Category: The Great Outdoors

Adventures in nature

Goodnight, Moon

July 22 Last night passed uneventfully as far as I was concerned—no return of motorcycles—but Nick heard another car cruise silently past us toward the rear of the campground, headlights off, at around 2:00 a.m., and then back out.  After more bacon and eggs this morning, we departed for our final hike. We’d consulted a detailed map of the region and spotted the five-mile round-trip trail to Adams Lake. It begins near the end of […]

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Spencer & Erica

July 21 As our new neighbor slept in across from us, we quietly prepared breakfast, cleaned up and aimed ourselves toward our next trailhead, the McKenzie Gulch loop 20 minutes south, outside of Weaverville. Despite the early hour, it was already climbing toward 90° and much of our route was exposed, hillsides denuded of shade due to a previous wildfire.  Once again the AllTrails app kept blaring warnings that we were off-route, and this time […]

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Bikers & Lakes

July 20 The day began early with eggs, bacon and final planning for this morning’s hike. We decided on the Boulder Lakes trail, which gets positive reviews on my iPhone hiking app, AllTrails, whose users nonetheless warn that it’s crowded and that: “It’s pretty much an uphill climb for about 1.5 miles!” “The 11 mile drive to the trailhead can be pretty bouncy with a few large potholes, even in an SUV. Some folks driving […]

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The July Adventure Begins

July 18, 2021 The Trinity Alps camping/hiking trip is around the corner. The plan was for my friend Nick to leave tomorrow and for me to meet him somewhere up there the day after. Late this afternoon we exchanged texts about logistics. He wrote: I plan on leaving around 8 am to be there about 12:30………I’ll scout the sites and let you know where I am. You could come up later tomorrow too?? That possibility […]

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