The Sardine Lakes and The Sand Pond

Back into the mountains again, this time with considerably less traffic and incredible wind gusts. Our first stop was a return to the Sardine Lakes, where before we had been greeted by a confusion of cars and wandering families, we now saw only a few hikers. Though on the way out a intrepid older gentlemen greeted us with a "Roads rougher then I remember," as he trundled his way up the path in his truck. Apparently this is permitted, but I cannot recommend it, not only is it extremely narrow, but there are parts that are torn apart by the waters coming downhill, huge half buried rocks followed immediately by huge dips in the grounds. Also doing this kicks up dust for your fellow adventures and scares away any wildlife, take the walk, I say, it's good for you.

The hike can take you six miles up into the Buttes and is mostly uphill, though not steep. We're in relatively good shape so we were not tired by the time we reached Upper Sardine, but as we returned we encouraged a lagging couple whose wife was threatening to turn around, so I suppose if you aren't used to walking this would be a challenge. But we've hiked worse, and want to return to continue the climb up into the mountains, where, on Google Earth,  you can spy Young America Lake nestled in the mountainside.

Lower Sardine Lake, and a view of the Buttes.

September can be windy in California, and today was particularly fierce, with gusts at about twenty-five miles per hour, sometimes fiercer, pushing bodily at me and attempting to lift my tripod. We soldiered on, passing a few others making their way down the mountain.

The sound of tumbling water distracted us, and we found a clear, cool stream bubbling up from the mountainside below the path. The water practically glittered as the early afternoon sun filtered through the leaves, and I contorted myself into interesting shapes so that I could crouch my way into it's tiny path.

We reached Upper Sardine somewhere between half and hour and forty five minutes (with plenty of stops for picture) and found it empty, the winds scouring the basin it sat in. It was rocky and sparse, but the sight of the buttes disappearing into the lake was breathtaking. 

We stayed there for as long as it took for the next people to show up (which was awhile), taking pictures and testing to see just how cold the water was (very). 

Then back down the hillside we went, startling a flock of quail and looking forward to be amidst the sheltering forest once more.

Steller Jays are rarely shy, and are more interested in screaming at you angrily while you walk passed their trees. This one was busy foraging for pine nuts and gave us quiet the little show.

Onward we went, back down the hillside to return to the Sand Ponder Interpretive trail while we waited for Golden Hour to draw near. It was quiet now, no groups of screaming children or shouting fathers, and the light was becoming softer by the minute.

There's a .8 mile loop that you can walk, although we have yet to complete it. We had turned right and taken a path on the southern end of the pond before, which dead ended a few minutes walk down it. This time we turned left and it took us into the woodlands around the pond.

The ferns were all golden in the sunlight, and a small stream wound by to feed into the pond. Some wildflowers still blossomed, and while we didn't see any chipmunks on this particular trail, the forest was alive with the sound of them, scalding each other and hiding their caches for winter.

We continued this way for a little while before deciding the light was getting low enough for us to head over to the Aspen meadow, as we referred to it. I don't believe the area has any official name, and there's no trails out to it, just an old dirt road which you bump along until you can see the trees to you right. That is another set of photos that would make this post very long, so I'll wrap it up and my  next post will be about our windy adventures there. See you then!

Bridgeport in Late Summer

I've been wanting to catch the sunset at Bridgeport, in South Yuba River State Park for some time, so after a visit with my mom and grandma, The Man and I headed down Pleasant Valley Road, off Highway Twenty towards the end of golden hour. The drive isn't terribly long, but the road twists and turns it's way down into the river canyon, and is just long enough to start making you carsick, if you are the kind of person who that happens to (and I am). If you continue, the road will take you to French Corral, one of the first mining camps to spring up along the the San Juan River Channel. There's a Wells Fargo built in 1850 and a few remnants of a once more inhabited town.

We parked off the road and  walked down trail through warm forests of cottonwood and willow and out to the river.

