American Canyon Trail (El Dorado County, California)

 

As my search for winter hikes continues, I came across an area called the Auburn State Recreation Area, which is northeast of Sacramento. From looking over the maps, there is a huge network of trails in this area, which meant picking just one was a bit difficult. Looking over several reviews and maps, I decided to start on the American Canyon Trail. The drive to the trail head is pleasant and passes nearby but below two very cool bridges over the north and middle forks of the American River. As I reach the small hamlet of Cool, two quick left turns and I'm looking around to see if this is, in fact, the trail head. As I try to maneuver for a parking spot, I once again find myself glad for having a jeep, as I end up atop a large buried boulder - drop it in 4-high and I'm free in a jiffy. I finally find a reasonable parking space just a hundred or so yards down the road. 

The start of the trail is nice, but not much to look at. It's well maintained, but the morning dew has left something of a muddy mess to walk through. About a mile in, I encounter three nice ladies hosting what I can only assume is a water stop for some trail-runner event. I ask about the trails and they suggest heading down a series of switchbacks to the water below (Western States Trail). Sounding as good as any other plan I may have had, I make my way across a couple of small streams. The lushness of this place is beautiful. Nearly all of the rocks and trees are covered with a thick carpet of vibrant green moss. Taking a couple of shots of the small little waterfalls here, I decide to move on. 

As I hear hoof steps approaching behind me, I step aside to let the riders and their mounts pass without spooking the fine beasts. The three female riders inform me that the last horse in the caravan is young and unused to the trails. I wish them well and let them pass, but a little further they are stopped due to riders coming the opposite direction. A little shuffling on the hillside and the horses are able to pass each other on the narrow trail. This is not my last encounter with these very friendly ladies though.

Just a bit further down the trail, I run into the riders again, this time dismounted and helping their four-legged friends navigate some very steep parts of the trail. The lady in the rear informs me of her recent hip replacements and while one of the other riders takes her horse, I try to offer my meager assistance as she navigates down the hill on foot. The trail is very steep and treacherous here and the last thing I would have wanted to see was her fall and require a med-vac out of this canyon. Eventually reaching a somewhat flat spot, the ladies ask one final courtesy of me and that is to help the same lady that had the hip replacements onto her mount. I give her what boost I can and they are safely away, offering words of gratitude as they continue on.

Beyond this area, I turn onto the Dead Truck Trail (curious name, lol) and make way to a very steep ravine. I bet this is the waterfall mentioned in the guides I had read. I take a break before descending. A large boulder makes an extremely comfortable and relaxing spot to stop, eat a snack, and rest for a few minutes. As I look around and admire the beauty of this canyon, I am reminded of how much I love being out here. Just me and the sun and mother nature . . . this might be heaven. After a short break, I navigate down a slippery wet set of rocks to the pool below what I suspect is an amazing waterfall. Unfortunately, I'm already perched precariously out onto the furthest surface I can manage without falling in the water. The falls looks as though it would be truly amazing cutting through the limestone boulders for 20 or so yards above me. Alas, I'm not geared and the weather is probably still a little cool for a dip here. 

Making my way back to the jeep, the trail is pretty steep on the return trip, but it provides a decent workout. All in all, I put in just shy of 8 miles today, but with the vast number of trails in this area, I expect I will be back.

Rock Lake in Winter (Washoe County, Nevada)

 

A couple of years ago, I hiked a great 15 mile hike up the Ophir Creek Trail from Davis Creek Park to Tahoe Meadows and back. At the time, I wasn't aware of a side trail to a rather unique little alpine lake called Rock Lake. As it's the season of conditioning, I figured today would be a great day to head up to explore this little gem.

The trail head at Davis Creek Park is only 10 or so miles south of Reno and so, I didn't start until about 9:30, figuring it would warm up a bit by then. When I arrived there were only a couple of other cars in the park's parking lots. I slung on my day pack and started up the trail. Just a short ways in, I was cursing myself for forgetting how steep this part of the trail was. While there are some flat spots, there are also some very steep ascents, and those are in the majority. 

Making my way to the crossing of Ophir creek, I am forced to navigate a series of wet granite stones to cross the creek's two branches. Not terribly difficult, but I imagine that snow-melt supplied water is frigid, and I'd rather not take a dip today.

Continuing on, it's more uphill, but the scenery is outstanding as I wander through this pine forest. The trail, while well-maintained, obviously hasn't seen much traffic so far this year, as indicated by the number of brown pine-needled carpeting the trail, and the forest floor in every direction. The trail is fairly easy to navigate, but continues putting some brutal climbs in front of me. I'm forced to stop to catch my breath more often than I would have liked, but then again, that's what this is all about - getting back in shape.

