Trip Report - Wolf Creek Lake (9/16/18) & Cleo's Bath (10/6/18)

Trail Heads at 10,000'+

Wolf Creek Lake

We had our issues getting into the high country this summer.  First, the Donnell Fire (started August 1) spread wildly necessitating the closure of Highway 108 for about two weeks.  Then the Boot Fire (near Bridgeport) shut the pass down for another few days.  By mid-September the fires let up and we happily scampered up the hill for a bonus hike to Wolf Creek Lake (elevation approx. 9800') in the Carson Iceberg Wilderness.  It's about an 8.25 mile round trip out-and-back hike north on the Pacific Crest Trail from the Sonora Pass Trailhead.  For the first (and last) couple of miles, you walk among volcanic outcroppings and get views mainly to the south (and, oddly, of Highway 108).  As the trail winds around the east flank of Sonora Peak, civilization fades away, and you feel you've truly gotten away from it all.  You're almost certain to encounter PCT hikers attempting a through-hike (doing the entire 2653 mile length in one season) or section hikers filling in the gaps.  Say "Hi" and ask their trail names.

Lunch on the slick rock

Water remained in a deep pool

Where' the H2O?

Back to our first Saturday schedule, we had a splendid fall hike to Cleo's Bath on October 6.  Cleo's Bath is a popular swimming hole on the South Fork Stanislaus River near where it flows into Pinecrest Lake.  At just over 6 miles round trip, this is a relatively easy hike with a DIFFICULT short section of low-level rock climbing on the final approach to Bath-level.  At first you walk the pleasant trail around the south end of the lake.  You'll share the trail with trail-runners and walkers young and old. You'll hear the lapping of water as canoes and kayaks ply the water.  You'll smell breakfast cooking in the nearby cabins.  After a mile or so, you'll head east up an seasonal stream bed and gain a little elevation. 
You'll come upon an interpretive exhibit with a steam donkey and a panel describing early water diversion efforts that resulted in three crib dams: Lake Edna, Lake Eleanor, and Lake Gertrude.  Lake Edna has become Pinecrest Lake, Lake Gertrude is vanished, but a little ways from the interpretive spot, you'll find the remains of Lake Eleanor.  Eventually the trail will cross large expanses of granite and will become hard to spot.  Watch for cairns/ducks (rock piles) and
blue spray-painted arrows to find your way.  Arriving at the Baths is breathtaking, and not because you've just hauled butt up a short 400' incline.  The river makes that same drop you just climbed but first creating a network of several levels of slick rock, deep pools that are nothing less than awesome.  There was water in the larger pools but, so late in the season, no flow down to the lake.

Distant Pinecrest

The trailhead for Cleo's Bath is at Pinecrest Lake in the southwest area, just past the amphitheatre and the accessible fishing platform).  There are plentiful bathrooms all along the approach to the trailhead.  Be aware, at certain times of the year, dogs aren't allowed on certain sections of the trail around the lake.  Also, we don't recommend the Cleo's Bath hike for dogs, unless you're able to hoist your pooch over sizable boulders!

Thank you, Sue Fristad, for the excellent photos of Cleo's Bath!

TCT #10 -- Cleo's Bath

TCT #10 is an "All Trail Head Episode."  We start with our Pinecrest Peak three T's; then move into a "Remote Possibility" trip report from Robert Swift and Deverie Voral's hike on Mt. Tallac in Lake Tahoe (interviewed in the middle of Cooper Meadow); finally, we preview our next hike to Cleo's Bath with audio from a reconnaissance hike I took with Patricia Harrelson.

Trip Report - Pinecrest Peak, 9/1/18

Pinecrest Peak is the hike to take when you want a challenge but you don't want to drive a half-a-day to the high, high, high country. The trail starts at 6,441' and over 3.3 miles you steadily climb almost 1,600' to the 8,033' summit. Avoid the temptation to drive to the summit! The views and the satisfaction of achievement are the major rewards of this hike.