It was quiet, once school starts the activity at the river stills to a normal pace. Crickets, frogs, and late evening birdsong filled the air, Elusive fish vied for insects, sending tiny ripples across the still, deep stretch of the waters.

I set up my tripod and got to work, while The Man explored, and from the distant splash I heard, took a swim. I was trying out a new filter, and got a few images that I thought captured a very nice warm glow.

I think if I had fiddled with the ISO more it would have resulted in a less saturated, golden green color, but I rather liked it, so I took a few shots facing westward at different exposures then made the above composite image. I'm in the process of teaching myself how to do that, so it's not perfect, but I'm still glad I did it.

The sun was sinking fast, but the hills in the east were still saturated in light, with the moon rising beyond. The birds had begun to quiet, only a few distant calls as they settled into their nests and boughs.

We were making our reluctant way out when my husband spotted a single deer, foraging among the rocks a short distance from us. A quick lens change and we settled back in to watch the creature make it's way past us and towards the water.

Heading back out again, we stopped for a moment to speak among an area of low hanging wild grape vines, making the section of trail almost tunnel like. As we stood there, bats began to descend from the branches, swooping down and around us and through the cavern-like path, out into the clearing beyond. They flew so close we could feel the wind from them at times, and one even flew between us, only inches from our faces. We stood quiet still in the moonlit forest and let the colony fly past, then followed them out into the open air and back to our car. 

The next batch of images are ready to go, so hopefully I can get the next post up in less then a week, but I've now probably jinxed myself. I've got a couple opportunities to sell my pictures available, and the novel is always pulling at my brain and distracting me from eating and sleeping. Writing here is an incredible relief, because I don't have to make anything up. Creating a world from the ground up (or from the starstuff of the universe and out) makes my brain feel like a pancake at times, and photography gives me a break from worry over that and my regular work.

Thanks for reading, next post we're back into the mountains for round two with the sand pond and Sardine Lakes, as well as a beautiful visit to an aspen surrounded meadow.

Saying Goodbye to Summer

It's been awhile, between work on my novel, keeping up with my photography, and repeatedly subjecting myself to the restaurant industry, any free time I had was swept up trying to maintain personal relations. Spring and summer flew by in a blur, and with the first rains of the season last night, serious hiking weather is almost upon us. We've made many trips since my last post, and I'd like to share the highlights from those.

We started at Sand Pond Interpretive trail, off the Gold Lakes Highway, a quick little loop that we did not explore much due to the masses of children on one side. As we were there in July, many campers and tourists were there as well, but that didn't stop us from spotting this squirrel having at his pine cone, or some of the boldest frogs I've ever met.

From there, we continued our quest for a quiet adventure, stopping at Snag Lake to take in the sights and see how cold the water was.

The water was cold, too cold for me to be sure, although not everybody.

Finding little to keep us occupied here, we clambered back into the car and headed towards Big Bear and Little Bear lakes, for they have never disappointed us.

Clouds rolled in while we hiked the mile or so out towards towards Big Bear, where we were pleased to find only a few families, and only one child, whose splashes and yells echoed in a lonely way across the lake. A few drops of rain fell as we settled down to take in the view, relaxing upon boulders on the far side of the lake, watching fish snatch at hovering insects.

The hike out was easy and uneventful, possibly because of other hikers who didn't see a need to remain quiet in the woods. The Man and I agreed that it would best if we avoided the mountains during summer vacation. Despite the crowds, the time of year is beautiful, marked by summer showers and an abundance of wild flowers where lower elevations have lost theirs. 

We were also lucky enough to spot a rather grumpy looking Pacific Fisher, turning away from the freeway to trudge back into the woods, and although I didn't have time to grab my camera, I felt very blessed to see one. They are endangered, and it's been a struggle gaining protection for them. And of course, it wouldn't be a ride up into the mountains without at least one chipmunk sighting.

