Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts related to hikes I have taken with pictures, location, and history of the region, usually around California.
The peninsula was once a major thoroughfare for gold prospectors and commerce from Sacramento to the mines on the western side of the north fork of the American River. Today, the chunk of land known as the Peninsula Campground is isolated and decidedly very quiet as travel to this state park is a circuitous drive because […]
Fed by Mosquito and Butte Creek, Paradise Lake impounds irrigation and drinking water for the Town of Paradise. Hence, the portable toilets are every one-half mile to encourage their use and discourage draining your bladder into the lake.
The original transcontinental tunnels and snow sheds over Donner Summit were abandoned in 1993 for the tunnel under Mt. Judah. After hiking to the top of Mt. Judah you can walk the many miles of tunnels and cliffs blasted out by Chinese labor in the 1860’s. The concrete snow sheds that replaced the wooden coverings that were prone to fire from the steam engine embers, is now a canvass for graffiti art.
Maybe you can’t walk back in time, but you certainly can walk through part of California’s water history. Dug by hand in the side of the hill above the south fork of the Yuba River, the abandoned water canal and flumes have been transformed into a fairly easy, wheelchair accessible, hike. Named appropriately the Independence Trail, it’s more of a walk than a hike.
A short but beautiful hike will take you along Hot Creek east of Mammoth Lakes. Hot Creek cuts across the Long Valley Caldera until it empties into the Owens River. This area was once a great volcano that exploded years ago leaving a bowl. The eastern portion of Hot Creek is reminiscent of Bumpass Hell in Lassen with scalding hot geothermal springs of water.
Before we got to the lake we helped a highly adorned scarab beetle right himself and cross the trail. We also got to see Osprey diving in Round Lake to catch fish. That was a pretty cool sight.
The destination was the outlet of the great North Bloomfield Tunnel that dumped gold bearing sediment from Malakoff Diggins into Mercury laden sluice flumes. We had seen the sign at the head of Humbug Trail indicating the trail was closed because of a damaged bridge. A little bridge doesn’t stop hikers on a mission…usually. But this one did.
The new age of electricity ushered in the mass transit possibility of street cars. Even today the sight of an electric trolley car rolling down the tracks in this sparsely populated portion of California looks out of place. But the scenery of wheat fields, cattle and sheep grazing has changed little since the first trolley line rolled through the Montezuma Hills.
At the Table Mountain Preserve you get to blaze your own path across the volcanic cap of a mesa and not get trouble. For us, the straightest line to Phantom Falls was hiking through the tall weeds and over volcanic flow where no path existed.
Inherently, all hikes are good. Some hikes, however, have more merit than others. The South Fork American River Trail is lacking in many of the characteristics of a good or great hike. While it is a nice trail, you need to choose carefully when you decide to hike it and where you start.
