Nice hike up to the falls.
The water is raging right now.
The falls.
It was pretty quiet up there in terms of people - though we saw a quite a few heading in while we were heading out.
We saw these two weird lizards. I thought perhaps we interrupted an intimate moment. I snapped a picture and left them in peace.
Sunday morning, we made our way over to Folsom and parked in the lot on Salmon Falls Road for Folsom State Recreation Area. Then we walked over to the Darrington Trail to begin our hike.
We first had to walk down a private road that led to another parking lot and then we found the trail (not marked) and we set out.
The trail was a bit rocky with uphill and downhill parts and every once in a while, the brush would open up and we’d get a beautiful view of the lake.
We walked through an open area and the trail led us to a wide creek that we had to cross. We struggled to find a way by hopping stones, but managed to get across from different points.
Then we saw a guy hitting golf balls toward the lake in another open area, and that was weird and intimidating. I didn't take his picture (even from a distance) because his behavior appeared erratic to me.
I didn’t want to get by a foul ball. Needless to say, we walked through the area near the guy with caution and speed.
We saw more scenic views along the way.
We had several friendly run-ins with a guy on bike. The second one was when we came across him sawing a tree that fallen across the trail. A couple of other hikers came along while we were talking with the guy, so we didn’t really get the details other than he was making the trail more user friendly.
I didn’t want to be rude by taking his picture, but here is a picture of the finished product.
We reached another parking lot after hiking for about 3.75 miles, so we walked down to the lake and ate sandwiches. We saw some ducks fly in so I went down to take pictures of them.
After eating, we decided to head back. As usual, we encountered more people on the return trip.
We saw more ducks in the lake.
And toward the end, we saw some deer, until a car came along and scared them into the brush.
All in all a good hike. 7.63 miles and about an 1,100 elevation gain.
Lately, we’ve been doing a lot of repeat hikes and walks on paved trails due to the weather. However, yesterday we did a real hike at Cronan Ranch in Pilot Hill, CA on the South Fork of the American River.
There were quite a few cars in the large parking lot for Cronan, but we had no trouble finding a spot. I ran in to use the bathroom real quickly and, I must say, it was very filthy. There was a pile of doggy poo bags in the corner for some reason and garbage all over the floor (no photo, don’t worry).
We set out, feeling very cold, and headed for the West Ridge Trail. This trail goes uphill for about the first half mile and that helped to warm us up. There were a few people out hiking, some with dogs, along the way.
The ranch is very scenic with lots of hills and lovely view points. We saw a large bird, I think it was a hawk, but I am probably wrong.
There was some mud on the trail, but we were able to get through without getting our shoes wet.
We decided to take a side trail called the West Ravine Loop that goes out away from the river for about a mile and then it comes back to the West Ridge Trail.
Back to the West Ridge Trail, we moved upward again along the river, which we could hear but not see at first, but we caught sight of it briefly.
At this point of the hike, all of which was uphill, we encountered a group of trail runners that passed us and then stopped and we passed them and then they passed us again. They were mostly friendly. One guy was really funny both times he passed us.
We stopped at a scenic peak to eat lunch. This was the moment that the runners passed us the second time and the funny guy said, “Oh, great, you brought the food!” And he playfully reached for my sandwich.
Our plan was to do 8 miles, so we turned around 4.2 miles and began the downhill hike back toward the main area.
As usual, there were a lot of people hiking toward us as we returned. The park is dog friendly, so there were quite a few “four legged friends.” The park is also horse friendly, but we didn’t see as many equestrians as we have in the past.
There were some relics from mining days.
More scenic views.
Toward the end of the hike, we came a cross a miniature horse of some kind, and they let me take a photo.
All in all a great hike. The day warmed up as we walked and the atmosphere was lovely.
We drove through the fog to Pollock Pines, where it was sunny, to walk the entire distance around Jenkinson Lake, beginning at the Waterfall Trail Head.
The trail started out very scenic and continued as the day aged. Our start time was 8:40am.
There were not many people around, nor animals. We saw mostly birds, a couple of squirrels and groups of ducks.
We walked along at a brisk pace, enjoying the peacefulness and the ducks.
It was shady on our side of the lake, but we were headed for the sun.
Considering it was December 7th, it was not too cold and there was no snow...yet.
We made it to the waterfall, and it was raging. Also, there were no people there when we first arrived.
Continuing along the trail, we came upon an old chimney, which we've come across previously, but we keep forgetting to do research on it.
There was steam coming off the lake and a raven was there investigating things.
More scenic views as we continued.
And more ducks.
Next, we crossed the bridge over the dam on the highway, a bit scary.
We saw these strange birds on the buoys...strange because we could not identify them.
Back to the street where we parked. 8.84 miles, not much of gain, but very lovely.
Nice hike up to the falls. The water is raging right now. The falls. It was pretty quiet up there in terms of people - though we saw a qui...
