Sometimes, you just want a trail to put a few miles in on. After reading about the Sawtooth Loop Trail near Truckee, CA, I thought I had found just such a trail. Leaving Reno about 8:30am and making the 40-ish mile drive across Donner Pass to Truckee, CA, I arrived at the trail head just a short time later and started the hike.
This is a popular mountain bike trail and the number of cars at the trail head with bike racks testify to that fact. That said, I get a couple of miles down the trail before encountering any of them. The trail is perhaps the most windy and twisting trail I have ever hiked and I'm forced to question why it was built this way. I would understand if the terrain or erosion control required it, but this area, while setting atop a the valley carved by the Truckee River, is on a nearly flat plateau. There is no good reason I can think of to cut the trail like this except to make it interesting for the mountain bikers. Oh well, it's easy going.
While there are a couple of spots granting a vista of the river valley below, they are few and far between. What this trail has a lot of is forest. Forest much like that which covers the Sierra Nevada is really the only environment here. Ponderosa pines, manzanita bushes, other trees and bushes I can't readily identify, and milkweed dominate the landscape. I'm especially happy to see the milkweed, as it is essentially for the survival of the monarch butterflies. I recently attended a lecture about the challenges this beautiful species faces. The more habitat we have for them, the better chance of their survival.
As make my way around the first major bend in the trail, I'm passed by a few friendly bikers. At the bend, a side trail leads to lookout, but just as much of the other trail has been, it seems to twist and weave through the level forest unnecessarily before reaching mediocre vista point over the valley.
I return to the main trail and continue around the second bend, encountering numerous other bikers along the way. All of them are friendly and greet me as they ride past. I do find it somewhat funny, that I end up catch up to some of the bikers that passed me earlier. Apparently, between their stops and my quick hiking pace, we're not that far apart.
Finally, reaching a multi-tined fork in the trial that sees the intersection of a forest road with the two forks of the trail, I get turned around slightly and walk a few yards down the wrong path before getting my bearings and returning to the proper path. From here, I'm simply retreading the first couple miles of the trail, which I hiked in on a couple of hours ago.
Finally reaching the jeep at the trail head, I note that I've covered right at 11.4 miles this morning. The trail was easy, but I must say, a little boring. There are really no overly interesting things to see along this trail. If you're simply looking for some quite time and some forest miles, this trail is probably for you, but otherwise, I would look for something a little more interesting.
No comments:
Post a Comment