Downstream Pine Creek: From the Basin to the Trailhead

Heart-leaved Arnica, Arnica cordifolia

Date: July 5, 2017
Place: South Warner Wilderness, Alturas, California
Coordinates (of Pine Creek Basin): 41.362254, -120.243023
Length: 2.5 miles
Level: moderate

Our last morning at the South Warner Wilderness was slow and easy. We all slept well for a change, and took our time eating breakfast and breaking camp. We left our shoes off because the first thing we needed to do after hoisting our backpacks was fording Pine Creek. (Brrrr, cold water!).

Cinquefoil, Potentilla sp. By the north bank of Pine Creek. 

On the other side of the creek we took our time to take a good, long goodbye from Pine Creek Basin. We did promise ourselves to go back to this wilderness one day and make it all the way to Patterson Lake, but likely we'd come in from the Summit Trailhead next time.

 It was also time to say goodbye to one of the nicest plants I found at the basin - the Brown's peony. Only two days have passed since I saw it on our way up and now there were no more peony flowers to be seen. They all went to fruit.

Brown's Peony, Peonia brownii 

We lingered there for a while before finally starting down the trail that will take us out of the wilderness. It was a bright sunny day, and we were plunging into the shade of forest.

Pine Creek

In the forest - the gooseberry bloomed still. I have seen these on our way up three on the first day of our trip.

Sticky Currant, Ribes viscosissimum

But now that I wasn't pushing to go uphill I also seen undergrowth flowers that I have overlooked before.

Bearded Lousewort, Pedicularis semibarbata 

Pappa Quail too finally got to see the pond with the waterfall that he had missed on our way up. With his birding lens he got a nice zoomed image of the waterfall.

We wend down at a fast pace but stopped frequently to admire the sights we've seen. The chikas pointed things out to me left and right.

Fritillary Butterfly

For a good portion of the trail we walked near Pine Creek right at the edge of the forest bordering small meadows and creek wetlands. While the lower, wetter areas were gown with corn lilies and monkey flowers, the slightly higher and drier grounds were covered with other plants. In this case - a lovely patch of mountain mule ears.

Mountain Mule Ears Patch 

Pappa Quail who was at the lead most of the time got to see a big buck at the edge of one of these meadows. By the time I caught up with him the buck had already hopped off.

A Hungry Buck 

I consoled myself with the pretty wildflowers and the many insects that were busy about them.

Crimson Columbine, Aquilegia formosa 

Pappa Quail too was fascinated by the butterflies. There were many of them, of many species. This swallowtail was focused on the larkspur that were growing there in a nice, thick patch.

Swallowtail on Larkspur 

The forest wasn't very dense but the pines, small and thin as they were, looked healthy. It was good to  hike in a healthy coniferous forest for a change. I hope that the boring beetle doesn't get there and damage the Modoc as it did the Sierra Nevada forests.

Pine Creek Trail

Enough sunlight penetrated the forest canopy to support a nice undergrowth. Many of these plants were blooming. Some I have never seen before.

Meadow Rue, Thalictrum fendleri

Many of these forest undergrowth blossoms were not big and bright as the meadow flowers, and I passed over most of them on our way up two days before. On our way down, however, I took the time to look at them more closely and found that they had a delicate beauty that's worth noticing and noting.

Alpine mitrewort, Pectiantia pentandra

When we took a break, sitting down to rest and eat a snack, I had the time to take some macro images of the smaller of these undergrowth blossoms. This way I can appreciate the details of these tiny flowers when looking at the enlarged pictures on my computer screen, something I cannot do in real time during the hike. (Not when I don't carry a magnifying lens with me).

Sticky Starwart, Pseudostellaria jamesiana

We went on and in a short time were out in an open meadow once again. The meadow has its tiny resident flowers as well.

Nevada Bitter Root, Lewisia nevadensis 

Out in the sunshine again and surrounded by butterflies, I noticed another beautiful winged creature - a pretty dragonfly poised atop a cornlily plant.

On the distant bank of the creek I saw the same line of bog orchids I had photographed plenty of on the way up. This time, however, I was after the swallowtail :-)

Swallowtail on Bog Orchid

We kept going at a quick pace all the way down. Once again I found myself in the rear, pausing now and then to enjoy the wildflowers and the forest as a whole.