Pinecrest Lake and "pancake rock"

On the way up you get views of Pinecrest Lake and cruise past lots of "pancake rocks," the results of exfoliation. Per geologist Glen White, exfoliation is what "gives Yosemite its domes and that onion peel feature. The molten rock that would eventually cool to become granitic rock were several miles underground and under tremendous pressure. Enough pressure so that the very structure of the atoms were slightly compressed. As weathering and erosion removed the overlying rocks, isostatic rebound (a fancy couple of words that describe why the top of an ice cube will always remain above the surface of water as it melts) lifted the cooling granitic rocks closer to the surface.  Eventually, they were exposed to the elements of weathering.  Also, the release of that overlying pressure allowed the atoms to push outward to regain their natural size. Depending on the mineral makeup of the rock, when enough stress has accumulated, the rock fractures. These fractures often form parallel sheets, similar to the layers of an onion, The fractures allow water in, which when it freezes can expand and force the cracks open further. Over time, the dome structure will emerge. The term "exfoliation" comes from the layers that leaves make on the ground in the fall. Foliage that has fallen is now ex-foliage. At least that's an easy way to remember it!" Speaking of domes, about 2.8 miles into the hike, to the left there's a faint trail to an overlook of Herring Dome and the Trail of the Gargoyles.

Robert and Deverie

There used to be a fire lookout tower at the summit of Pinecrest Peak.  All that remains now are bolts and footings.  There's also a legend that a lady used to hike the trail up from Pinecrest Lake to deliver pies to the lookout attendant.  When you're slogging the home stretch to the summit, keep that in mind as a feat to
match!  Also, the trail is popular with mountain bikers, so keep your head up and don't insist on your right-of-way.

Mountain bike trail marker and angel "geocache"

We took the approach from the trailhead off of Herring Creek Road, a few miles east of Strawberry.  Turn Right on Herring Creek Rd. and continue about 2.8 miles.  Turn Right on 4N27 (watch for the prominent "Message Board" sign) and continue about 1.3 miles to the camping area.  Park and cross the bridge.  There aren't a lot of signs marking the trail, but they're there when you need them.

September 1 -- Hike to Pinecrest Peak

When you plan a year in advance, you've gotta be ready for contingencies.  We are learning this in a big way this summer as our second hike in a row is being rerouted due to fire.  For our September 1 hike we were planning on heading up Clark Fork Rd. and taking the Disaster Creek trail into the Carson-Iceberg Wilderness up to the Pacific Crest Trail.  The Donnell Fire has changed all that.  We're relieved Highway 108 is open again to through traffic and that Kennedy Meadows is open for business.  We're heartbroken over the losses at Dardanelles and the vacation cabins.  We're ecstatic that beloved Baker Station and the Bennett Juniper were protected by brave, selfless fire fighters.  Thank you, thank you, thank you ALL who worked to keep us safe and informed!

For our September 1 hike, we'll be going up Pinecrest Peak for a different perspective on Pinecrest

Lake and Cleo's Bath (our October hike destination).  The rewards of this strenuous 6-mile trip include expansive vistas, gnarled trees, foundation remnants of a long-gone fire lookout, curious glacial erratics and curiouser stacked granite "pancake" boulders.

RSVP via email at the kaad-lp.org webpage or through the Tuolumne County Trailhead Facebook group.

TCT #9 -- Disaster Creek, Clark Fork Area

By the time episode 9 aired for the first time on 8/12/18, it became apparent that the Clark Fork Area, closed due to the Donnell Fire, would still be off limits for our Disaster Creek hike scheduled for September 1.  Instead, we'll hike to Pinecrest Peak (trailhead off of Herring Creek Rd.) for spectacular views down to Cleo's Bath (our October hike destination) and Pinecrest Lake.

TCT #9 features an interview with Rebecca Andrade, president of the Stanislaus Wilderness Volunteers.  Rebecca is a true Leave No Trace evangelist and shares how YOU can start making a difference now.  She also discusses the partnership between SWV and the Forest Service, trail maintenance and improvements, the 1964 Wilderness Act, the different focuses of Leave No Trace, and free LNT trainings available to members of the Stanislaus Wilderness Volunteers.  We talk a bit about the Bidwell-Bartleson party,
the first overland emigrants to California.  They chose to enter via the perilous West Walker Route and got lost in the rugged mountains and hills of Tuolumne, Alpine, and Calaveras counties roaming along what's now Clark Fork Rd., up to Big Trees, and into Sonora.  Finally, on Nov. 4, 1841, "destitute and almost naked," they arrived at Marsh's rancho at the base of Mt. Diablo.

The episode also includes Trail Heads' audio reviews of the Cooper Meadow hike, our Plan B instead of Wapama Falls (inaccessible due to closure of Hetch Hetchy and Yosemite Valley due to the Ferguson Fire.