Finally reaching the side trail fork to Rock Lake, I head down into a shady valley that sill has a small amount of snow here and there. After a short distance, the lake comes into my field of vision. And finally, I see another hiker on the trail, a backpacker putting away his gear. We wave and I continue on toward the lake. 

Unlike most alpine lakes, this one is littered with golden colored boulders of varying sizes, making almost a rock stew. And while I'm so accustomed to seeing the white granite so prevalent in this side of the country, the rocks here have a unique golden hue. Not just a few of them, but everything in sight is this color. The water itself still consists of a slushy ice mixture down in-between the stones. I had read that this lake can boast a number of lily pads in spring, but I scan the surface for them, and come up short. I think I will need to come back to this site in a couple of months to check again.

The return trip is uneventful, though I do pass a number of other friendly hikers making their way up the mountain to whatever destination they have chosen for the day. After just about an hour and a half, I am back at the jeep. I little tired, but not too bad overall. All in all, it was a great hike on a beautiful day. Looking at the GPS, I logged just shy of 8 miles - not bad.

Hidden Falls Inner Loop (Placer County, California)

And we're off . . . It's January and I have not hit the trails yet this year. Time to change that. While looking for some off-season trails in the surrounding areas, I came across this little gem. As I understand it, Hidden Falls has been a regional park in Place County for some time, but as recently as the last couple of years, it has been expanded significantly and now includes many miles of well maintained trails. Considering this is only 30 minutes or so from Sacramento, I suspected it would be very popular even in winter. That said, I got a pretty early start and arrived a the park just after nine in the morning.

Before leaving home, I had plotted out a patchwork of trails that I wanted to try to combine in to a loop around the park. Once I arrived though and hit those trails, I found that while that while the trails themselves were very clearly visible, the signage was lacking a bit. Talking with a fellow hiker, we were both looking for one by the name Poppy Trail. We had a friendly disagreement about which one it was and went our separate ways. It turns out that I was right, but I had to tackle some steep and slick downhills to get to it. The majority of the trails in this park are red clay and with the morning fog, which seemed to fill this little valley, everything was a bit slick.

Making my way to the Poppy trail, which follows the Coon Creek all the way to the main bridge across, I crossed and switched to the Hidden Falls Access trail, which again follows the creek, but this time from the other side. As I approached the falls, the obvious sound of water crashing entered my ears and looked down the hill to an observation deck overlooking the falls. Unfortunately, I had to explore a few side trails to finally get down to the deck. 

The falls themselves are a pleasant site. Having three main tiers, the falls total approximately 100 feet to a number of large pools below. And just below the falls, this creek merges with another to become a fairly large body of water (Note: I grew up next to the Mississippi River and so nothing on this side of the country is truly a large body of water by my calculations) at least compared to most of the other rivers and creeks in this region.

Following the trail around the fork, the trail merges with the North Legacy Trail and then crosses a sturdy bridge. Continuing on the North Legacy Trail, I could see the trail I wanted below me, but apparently this section of the Creekside Trail is one-way only. A one-way trail doesn't have a lot of meaning to hikers, but there a number of mountain bike enthusiasts out today, and for them know that the trail down there is one way is important. I continue until I find a side trail leading down to the Creekside trail, as fate would have, just a the point the one-way section ends. I follow this trail alongside the wide creek for a couple of miles, stopping here and there for a photo opportunity. At one point, I see a number of creek bed stones stacked on top of each other to form a number of steep pyramids on top of the large stone base. Stacks like this are often used to mark the trail, and while these are not technically on the trail, I wonder if they are indicating something worth seeing. I walk over and find a nice stone clearing with a few rapids in the creek. Pretty nice little area.

The Creekside Trail continues along the creek until it reaches the northwestern edge of the park, and then joins with a couple of other trails before crossing another large foot bridge. From here, I switch off to the Gold Finch Trail and then the Great Egret Trail, all the while hanging beside the creek, but on the opposite side and back toward the parking lot. Eventually, I merge back to the much larger South Legacy Way, which I follow all the way back to my jeep. 

By the time, I get back the parking lot is now full and people are jockeying for someplace to park their car. I'm glad I got here early. Overall, this was a very pleasant little hike of about 9.3 miles. One could easily double this distance through the network of trails at this site, but for the first hike of the year, it was a nice distance and a very pleasant place to visit. 

Great Smokey Mountains National Park (Great Smokey Mountains National Park)

Twenty or so years ago, I was visiting my grandmother in Kentucky. On the way home, I decided to take a right turn instead of the left (that I knew was suppose to take me home) and drove until I caught my first glimpse of the Atlantic Ocean in Charleston, South Carolina. That trip was my initiation to a one of my greatest passions: travel. On that trip, I right through the middle of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park, but didn't take time to really enjoy the park. Every since my wife and I have been together, I have been intending to take advantage of the fact that her family lives only an hour or so from the park to really spend some quality time there. 