Yellow Monkeyflower, Mimulus guttatus

Pappa Quail too had stopped, at least once :-)

Ash-throated Flycatcher

But in short, we made it back to the trailhead fairly quickly. It wasn't even noontime when we reached our car.
At the end of our previous family backpacking trip to Manzana Creek we pretty much collapsed into the cr. This time, however, we arrived with much energy still. We took the time to change shoes and rearrange our gear and pack it nicely in the car before finally saying goodby to the South Warner Wilderness.
Not to far from us was a large van and a few people getting ready to hike in with a bunch of forestry work tools. They were National Forest trail maintenance crew, all volunteers, that were going in to clear the trail from obstacles. We told them about the snow block up by Patterson Lake and I hope they managed to get our bottles and hiking poles that we had lost during our snow bypassing ordeal.

Bye Bye! 

Modoc County is a full day's drive from the Bay Area and we don't know when our next trip there will be. Since we had exited the wilderness a day earlier than we had planned we decided to stay in Alturas one more day and go look for wildlife (especially the feathered kind) at the Modoc National Wildlife Refuge. There is much to see in that remote end of California. It is very beautiful and unique there, and not very many people travel there. On our entire trip we came across very few people, all of them local or have been local at some point in their past. The South Warner Wilderness is a pristine wilderness gem that we were fortunate to find and are sure to go back there to explore further.

Over and Out: From Warren Peak to Pine Creek Basin

Date: July 4, 2017
Place: South Warner Wilderness, Alturas, California
Coordinates (of where we stayed near Warren Peak): 41.378946, -120.215547
Length: 2.5 miles
Level: Strenuous

The second night of our backpacking trip to the South Warner Wilderness we passed on an isolated rocky spur of Warren Peak, high above Patterson Lake. The lake, which was our planned destination, was like the promised land for Moses: we could see it but we couldn't get to it. Not without putting ourselves in serious risk.
We also couldn't go back the way we came: we had no equipment to cross the snow field that covered our trail and neither of us wished to try and bypass it again on the slope above where we had come so close to harm while passing there the day before.
And so we were, all alone in the wilderness with w wonderful view all around, a fantastic wildflowers display, and a patch of snow as our only source of water.
The wind, which battered our tent most of the night had died down by the morning. It was still very chilly when I emerged from the tent and started melting snow to boil for tea.

Warren Peak at Sunrise

Pappa Quail joined me in making breakfast. Unable to put his worries out of his mind, he did not sleep well at night. The chikas too were worried, especially the young one who refused to even think about going back the way we came.
Moving around doing our morning routine I took in as much as I could of the place we were. The view was absolutely striking.

Lassen Peak-A-Boo!  

And not just the view. Despite having photographed all the wildflowers there on the evening before I still found reasons to snap more shots of them. To get more points of view.

'Brain'. Cushion Buckwheat, Eriogonum ovalifolium 

We all felt better in the brilliant morning sun. And once the sun had risen the temperatures did too and we felt warmer.

But there was still the problem of getting back. After a short discussion it was agreed that I'd go ahead and scout for a safer route. I went light, taking only my phone (surprisingly we had reception there), and my camera. I went up the side of Warren Peak where I had started exploring on the previous day.

The beginning was easy and I quickly gained altitude. At some point I turned around and looked back at our campsite. Pappa Quail and the chikas were standing there still, following my progress. I waved at them and they waved back at me. Then I turned and moved around a boulder, leaving my family was out of sight. 

Soon I was up on the narrow ridge leading to the peak itself. There was no where to go left or right so I continued on up the ridge's knife edge. 

After more climbing I had a full and clear view of Patterson Lake. I could see a way down to it - a doable way down among the rocks. I filed that in my mind and moved on up the ridge.

I came upon quite a few obstacles - tangles of trees, large boulders, and slippery gravel slopes. I carefully pushed my way through the trees, climbed around the boulders holding on to them with both hands, and transversing the gravel on my bottom.
I could tell that I wasn't the first human to have passed this way this season: faint footprints were visible here and there. I followed them.