Well there you have it, a new post. There will probably be a flurry of activity before things settle down again, I'd like to make a post every Thursday, and hopefully time will allow. I'd like to begin work on a series inspired by the novel I'm working on, a fantasy adventure inspired by the Californian terrain. I'm also working with Sammie's Friends, a local non profit that provided animal rescue and services to our community. There may be some shelter cat posts, celebrating their new cat house and program. 

Hope you enjoyed! See you soon!

Mushroom Hunting in Nevada County- Part One: Gateway Park

A Note: This started as simply a post about Gateway Park in Penn Valley, but due to illness and a busy schedule I was very much delayed in its completion. In that time The Man and I went on several walks in search of one of our favorite photography subjects; mushrooms. As such I've accumulated many images of fungus and the places we've found them, so I've decided to make a two part post (or three) about our search for mushrooms. So here we go...


Thanksgiving Day, and the month of November really, can be absolutely chaotic and stressful, especially since I have a tendency to get colds fairly often this time of year. I am in fact, wrapping one up right now, but I was feeling healthy enough for tackling (alongside my husband) a full Thanksgiving meal, a birthday cake and two pies, and we're squeezing in a couple nature walks to help alleviate the stress.

Actual Thanksgiving day is celebrated at my Grandmothers house in Penn Valley. We had a good, wet day earlier in the week, followed by warmer weather, so we decided to walk off the meal over at Western Gateway Park, located on Penn Valley Drive.

Things were looking a little drier then we had expected when we first walked over, but, just a little way into the nature/disc gold area proved to be more fruitful then we could ever imagine.

At first there was only some dry looking shelf fungus, but a closer look at the leaf litter revealed a wealth of growth. We told my family we'd be gone for about forty-five minutes, it turned out we were gone for over two hours.

I've spent more time at gateway then I can count, and it's changed considerably over the years. But if you can get there on a quiet day in fall or winter it is worth the exploration. While wildlife has suffered due to "recreational development" The oaks are beautiful and the fungus variety is fantastic. It's also a great place for bird watching. Songbirds, woodpeckers and migratory water fowl can be seen, as well as the occasional hawk.

It's my hope that eventually Penn Valley will take responsibility for the acres they have and start tending to it and it's wildlife, instead of paving over more of it, as they already have.

But anyway, back to fungal exploration. 

The undergrowth here can get pretty tangled and while they do clear the poison oak out on occasion, you should still keep that in mind if you're allergic, and the blackberry brambles are pretty much everywhere, so if you plan on going off trail you should be wearing jeans.

We wandered farther and farther into the trees, every time we thought we had found the best examples of mushrooms we would be getting, we continued down a side path or into a field and found more.

I'm not sure if I'm just forgetting, but I feel like I never saw this variety as a child or adolescent. Chances are I was just never paying enough attention, but either way, The Man and I were astounded by the size and amount of mushrooms we came across.

There are several paths the diverge from the main one in the nature area, but most are small loops that will take you through a copse of young oak and back to the main trail. There is, however, an old loop near the back of the park that takes you around to a clearing, if you cross that clearing there is a fairly less traveled path that leads you along the outer edge of the parks property.

We were exploring some fallen tree limbs in that area when The Man saw a bird land in an oak not far from where we stood. Peering into the limbs I could just make out the form of a large bird of prey. Slowly we inched towards it, making barely a sound besides the click and quiet beep of the camera. Occasionally it would turn towards us, though it seemed more interested in a tree full of noisy birds a few yards away.

Finally, we stood almost underneath the edge of the tree it was in.

We found out later, from my mom (Hey mom!), that it was a Coopers Hawk. I've never been this close to a wild bird of prey before, we felt very lucky. It watched us for a short time as we stood at the edge of the tree before disappearing further into the wood. The light was beginning to sink below the tree line, kissing the top of Crows Nest to the west and illuminating the glass on houses in the eastern hills, so we turned our path towards Deer Creek and the baseball diamonds.

