Frazier Falls

Back up to the mountains we go, once again with a gorgeous drive ahead of us. It had rained heavily the day before but we were not expecting much by way of mist or clouds, nevertheless about twenty minutes past North San Juan we were greeted by lowing hanging clouds that the morning sun had not chased away yet.

I'm guessing there's salmon and/or trout in this part of the Yuba because there were fly fishers all along this stretch of river. It took us an extra half an hour to get to our destination because we kept having to pull over and freak out over how beautiful everything was. Honestly, we grew up here- but it never gets old.

This is probably my favorite picture I've ever taken. When I saw this spot from the car I think I yelled and scared The Man quite a bit, but then he saw what I was yelling about and all was forgiven.

Frazier Falls is a handicap accessible trail in the Lakes Basic Recreation area, you can see the signs for it about eight or nine miles down the Gold Lake Highway. The road to it looks paved but almost immediately because gravel. The Accord we were in didn't have any problem really, although there were some pretty sizable puddles and potholes, they were easily avoided. You might not want to come out here in a sports car, but most other vehicles should be fine.

About a mile and a half down the road you get to the staging area. Which is paved... not the road, but this area is. Also, bathrooms- though there just holes in the ground, no running water. They were clean and didn't' smell, so no complaints here. Also some picnic tables and a few BBQ pits, though they looked like they hadn't been used since the late eighties.

This is the view you get just walking a hundred feet or so away from the parking lot, seriously. 

The trail is narrow, but well maintained. It looks like maintenance came in pretty recently.  There is almost no incline here, simply a twisting little path that takes you past amazing rocks and trees to a viewing platform across from the falls.

The falls were not very full at all, for obvious reasons, but we didn't mind. We're usually just happy to be out in the world, with the chipmunks and birds.

The falls from the viewing platform, and an awesome game to play while you're looking. You can see where we'll be standing from here. Those big flat rocks were too inviting to not explore. So back we went to take a look at the top of the falls, and little did we know, we were also about to complete a twenty year quest The Man had unknowingly embarked on as a wee lad.

Getting to the rocks was easy peasy and once there we found plenty of little pools to explore, you can walk right out to where the creek feeds into the falls.

So we got to the top of the falls and The Man stopped and stared, he admitted while he had never mentioned this to me, he had been thinking about this place off and on for some twenty years, wondering where it was and how to get back. And here we were, completely on accident. Level up!

We spent some time here, lying on the sun warmed rocks and exploring the creek, but we were starting to get hungry, so we made our way back to the car for a snack.

When we were driving out to the trail I'd noticed a stand of aspen off to our right, so we drove back to that, parked on the side of the road and wandered out to it. What we found is probably one of my new favorite places to be. A beautiful golden meadow surrounded by tall, ghostly aspen. Sadly they had already lost most of their leaves, but it was still a magical place.

There were also large, old birdhouses scattered among the trunks of the aspen. I'm guessing they are or were homes to owls of some kind, as this field seems like a perfect hunting ground. We spent a long time wandering the edges of the field. On one section of the aspen, people had carved their names and the year. One of the oldest ones (that we could make out) was from back in '81. But no one had been carving names there for some time, over a decade now, which is nice. While I liked seeing the old names and dates, I'm not a big fan of hurting trees.

At this point I was tired, I mean bone tired. But The Man had an interest in continuing, so we made our way back to the Bear Loop Trail. We trekked out to the first lake, and found out why we were really there. We approached the third intersection and were greeted by two ladies who were lost, lucky for them we had parked next to their vehicle at the staging area and were able to get them back in the right direction. If you're going to be hiking Bear Loop I cannot recommend enough getting on Google Earth and giving yourself a good mental map of the area. There are many, many side paths people have made while exploring, and if you don't have a good sense of direction, you can very easily get turned around.  Also, there is zero cell reception up there, so don't plan on relying on that.

Two miles out and I was beyond tired, so we took a short rest and talked with some chipmunks before we started our journey back.

All in all, great hike, Though we well certainly be returning in May for the snow melt and fields full of green. The next couple of hikes are going to be closer to home, I think. Those damn curvy mountain roads really take it out of me. 

Anyway, hope you enjoyed. This weeks adventures involve me taking my not quite two year old nephew to a local farm for apple picking and the pumpkin patch. Wish me luck!

