Weekend Trinity,Tahoe, or SeKi Hike Part ners?

“calnatv: I went over to Phil's page to check out the picture you mentioned. You've got some good shots there. The one that made me laugh was your "Sherpa Shot". I too have done the monster pack thing with my daughter! LOL!

BTW, do you still own a restaurant somewhere in NW California? Where's home? Just curious if I might have unknowingly patronized your establishment.”

“Part owner. I'm in Eureka and the Restaurant is Sweet River Grill and Bar in the Bayshore Mall. You can't miss it. Stop by and I'll buy you lunch.
So you noticed the pack, LOL. She got a bad blister on the trip so we loaded her stuff in my pack then stashed her pack to be picked up on the way back.

I'm with ya 100% on the remote area's. These past few years I've been to Clear Lake in the Marbles ( more like attempt), Little Southfork Lake in the Trinities, and a couple off trail hikes that I keep secret”

“I did Russian Lake in October. I had the whole mountain to myself. It is absolutely beautiful there. There are about five other lakes in same vicinity.Also there are three different trails into Russian Lake. Deacon lee trail, one from south fork road and another from Music creek Road.”

“Got me a book of addresses started y'all, thanx. I cain't wait to check out your neck of the woods.

Mel :X
what's your e addy again please?”

“Obi Wan, Naked, Roseymonster, et al: I'm in SF--an oasis of sanity in the midst of redneck backwaters like Santa Rosa ;-)--and my e-mail is tehipite@value.net. I'm happily unemployed for a month or two, so I've got some weekday trip availability.

But the best bets right now are probably right here in the Bay Area. Just did an overnight in Henry Coe, which is great this time of year. I'm not planning anything in the Sierra until May.”

“To add to Tehipite's suggestion, a great place in the Bay Area for warmup dayhikes is Pt Reyes with a maze of trails and more wildlife then you'd ever imagine. For early season backpacking you also might consider Ventana Wilderness, inland from the Big Sur area. Ishi Wilderness is always an early season option as well as the Lost Coast. One of my favorite springtime locales is Bloody Rock and Cold Ck in Mendocino National Forest just north of Snow Mountain Wilderness.

Into early and mid May you might start considering the Yolla Bollys and Snow Mountain. To get to Crockett Peak trailhead from the Bay Area can be an adventure in itself, 4wd isn't just recommended, it's required. Watch out at the Rice Forks crossing, I lost my truck there. From the Crockett Pk TH it's about 2.5 miles to an incredible waterfall, you may not be able to make it up to Milk Ranch and the Snow Mtn summit until early June.

The Yolla Bollys has few lakes but is as wild as a wilderness can be and very rugged too. The terrain is mostly deep forested canyons and ridgelines with scattered forest. A good short trip is to Long Lk which has an abundance of nice sized, but finicky trout. It's also a good base camp for an easy summit bid of Mt. Linn, the highest peak west of the Central Valley between the Trinity Alps and some of the SoCal high peaks. The official name of the route is the Ides Cove National Recreation Trail and peak season can be busy, but it's perfect for an October visit. The trail is actually an 11 mile loop but with it's high trailhead (over 7000') it's not accesible until mid to late June.”

“Thanks, Tehipite. Got that E... I still need to pick up a smaller, weekend-type pack, and I'm not nearly as close to that as I should be, for a guy who started this thread to begin with, but I'm working on it.”

“Dunk's right--Pt. Reyes is awesome. The only reason I haven't done an overnight there is that the backcountry sites get booked pretty far in advance.

A couple of other possibilities--Skyline to the Sea (in the Santa Cruz mountains) and Ohlone Wilderness (east of Fremon), both ideally done as shuttles.

Dunk, have you ever done Cache Creek/Wilson Valley? I've heard it's pretty nice.

But Coe is my favorite for spur of the moment spring trips. There's plenty of it to go around, so even on a busy weekend you can get away from the crowds. And on a weekday...well, on Tuesday my car was the only one in the lot.”

“Tehipite, I've done Cache Ck / Wilson Valley 5 times. Most recently in January and again in February. We do this trip every February for the Bald Eagle migration. In March the hillsides turn green and in April the wildflowers make their appearance. The area closes from April until the end of June for the Tule Elk calving season, and after that the area is inhospitable until Fall weather arrives. Here's some pictures from various trips to Cache Ck.”

“Forgot to mention, in my two trips to Cache Creek this year I saw 5 mature and 1 juvenile Bald Eagle. Oddly enough all were seen before reaching Wilson Valley and all but 1 were seen near Baton Flat.”

“Dunk and Tehipite, I've heard you guys talk about Henry Coe State Park before so I searched them out on the net. They have a great site with many pictures. I have to get down there to see it. Hopefully before the heat sets in.
http://www.coepark.parks.ca.gov/”