Then we came to the Dog Park that was built a few years ago. It's sort of a sad place, in my opinion. It used to be a horse arena where I first learned to ride, now it's a couple chain link paddocks with dirty gravel on the ground and no trees for shade, or any plants for that matter. Just a black awning type tent and a few plastic chairs. I hope that they plan to add a few tress in there and maybe some nice benches. I also noticed clearing to the side of it of much of the vegetation. My only hope is that they don't intend to pave over anymore of the woodlands, as they already paved a road out to the dog park. For people who don't want to walk there dogs through a few hundred yards of open oak lands to a dog park. 

Sorry, it bothers me.

But back to the mushrooms!

Near where the Mother Goose Park used to be we found this monstrosity.

It's hard to tell but this thing was easily bigger then both my hands splayed out. And brilliantly colored as well. We were very lucky to find it unharmed as well, since it was in a relatively well traveled area of the park.

Onward we journeyed to the baseball diamonds, where, on the far side they often dump piles of wood chips and other debris. There wasn't too much to be seen there, just a multitude of what I assume were tiny mycena. 

Some of these little guys were so tightly clustered together they were crushing each other as they grew. I lay pretty much flat on the ground and in many undignified ways to get some good angles of this bunch, thank goodness no one was around to see it. But by then it was pretty late, and time to get back to grandma's house. So of we went, feeling almost like we were ready for dessert.

So there's that, part one complete. Next we will be covering a different area of Empire Mine, and also St. Patrick's Cemetery in Grass Valley. There's a few storms ahead of us, but after that we're hoping to get out to lower Independence trail is search of the elusive Lions Mane. Happy Hiking everybody! 

Empire Mine- Penn Gate Trail

This time around my husband and I took a hike very close to home, Penn Gate is located on East Empire Street and is a very popular shared trail for hikers, bikers, runners and horse back riders. There hasn't been a time we've been there alone, but everyone is very pleasant and there's usually some friendly canines to meet as well.

Things are a little dry and dusty up at the staging area but about a half a mile in or so you climb a hill then descend back down into cool, shaded forests.

The trails here are especially pretty in the fall, plenty of bright yellow foliage to contrast with dark tree limbs and green pines. And today was an especially nice day, after some surprisingly chilly ones.

The Man and I were here for a specific reason, mushroom hunting. We'd found a place off the beaten path earlier this year that had yielded some awesome variety, and with the rains last week we were eager to see what had bloomed since.

While the place had hoped to find riddled with fungus proved less then fruitful, the forest itself was literately covered with tiny mushrooms. I can't claim to know much about the names of the different types I'm showing here, but I'll do my best with Google to find out what they're called.

Bird Nest Fungus

Spiny Puffball

It's been about a week since it rained, but the mornings have been frosty and wet, and the forest was still surprisingly damp. We went towards the back of the park and explored what were probably game trails, getting scratched up by blackberries. But everywhere we looked were mushrooms, on the path, off the path, in the trees, under trees.

These little guys are from the mycena family (we believe) and were obviously enacting some hostile take over of the entire forest. There were areas where it was tricky to walk because there were so many underfoot. We trekked through the woods, exploring the creek bed and taking game trails here and there to see what we could see.

The weather was absolutely perfect, I think mid-fall and spring are the best times to visit Empire Mine, we found a couple seasonal stream beds that are probably gorgeous when there's actually water around. Not mush else to say about this hike, we were out and back in about two hours and saw multiple types of mushroom and fungus, too many to show here without turning this into nothing but a image post, but here are a few more I just had to share, because there are awesome.

We've got a full week ahead with family obligations and the like, though I'm hoping to squeeze in a trip to Gateway Park in Penn Valley and one more hike before Thanksgiving. The Man and I have a tradition of going on hikes after any major holiday spent with family, and Turkey Day may very well see us down at Bridgeport looking for Bald Eagles. Otherwise the next hike will most likely be Independence Trail or Upper Humbug, before the snows move in.