Big Bear Loop Trail

A couple weeks ago the King Fire in Eldorado County was choking the air, to the point where you could not see the next hill over. So we made plans for a day trip into the mountains, where the winds still blew and the sky was not a sickly shade of grey-green. Of course, the night before a storm rolled in and the next morning was clear and beautiful, but plans are plans, and into the mountains we went, chasing the last remnants of the storm.

The communities on this section of the Golden Chain highway are small, and with summer over the roads were almost completely empty. We were able to stop often and take in the sight of the mist lifting and the autumn colors along the Yuba River.

We made it to the town of Downieville in good time but found that our favorite place to eat, Twin Rivers, was closed for the off season. In fact almost every restaurant in this tiny town was closed. Except for La Cocina Da Oro (The River Kitchen), and they were packed. About thirty bikers had rolled into town some twenty minutes ahead of us, and had flooded the tiny restaurant to capacity and then some. So we got our food to go and headed down the river to eat.

Downieville is as picturesque a town as you could ask for, I want to retire here and start a chipmunk rescue, I'm serious.

After an awesome meal we continued our quest further up and further in, toward the Sierra Nevada Buttes and the Lakes Basin. The highway winds along right next to the river, and even with the water at low levels, it's still a gorgeous sight.

About half an hour later and we were up another three thousand feet or so and the view was breathtaking.

The Lakes Basin Recreation area is part of the Tahoe National Forest and is an excellent example of the High Sierra's ecosystem. Lakes, ponds, and marshes, copse of Aspen in sunny areas, meadows and seasonal streams. There are trails every few hundred yards off the highway, or you can simply pick one of the many lakes to explore. On this particular trip we were on the lookout for The Bear Loop trail, which takes you on a relatively easy trek through and around four lakes. 

Even parking at the trail head (that had a bathroom, oooh joy!), we could tell we were in for a treat. Mist was rising in the last patches of sun filtering into the forest,  and the chipmunks, squirrels and birds were out in abundance, digging around for whatever forage the rains had revealed. The light was fading fast, so we headed out with no real intention of finishing, just exploring.

Onward we trekked, the terrain changing from forest to tumbles of rock and small hills with wind beaten trees holding on for dear life. Then back into the woods we delved until we reached our first lake, Big Bear. The trail was well marked, and I believe there is another trail head at Elwell Lodge, further down the road. We saw maybe four other hikers while were out, though none of them seemed inclined to go far. We passed them up, as we could see a tall rock overlooking the lake that called our names and asked us to climb it. 

Big Bear Lake

The Rock What Called Our Names

We spent a lot of time forging a path to the top of that rock, forcing our way through extremely tough, low growing shrubs that could withstand me putting my full weight on branches thinner then my wrists (which are tiny). I'm from the valley, so I can't even imagine how many feet of snow pile up here, but from the toughness of the plants, it's probably too much.

A few scratches and bruised shins aside, totally worth climbing that rock. Unfortunately it took up quite a bit of time, and we had an hour and half drive home through twisting mountain roads ahead of us. So after a few more minutes of poking around, we decided to turn back. I'm very glad we did, because if our timing had been different we would have missed some excitement hiking out.

A doe and her two offspring were foraging along the trail as we hiked out. We moved slow and steady and besides a few curious looks were able to move alongside them for quite some time. It was a really nice experience, and I'm very glad we were there when we were.

Almost back to the car now, discovered some interesting shelf fungus among the fallen trees, but the light was fading fast and the darkness spreading and home called with promises of hot tea and showers.

So there it is, my first blog entry. Having completed it, there's a few things I'd wished I'd taken pictures of, just to document them. But I haven't blogged since the heydays of Livejournal, and I certainly never kept a photography/cooking and baking blog. But I think I'll enjoy it, and I hope you will as well.

Going back up into the mountains soon, hopefully tomorrow, actually. There's a waterfall that's been calling our names, and it's been raining since the wee hours of the morning. With any luck the rain will stick around a bit and we'll have another misty hike to enjoy. Then the week after that

Introductory Post

OK, first post in what I hope will be a long and happy blog. The name's Jess and I live in the foothills of California with my husband and two cats. We work full time a very busy local restaurant, and in between the chaos of our job we like to find time to cook and bake amazing food, spend time with our nephew, and visit the ocean or mountains. I started this blog to help document our journey together and simply for the enjoyment of writing. So... here we go!