As we were spending Christmas with my wife's family, I decided to renew my interest in the park and while I still didn't get to do the hiking I wanted to due to time constraints, an afternoon driving through the Smokies has wet my appetite. There is not much to tell of this trip, other than to share a couple of pictures. 

I had hoped to hike to Clingman's Dome, the highest point in the park, but the road was closed due to snow and my time was short on this day trip. Next time though. As you can see from the pictures though, this park has a lot of contrast to offer to my normal hikes. The lushness of this deciduous forest is quite different than the alpine and desert terrains near my home in Reno, NV.

Patching together a few shots, I was able to illustrate the unique smokey feature that gives these mountains their name (originally named this by the Cherokee). Quite beautiful.

Biltmore Estate (Buncombe County, North Carolina)

While spending Christmas with my wife's family near Asheville, North Carolina, we came into some free tickets to tour the famous Biltmore Estate, the famous estate of the Vanderbilts, which was built between 1889 and 1895. We couldn't pass up the opportunity and so my wife and I, along with her two younger brother's and their wives (or soon to be in one case) decided to make a day of it.

Meeting up just outside the estate, we parked and took a shuttle through the magnificently kept grounds to the Biltmore House, which at one time was the largest private estate in the nation. The tour during the holiday season is punctuated with the magnificent decorations put up by the staff and true to the way the Vanderbilts celebrated the holiday in decades past. 

The mansion is expansive and we were able to tour large sections of it, though I'm told that in years past the tour was even more comprehensive. No complaints on my part though, it was still interesting to see the original furnishings and utilities, including an indoor swimming pool and exercise room (wooden dumbells, lol).

Finishing the tour of the house, we made our way to the estate winery. While most of the fruit is grown in California, they do have a small vinyard nearby and produced a unique cabernet sauvignon with the local grapes. As anyone that knows me is fully aware, hiking and wine are two of my great passions, and so this was right up my alley. We had the opportunity to tour the facility and taste a number of their wines - the syrah was noteworthy.

Afterwards, we made our way back to the cars and headed out. It was a terrific day though and fantastic time with family. I'm very glad we were all able to do this together.

Georgia Guidestones (Elbert County, Georgia)

Planning to spend Christmas with my wife's Family in the mountains of western North Carolina and knowing that we were going to drive there after landing in Atlanta, I couldn't help but plan a little diversion or two during our trip - the first? The Georgia Guidestones.

I first heard about this modern and mysterious landmark on one of those top 10 lists somewhere and it sparked my curiosity. These massive granite monoliths were erected on the tallest point in Elbert County in 1980 under mysterious circumstances. The group responsible remains anonymous, though they claim to be seeking an age of reason and offer these words of wisdom to that age:

• Maintain humanity under 500,000,000 in perpetual balance with nature.
• Guide reproduction wisely — improving fitness and diversity.
• Unite humanity with a living new language.
• Rule passion — faith — tradition — and all things with tempered reason.
• Protect people and nations with fair laws and just courts.
• Let all nations rule internally resolving external disputes in a world court.
• Avoid petty laws and useless officials.
• Balance personal rights with social duties.
• Prize truth — beauty — love — seeking harmony with the infinite.
• Be not a cancer on the earth — Leave room for nature — Leave room for nature.

These ten directives are inscribed in eight different languages (English, Spanish, Swahili, Hindi, Hebrew, Arabic, Chinese, and Russian), each on a different face of the upright guidestones. There are additional writing on the edges of the capstone in various languages, including Egyptian hieroglyphics. The entire monument is also designed in such a way to observe astronomical phenomena, to add further mystery to the site.

While these directives have drawn a fair amount of ridicule and hatred, I can't say that anything there strikes me as unreasonable, but I won't go into the politics of it here. For now, just consider this stop if you are ever in the Atlanta, GA area. 

Rocky Mountain National Park (Rocky Mountain National Park)

On our way back to Reno, from spending Thanksgiving with my family in the St. Louis area, we spent the night in Denver. My first thought was curiosity about Rocky Mountain National Park, which is located about an hour north of the city. While we didn't have much time, I asked a ranger at the visitor center about the best and most scenic way to spend a short time in the park. She thoughtfully recommended a short loop in the northeastern corner of the park. 

As winter is approaching, much of the park is closed due to snow and few visitors dare the cold winds of these altitudes, but that's all the better for me. I love seeing this type of country when it isn't polluted with the populous. 

Even on this short preview, I can tell this is somewhere I will need to spend more time in the future. The views are breathtaking, even in this small preview of what the park has to offer. All in all, we only spend about 45 minutes driving through the park, but I will definitely be back to do some hiking and further exploring.