from my hotel. Topped with apple and cherries, it was delicious and just the calorie boost I needed before a short hike.

Just a mile or so down the road another regional park offered the opportunity to do just that. Sonoma Valley Regional Park is a lush hill just south of the village and a particular trail, the Valley of the Moon Trail, seemed to be just what I was looking for. A cold, moist breeze blows through this small valley this morning, but it won't deter me. I make my way down the two-lane highway toward the park. 

Finally, turning onto the trail, I see that this first part is paved. I generally prefer walking on soil, but given the wet nature of the area this morning, pavement may not be a terrible thing. The trial follows along Sonoma Creek as it meanders through a sparsely wooded shallow valley. It's peaceful here and hearing the local birds sing their morning tune is inspiring.

The trail curves around and then eventually turns back on itself and climbs up to the southern ridge. The pavement ends and we are now on moist earth, more to my liking. In the distance, I see a small pond and two deer cautiously approaching through the trees for a morning drink. I love scenes like this and wish I could capture them on film, but they are too far away for any video to turn out well with my equipment. I'll just have to commit it to memory.

The trial climbs to the top of the ridge and then quickly descends back to the starting point. It's only 2.5 miles, but it was a great way to wake up and begin the day.