Shirley Canyon, Tues, 8/19/25

Last June when Jimmy and I were at Olympic Village, I picked up a brochure and information on taking the aerial tram to High Camp, and -- woohoo! -- learned that the cost to ride the tram up was much less on Tuesdays. Waiting for a cloudless day, as in no forecast thunderstorms, we picked today. That meant we had to "call in sick" to Interfaith Food Ministries where we volunteer-work restocking on Tuesday mornings. Just kidding. I said, "We'll see you next week." No problem.

Truly, we chose a gorgeous day at Palisades Tahoe (Olympic Village, Squaw Valley, pick one). Even better, when we stood at the window to buy our tickets, saying, "Two old people to ride up to High Camp," the lady smiled and asked, "How old?"  "Over 80," I announced, producing driver's licenses.  "Okay, you two ride for free!"  Not just on Tuesdays, oh no, any ol' time we want, every day of the week if we wanted!  Because we're over 80 -- hey, finally a perk for being as old as dirt!

We started somewhere between 10:30 and 11 am at Base Camp, elevation 6,200'.  Each tram can hold 100 people, but we had maybe ten in our tram.  (Yikes, I wouldn't want to be crammed in with 100 others!)  It's quite a smooth ride, takes about eight-and-a-half minutes, and the views are Wowzers!

Closing in on High Camp at 8,200'.

At the top, we didn't have a particular trail we wanted to tackle, so we began on the Solitude Trail, but scampered up a slope to access Shirley Canyon Trail.  Five years ago, we hiked a good part of this trail from its trailhead to a sign that indicated we should quit!  Click here to read that post.  Shirley Lake is located along this trail, but we didn't make it to the lake then and we didn't quite get there today!

Yes, the air is thinner at this altitude, but the beauty of the Sierras would keep anyone going!  Shirley Canyon was mostly a single-track trail, as you see above, some relatively flat, and some (ugh) fairly steep.

This man is no fool!

Fireweed display.

Top to bottom, left:  Explorer's Genetian, Scarlet Paintbrush, Woolly Mules Ears. Right:  Oregon Whitetop Aster with Big Ol' Buzzy Bee, Bitter Cherry berries, and pretty California Blushing Monkeyflower.  A few of these I'd never seen before, but everywhere we looked, the wildflower show was unbeatable.

I included this pic to show you a few spots of SNOW!  Look closely, beyond the beautiful meadow with its golden Rabbitbrush and spent Corn Lilies, you'll see three leftover piles of snow.  No, we didn't carve a trail up to touch the snow; we'll be touching the stuff soon enough in our own yard.

Here we spied two Buckwheats together:   Bear Valley and Sulphur.

Again, look closely or you might miss Jimmy in his red shirt all but hidden in the trees.  Fragrant firs, spruces and some amazing, venerable Jeffrey pines cling to these mountains.  

Rocks line a seasonal watercourse, dry today, leading to a ditch behind where I'm standing.  Kinda interesting design, catches your eye.

Clockwise from top left:  Explorer's Genetian, Oregon Whitetop Aster, a mess o' flowers, and Rockfringe.  We were treated to a veritable alpine wildflower garden today though it's past mid-August.  It's a short flowering season at this elevation, but they get a late start, too -- think:  deep snow.  

We saw Shirley Lake, above, but we didn't hike over another stretch of boulders to get down to it.  In other words, we didn't stick our fingers in it to test whether it's cold.  You'd be surprised (maybe) at how much energy it takes to clamber down steep terrain, especially knowing you have to climb up the same on the return.  For some reason (?) we only had two water bottles and one Body Armour drink and that wasn't enough to see us through, so we turned around at this point.  We'd drained every drop by the time we returned to High Camp, where we refilled both bottles and drank our fill right away.

Still, this was a great hike on a perfect day, and we enjoyed every minute.  The elevation gain/loss was 500'-600' and we put 3.5 miles in.  Not bad for over 80 and over 8,000 feet!

On Tuesdays there's free roller skating at this 8,200 ft high rink (nope, we didn't).  Since the tram runs all year, I bet it changes to ice skating come wintertime.  What do you think, Nannie?  Want to?  Notice the Olympic rings?  The 1960 Winter Olympics were held here.

Turnabout is fair play, they say.  So, when they ask if we'll take their picture, we respond in kind.  Here we are on the High Camp deck after our hike.  Nice breeze, too.  True blue Lake Tahoe can be seen in the small space between me and Jimmy.  Aren't we lucky to live where we can play in the mountains?

