The Amazing Sierra Mountains - Part II

Sunrise above Downieville

We continued our journey north through the Sierras to Portland at another lesser known spot in the Tahoe area.  After replenishing food and water (every 3 days or so), with a nice pub lunch along the Truckee River, we headed west on the 80 towards Grouse Ridge.  We found a camp site in the Tahoe National Forest just off route 20 and up the logging / fire roads about 10 miles.    

These 3 images were taken a minute apart.  Stunning the ways the skies change color every night!  Our typical routine upon arriving at camp is that I set up the happy hour table while Dennis takes pictures.  I'm lucky to have an excellent photographer who accompanies on my travels!  He's lucky I love to cook!

  Grouse Ridge with tired dogs as bas relief

We woke up late and had a leisurely breakfast, then set out to tackle the Grouse Ridge trails.  They were really rocky and technical, but the views and lakes made it worthwhile. It can be hard following someone with Dennis' technical abilities and aerobic strength.  He definitely makes me a better rider, but ... I might take him up on the offer of an e-Bike one of these days!

Morning on the PCT Trail

Next stop was the hills above Downieville, home of the famous Downieville Classic, known as one of the most challenging downhill courses in the country.  We would be skipping those trails!  We found a perch high above the valley right on the Pacific Crest Trail.  This segment of the PCT is one of the few that also allow mountain bikes.

The first night it was warm enough to sit out under the stars.  It was one of the most magical nights as we watched the Perseus meteor shower, interspersed with shooting stars, with the ever present arch of the Milky Way above us.  Much better than watching Bosch!

We started our ride by descending down to a huge crystal blue lake so the dogs could get wet before our ride.

They love to bike, but swimming is their favorite.

The trails throughout the Sierras are so well maintained by National Forest professionals.  This was a dead tree that they had just cut down in order to block ATVs from tearing up the shores along the lake.  These guys definitely have very high job satisfaction levels!  

Dennis cornering a hairpin turn on the Gold Valley Rim Trail

After a super fun downhill, we had to do the long climb back up on the jeep trail.  Most people get a lift to the top and ride all the way down.  If only the dogs had opposable thumbs, I'm pretty sure we could teach them to be our shuttle drivers.

I always keep track of our trail stats on Strava, and I must say they look pretty lame compared to previous rides.  Most of our days were 10-12 mile rides, but there should be a "mitigating factor" component you can add to reflect rocky trails at altitude to make the stats look more impressive!

While having a beer at the end of the ride, we saw a deer in the distance looking up at us.  Within a minute, I saw two ears popping up over the manzanita bush just in front of us, come to take a closer look at us. Fortunately the dogs are really well behaved when it comes to chasing wildlife.  They'd much rather chase balls.

As we were nearing our final campsite, we saw two separate black bears.  Once again, I was so thankful for my indoor nighttime toilet!

Our final destination before Portland was the Modoc National Forest in the extreme northeast corner of California.  Due to great elevation and precipitation differences, the forest has an extremely diverse number of plant species.  Dennis has created a comprehensive data base of California native plants (calscape.com), and he'd always wanted to see this volcanic national forest.

There were many lakes to choose from, almost all deserted.  Normally the search process involves one or two disappointments before we find the perfect place.  This time we found an abundance of places, and the only difficulty was choosing our favorite.  

  

We decided to camp on Blanche Lake, and the dogs couldn't have been happier.  Even though there are many volcanic beds in the area, the lakes were all surrounded by grass with sandy bottoms.  

And so we said farewell to the Sierras and headed to Portland...

 

We arrived earlier than necessary as it turned out, but we spent the next 3 1/2 weeks helping out however we could.  Best of all was biking with Kate and spoiling her with daily trips to the ice cream shop.  

   Josephine Anne Mudd, born September 5, 2020.  

Soon after Josie was born, we headed back home.  Since our trip north, the wildfires of California were ravaging all of the places we'd just visited.  We were lucky to have seen the beauty we did, and my heart hurts imagining what it all looks like now and for the people who are suffering because of the fires.  

One last swim

The fires and wind were so unpredictable that we decided to camp close to civilization with easy access in and out.  We stayed overnight at Whiskeycreek Recreation Area - which would have been beautiful had it not all burned last year.  After being used to National Forest rules, we were a bit overwhelmed with all the requirements - a one week pass had to be purchased, as well as a reserved camp site.  No fires of any kind, including our butane cooktop.  Two checks by park rangers within an hour to make sure we were complying.  Dogs on leashes (we broke that rule).  No one else was at the site, so it looks like the rangers spent all their efforts on us.  They even wanted us to switch sites (every other site was closed due to COVID), but in the end even they saw the absurdity of the request.  

Still and all, we had a lovely evening and morning by the river, and we were both sad our journey was coming to an end.  On to the next!

Many thanks to Dennis for the amazing photographs in this blog.  And grateful thanks to all of you who follow along and inspire me to continue writing!