Hiking Journal

Root Creek

Several weeks of thick smoke from forest fires dispelled any interest I had in outdoor exercise, but a reasonably clear day popped up and I made a beeline for the Crags to at least get out and stretch my legs. The combination of late summer and the second year of a drought gave the Root Creek canyon a light brown patina, instead of the deep green I'm used to seeing here. The falls weren't flowing (which didn't surprise me), but the spring-fed creek that flows into Root Creek just above the trail terminus was looking the same as always. Looking forward to winter rain and snow...

Bear Creek Basin

Another semi-clear day and I took a walk around the meadow in the Bear Creek basin, just south of the Deadfall Lakes and Mt. Eddy. Again things looked on the brownish side of green, with most of the California Pitcher plants that carpet this area now past their prime, but the springs were still feeding the meadow and parts of it were just as boggy as they were in the spring. Nevertheless, I found a surprising number of wildflowers here and there, but by early afternoon the sky took on an LA-like quality that muted any colors that were present, so I followed the Sisson-Callahan Trail back down to the road, noting that many stretches of it were "maintained" by the range cattle in the lower part of the valley.