Local Lake Project

Well I started!  We went out highway 44 today to visit McCoy Res, Hog Flat Res and Feather Lake.  When we were off adventuring, an extremely high wind event happened here locally and did some major damage to the trees along highway 44.  It is not a good time to be a tree.  Lodgepole, cedar, pine all came tumbling down.  I wondered; if the ground had been frozen, would the damage have been less?

Blown down and cracked

When I came up with this concept, it was really all about getting out and seeing the area I have lived in but not explored.  I figured out a 50 mile radius from Susanville on a map, drew a circle and listed all bodies of water in the circle.  I missed some, but it is a work in progress.  I didn't think this would turn into a documentation of our exceptional drought.

We headed out Highway 44 to County road 21 and then towards Antelope Lookout.  The road has been cleared of the down trees and is amazingly dry.  We found Feather Lake and it wasn't muddy as we walked to the lake shore.

No kayaking this lake.  There were some geese out in the middle.

Here is McCoy Flat Res, very low.  There is a shimmer of water way, way out there.

Here is Hog Flat Res.  Glad we came while there is still water, kinda.

I will post photos of the lakes on a page in this blog and post the location and date.  Should be interesting and easy if anybody following just want to see the photos.  I will also edit my original post and put a mark in front of the lakes I have visited if anybody want to follow my progress.   If anybody wants to go on an adventure with me, let me know and we can get a group together.  Thanks!

February Travels 2015

We headed out February 1 for a two week adventure.  I already posted our first hike to Darwin Falls.  That evening I was trying to upload photos and compose from my tablet and exceeded my data plan.  Bumped off the internet until Feb 25 !!! Oh the frustration, I called and it was a third party provider and there was nothing I could do.  So I set aside the tablet and phone and concentrated on my camera and the sights before me.  It took about a week for me to detox from Social Media and let go the need to be connected to ??? Kim Kardashian? Obama? ISIS? This is really the biggest reason I love to get away and travel.

So what did we see, we went to the Visitors Center and found that Death Valley NP was celebrating the 150 Anniversary of Nation Parks by encouraging folks to hike Death Valley.  They had a list of popular hikes and assigned points based on difficulty and distance, after earning points you got a limited edition sticker.  You had to take photos of your self to prove you completed the hikes.  We were hooked!  We planned our adventure with good friends Jaquie and Phil Ansell, and Phil is a hiking fool, so give him a challenge and he is off and running.  Darwin was on the list so we had already earned 1 point.  We decided to hike to the top of the Mesquite Dunes, 2.3 miles round trip, it was harder than it looks.  Hiking on sand was slow but so worth it.  We were beyond all of the footprints left by most of the visitors and had pristine dunes all to ourselves.

The dunes are pretty amazing.

We fell into a nice routine, hike during the day, get a pool pass from Furnace Creek Ranch and swim/shower then relax around camp.  We had some amazing gourmet dinners; stuffed pork chops, Georges' famous tri-tip, BBQ chicken and steaks grilled to perfection.  Then relax around the camp fire.

There was a rain storm a couple of days before we arrived and some of the roads were washed out.  I wanted to visit Titus Canyon, a long one-way road through some rugged area.  The road was washed out and closed so we opted to hike The Narrows, about 1.5 miles of narrow canyon.  Easy hike on the graded road but pretty steep.  Glad we hiked it, I don't think you get the same effect driving.

The next day we heard through the park grapevine, Titus Canyon was opened and freshly graded, so off we went.  The highlight was the herd of four Bighorn Mountain Sheep we saw.

We needed a few more points to get our stickers, a hike up to Red Cathedral earned us another one.

And my favorite place, Salt Creek in the afternoon.  The lighting was perfect and the colors were beautiful.  We extended the hike into the badlands around Salt Creek, discovered a mylar balloon, and more beauty.

On our final day we decided to take it easy and attended a flint napping class put on by Death Valley Joe, a Park volunteer.  He recommended that we have lunch at the fancy Furnace Creek Inn, the Parks posh hotel, starting at $345 per night.  Lunch was a very good Crab Louie (in Death Valley haha).  We then started getting ready to move to Valley of Fire State Park in the morning.

At Furnace Creek Inn

Petroglyphs

Salt Creek Badlands

For our first adventure, we decided to hike to Darwin Falls, west of Panamint Springs.  This is a year round water fall, in Death Valley, who knew !  It is a moderate hike with a little bit of scrambling over some large rocks.  When you get close to the falls, there is water, and amazing lush growth along the creek.  What a beautiful and special place.  After we hiked back to the truck, we decided to drive out to the Panamint Dunes, the most remote dunes in the park.  The road was poor but the sights were spectacular.  Again, every time we get off the main road, it is a wonderful adventure.

Darwin Falls

 Panamint Dunes

We started our Death Valley adventure by getting our new solar system tied into the 12 volt system.  For unknown reasons they did not tie in both battery systems, so George was struggling to make the system work and it wouldn't.  After a phone call, we moved up our departure date so we could get the system fixed (at no extra charge).  We decided to catch a movie and have a bit of fun.  We went to the "luxury IMAX", comfortable chairs, leg room, beer, wine and gourmet snacks, and the tickets $ 10.00  !

We got an early start and had a nice relaxing trip to Beatty, NV.  We stayed at Bailey Hot Spring RV park and soaked away the travel kinks. I started the morning with...... You guessed it, hot soak!  I could start every day like that.  Coffee, hot springs, equaled paradise.

Death Valley is so beautiful this time of year.  They had some heavy rains two days before our arrival.  There were signs of flooded roads and puddles of standing water.  We settled

in and enjoyed the 76 degree weather.  The nights are cool, but we all brought firewood.