Summer medley, to 8-16-25

 

Summer 2025 has been very good to us thus far.  We've been lucky, we know, and we thank the heavens daily.  Maybe we'll pay for it later on, but right now you'll hear no complaints from us, especially when we see floods and heat waves and fires all over the country.  Jimmy and I have been Out and About a lot this summer, as much as we can in-between chores and appointments.  Make hay while the sun shines as the saying goes.  I can't remember exactly when we went here or there and I'm too lazy to look up the details, but you'll get the general idea.  Anyhoot, take a gander at each photo's sky:  Always blue.

One day we decided to EXplore further away from home.  For years (on our way to the high country) we've passed a sign for Omega Road off Hwy 20 but till we bought the Subaru, we wouldn't have tackled this rough dirt and gravel road which leads to the former Alpha and Omega mines.  Dang road spiraled down and down, but we didn't make it to either mine.  Instead, we pulled in and parked roughly two-thirds the way down and took off on an alleged path.  Big boulder, Jimmy! 

How about this pile of tailings?  That's me up there.  We walked hither and yon and realized a person could easily get turned around in this mess o' hills.  We were careful to keep an eye on where we'd been so as to not get lost.  We got hot traipsing around.

I tipped this picture, to see the dead critters better.  Looks like a dragon fly atop an unknown insect, but who killed who?  They're on a Cedar tree trunk.  Makes you wonder ....

At left is true-blue Chicory, which flowers all over the US, I think, especially in habitat nothing else seems to like (except maybe Queen Anne's Lace, and together they make a lovely pair).  Top right is a variety of St Johns Wort, and bottom right is California Indian Pink, native annual herb.

On another day, we bit off more than we could chew when we hiked the Point Defiance trail counter-clockwise on a HOT Sunday!  Mistake.  We couldn't even find a parking space and had to park on Rice's Crossing Rd!  That meant we had to climb the switchbacks at the end of our hike, which just about "did us in."  When the South Yuba River water level was low, someone made the round rock circle.  Looks like a huge bathtub drain!  Weird!  Enlarge the picture.

This fella entertained us as we trudged along.  It scurried ahead of us for a long time, keeping pace with our steps.  It was big and methinks it's an alligator lizard.  

We picked an awesome weekday to bike from Beal's Point to the Sunrise footbridge on our favorite American River Trail.  With mild temps, we felt like we could've biked forever (but we settled for 27 miles).  It's always a plus when you see a swan afloat, the white speck in the water at left.

Enjoying a bit of lunchtime rest.

We like the sentiment on the bench.

Lots and lots of watercraft on the river near Folsom.

Kayaks, canoes and SUP's.

Whoa, how about this! Peaches. Ten pints. They join jars of strawberry and blueberry jams, as well as plum sauce jam, cherries and applesauce. Productive summer so far. Tomatoes are yet to come. Maybe next week. Aren't we lucky to have friends who share their produce bounty with us? Yes, is the answer.

The Nevada County Fair in August is always held during the hottest week of the year. 😄 We usually go with Matt, Jen and Evie, but this time they were elsewhere, so Jimmy and I went by ourselves.  Yup, it was hot, but we enjoyed the four hours we spent.  We checked out the award-winners in every category.  Can you spot Jimmy, above, by what appears to be the world's tallest Ferris wheel?

Too hot to move, may as well nap. 😂

The fairgrounds are decked out every year with gorgeous flowers.

Recently we took off for a hike in the Grouse Ridge area, again off Hwy 20, higher up the hill, elevation between 6600-7000+ ft.  Trust me, this is one of the prettiest places ever.  First thing we saw was mountain goats. 

Round Lake Trail passes by five or six serene alpine lakes.  Above, Jimmy stands before Feeley Lake, one of the larger lakes on this trail.  Fall Creek Mountain looms in the background.  We wondered if we could hike to its summit, but we couldn't see a trail.

Finally. We "accidentally" found a stand of blooming native Corn Lilies.  I've tried several times to see these plants in flower while hiking in other areas of the Sierras (namely Castle Peak), and here they are!  The plants are quite tall, as you see, above, with many inch-wide flower clusters.  The bees were happy.

What makes a tree shift like this?

Perhaps a snow drift?

While tiny in size, Delaney Lake was also mucho picturesque. Pond lilies dot the surface, but the water in every lake was clear as bottled water. 

Comely no-name lake with an island, and two gals swimming!  Maybe skinny-dipping!?  See the two white dots toward the back of the lake, at right?  We left them in peace.

Left is the perennial herb, White-veined Wintergreen, and right is one of the largest clumps of Woodland Pinedrops I've ever seen. It's a root parasite that depends on its association with a mycorrhizal fungus (also associated with a pine tree), and has small pink, urn-shaped flowers which hang upside-down.  Both are members of the heath family and are found in coniferous forests.  Cool beans, huh?