Enjoy the show and be sure to take the Disaster Creek hike on your own one day after the area has recovered from the fire.

Trip Report - Cooper Meadow, 8/4/18

Meadows and lakes abound on this trail

Oh, my.  What a fire season this summer.  The Carr Fire and the Mendocino Complex in Northern California; the Ferguson Fire persisting in Yosemite, all deadly and awful.  Now the Donnell Fire up on Highway 108, horribly destructive but not deadly – so far.  Heartbreak over the loss at Dardanelles Resort.Hope, love, and admiration to the firefighters struggling to save themselves and beloved Baker Station, Kennedy Meadows, and other structures in the area.

Deterred by the Ferguson Fire, which closed Yosemite including Hetch Hetchy and nixed our planned hike to Wapama Falls, we chose Cooper Meadow as Plan B.  The previous two weeks had been a bleak approximation of nuclear winter, and hike morning was dingy with smoke again.  A new fire, named the Donnell Fire, had started a day or two before.  As it was small (about 500 acres) and well east of our destination, we didn’t feel silly hoping for clear skies, or thinner smoke at least, at the 8,000’ trailhead.

When you see this pond, you're

almost there -- just downhill on

loose dirt then a short walk

through the forest to the meadow

Lunch break in the meadow

Most scenic view you ever

had from an outhouse!

And were we rewarded!  Blue skies! Deep green trees!  Bright green, grassy meadows!  Wildflowers of all colors!  Red volcanic outcroppings to the north and grey granite mountains to the south!  We had a short, steep-ish uphill section to a long hilly section shaded by tall pines opening up to expansive views as we passed several meadows, ponds, and traversed a hillside.  There was a final downhill scramble before we walked out to Cooper Meadow and its historic ranch buildings.  W.F. Cooper began grazing cattle here in 1861.  In 1912, the Cooper Meadow grazing allotment ceded to the Sanguinettis.  They still use it, and there was evidence of habitation as we approached – dogs, a tethered horse, an

Castle Peak and the Three Chimneys

exterior bathroom sink setup, a new padlock on the “house.”  The ranch buildings date from the 1860s and were entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.  The real “eye candy” is the close-up view of our iconic Castle Rock and the Three Chimneys formation.  We picnicked on gigantic rocks in the meadow and explored streams that form the headwaters of the South Fork Stanislaus River.  Then it was time to return to the trailhead heading back out the way we came in – again with a tough uphill section, but this time after a good rest with good friends in a gorgeous setting.

Cooper Meadows is about a 7-mile round trip hike accessed from the Coyote Meadow Trailhead, off of Herring Creek Rd., east of Strawberry.  To get to the trailhead, take Highway 108 east past Strawberry; turn RIGHT on Herring Creek Rd and SET YOUR ODOMETER.  Herring Creek Rd. becomes 4N12 at 4.5 miles and becomes dirt at 5.5 miles then hits a "T" at 6.8 miles.  At the T turn RIGHT and go about .1 mile to a "Y" and stay RIGHT on 4N12.  At about 9.5 miles veer LEFT to stay on 4N12 (DO NOT go right onto 5N31).  At 11.3 miles turn RIGHT on 5N67 for about .6 mile.  Turn LEFT and park when you see the "Coyote Meadow Horse Camp" sign (12.3 miles from Highway 108).  Google Maps can take you there; get directions to Coyote Meadows, CA  95364.  Use a paper map and these written directions as a back-up!  The road is rough with some deep holes; be sure to drive something with decent clearance such as a Subaru Outback or an SUV or truck (NOT a Honda Civic!).

Here are a couple of links to interesting Tuolumne County Historical Society website pages.  One has a neat old photo of horses and riders at Cooper Meadow http://tchistory.pastperfectonline.com/photo/793D8C3A-D697-4AB9-B6B9-170441802630
and our local heritage sites on the National Register of Historical Places http://www.tchistory.org/TCHISTORY/Register.htm

Happy Trail Heads at hike's end

Trip Report – Wapama Falls, 8/4/18, CANCELLED due to fire

Due to the Ferguson Fire, the 8/4/18 hike destination was changed to Cooper Meadow.  We hope to do this hike later in the year as a “bonus.”  For now, hope for the safety and success firefighters and donate to relief efforts of the American Red Cross, Lions Club, or other worthy organizations.

http://www.redcross.org/about-us/our-work/disaster-relief