We both tested and declared the water cool, verging on cold, but if you had to swim, you could.  Once immersed in the water, maybe it feels refreshing.  I prefer the water temp of Catalina Spa and RV Resort in Desert Hot Springs:  Warm as toast!

After eating our granola bars perched on one of these granite slabs, I left Jimmy to rest and continued my climb up to Long Lake overlook. This entire area is pocked with lakes and ponds, and each is simply gorgeous.  There are plenty of other trails or offshoots of this one in the Grouse Ridge area, and it's easy to get here in the Subaru.  Pesky gravel-dirt roads!

That's a wrap on some of our summer doings. Of course, we enjoyed other stellar bike rides and hikes, but I didn't take many pics. Hopefully we'll have a few more adventures this summer.  Yet, as August wanes and September closes in, Jimmy and I are beginning to prepare for our ambitious journey across the Big Pond -- our trip to Türkiye, Egypt and Jordan. Oh, but first we stop in Maryland.

Springtime in the High Country 6/2/25

 

Monday.  Meh, right?  Stay home, work in the yard, clean house, buy groceries?  Nah, phooey on that; it was time to get outa town.  After one load of laundry, we pointed the Subaru east toward Truckee, some 60 miles away.  Just north of Truckee is one of our all-time favorite hikes:  Sagehen Creek.  Springtime is an especial time here, and its allure isn't diminished by repeat visits.  I find a peacefulness and beauty on this trail, and, today, like other times, we shared it with lots of people (and dogs).  Oh, I wish I could capture the delicious fragrance of firs and flowers and everything else as we walked along on this warm spring day and impart it to you!

The creek was lively!

As we began, we encountered a lot of Bitterbrush lining both sides of the single-track trail, their small, creamy-yellow flowers profuse.

Jimmy pulls a green-leafed Aspen aside to show

the beginning of the yellow explosion.

We're a bit early, maybe by a week, but still -- look at the vibrant yellows of Woolly Mule's Ears and Arrowleaf Balsamroot (foreground) -- they blanket the hillsides!  The vision was wonderful.

We saw a beaver once a few years ago, and now we always stop along here and get very quiet in the hopes of seeing one again.  Or a descendant.  So far, nada.  Lots of birds flit about in this area, and we usually see woodpeckers.  Ducks, too.  But no beaver.  Mosquitos, yes, darn it, and Skin-so-Soft lotion is not much of a deterrent.

Wildflowers galore!  Top L to bottom L:  Lupine and mules ears and balsamroot, Bittercherry, Sand Corn Lily, and acres of Mahala Mat.  And so many others, too many to show.

Appears as though the Sagehen Creek area got hit hard by some hellacious winds last winter.  We saw many uprooted trees, the one above still cluttering the trail, and others that fell away, plus a couple that had already been cleared and chopped up.

At this point, the trail leaves the forest and enters Sagehen Meadows.  A massive Bistort bloom was just beginning to the right of Jimmy, now a grassy green meadow, and on the left, Bitterbrush is full on!  Stampede Reservoir (lake), Sagehen Creek's terminus, is not far behind Jimmy. 

We saw a number of small tent caterpillar webs

wreaking havoc on Bitterbrush shrubs.

Here 'tis – Stampede Reservoir! The lake and shoreline attract migrating birds, ducks, geese, sometimes Pelicans, and once we saw a long-legged Sandhill Crane.  I always have my binoculars.  Some years the water level is so danged low it's nearly invisible from right here.  Yet, two years ago, water had risen to past where I was standing for this pic!

A small plot of Nuttall's Larkspur

not far from the lake added a pop of color.

From the old sheepherder's hut ruins, we followed the track to the water's edge, or as close as you can get without sinking in mud.  Love that venerable pine, unsure which pine it is.  I'm convinced it plays host to numerous critters/creatures.

Plenty of Canada geese (ahem, be careful where you put your feet), a couple of Mallards, and Common Mergansers -- that was it on the lake today.

A lone motorboat, anchored dead center,

with a fisherman, hopefully being successful.

Penstamons and Lupines, not far from lakeshore.

On our return, we got another view of the downed tree.  This is a pretty easy, fairly flat trail with a mere 200+ ft elevation gain, and a round-trip of 5+ miles.  It takes us much longer to get to a turn-around point than it does returning to the car.  I guess we don't stop as often, and the afternoon gets hot, meaning we're ready to head back faster.  We must be getting old, for as much as we love this trail, we were ready to be done!

Nevertheless, I continue to "pause" for a photo or two -- above is Pussy Paws, a cute perennial herb that my sister and I admire, soft and velvety and reminiscent of chenille.  It's a low grower, so I have no idea if it's sweet-scented or not.  If I bent down to sniff it, I'd never get up!

Jimmy and I got our "get-away" fix today, happy with our choice.  Sagehen delivers every time.