I made it all the way to the other side of the ridge where I had a clear view of the slope down to where it met the trail. It was doable. Scary at points, but not as dangerous as going back past the snow field of yesterday.

View south from the ridge of Warren Peak 

I turned about and made my way back, occasionally stopping to enjoy the wildflowers along the improvised path.

Lewis' Flax, Linum lewisii 

I came back down to the campsite. I was away no more than half an hour, but Pappa Quail hagged me as if I returned from a year's absence. I announced cheerfully that I found an easier way to get back but my family didn't show much relief. My younger chika in particular was worried still. She kept asking me about the way and all I said to calm her down seemed to have worked her up even more so eventually I resorted to simply asking her to trust my and my judgement. Whether she was ok with that or not, there were no other options.
Actually, there was one: I told them that I believed we could go down to the lake and suggested we should do that and stay another night on its shore, just as we had planned. But the rest of my family were unanimously against the idea - they wanted out and back on safe grounds. My younger chika went even further and suggested we get back all the way to the car and back to town, but the rest of us disagreed.

Fremont's Groundsel, Senecio fremontii 

While I was away Pappa Quail and the chikas had packed nearly everything so it didn't take long to finish packing and to get going.
Going up with everybody proved to be a challenge. The younger chika was terrified and had to be guided with every step. She chose to stick with me so I held her hand and directed her moves while Pappa Quail carried her backpack as well s his own, and prevented the elder chika from rushing ahead.
It took a long while as we moved very slowly and stopped frequently to regroup and allow the younger chika to calm down her anxiety, but eventually we made it all the way up, safely.

The view north from the ridge of Warren Peak. 

From there we went down the slope, meandering between the shrubs and trees until we reached the trail. I believe that our mutual sigh of relief could have been heard all the way down to Eagleville.
My family wanted to stop and rest but it wasn't a good place for that and we have already spent a lot of time getting over the ridge, so I urged everybody to move on.

Going down the trail was fast and easy. We now walked quickly, leaving the trail only to bypass the snow piles that blocked it here and there. Still, I could tell that these snow piles had shrunk since yesterday. I wondered had we stayed at Patterson Lake another day would we've been able to get out of there by the trail itself. But I knew we wouldn't have risked it. That much snow would probably not have melted that quickly.

We did stop to rest at the intersection with the Pine Creek Trail but not for long. Now that the big weight of getting back on track was off our chest we all felt lighter and more energized. Besides, we were going downhill.

A Brook of Cornlilies

We continued on Pine Creek Trail at a fast pace. I was in the lead now, racing down the trail with the elder chika close behind me. At a good distance in the back came the younger chika with Pappa Quail bringing up the rear.
He took the time to find a bird on a nearby tree:

Clark's Nutcracker

This time I didn't stop often to photograph wildflowers individually. I had photographed most of them on the way up. I did, however, take many wide view shots, snapping them as I walked, not even slowing down. The air was clearer than the day before, and the view sharper. Shasta, making its appearance  around the mountain side looked less ghostly than yesterday.

Shasta Peak-A-Boo

And then I came upon the small patch of fritillaries I remembered from yesterday. Now almost all of them were open. I stopped, dropped my pack and sat down to photograph them from up close. Within a few minutes all my family had passed me, leaving me behind, lying on the dusty trail in attempt to get an inside photo of this pretty flower.  Eventually I wearied of it, got up and continued marching on, hoping that at least one of the photos came out right.

Mountain Fritillary, Fritillaria atropurpurea 

Down, down, down. I caught up with my family and passed them again, heading for the lead. The chikas wanted a lunch break but I urged them on, wishing to stop near a running creek.

The sun was bright and the colors vibrant. Although I rarely stopped for individual flowers on my way down, I did try to capture the lovely combination of bloom colors. 

Flowers weren't the only colorful beings there. Many butterflies filled the air, hovering over and around the flowers, sometimes coming to a stop.

Tortoiseshell Butterfly

 The bloom was at the peak, but for some of the butterflies the season was nearing its end.

Looking back, I could see no more snow patches. We left all our snowy adventure behind, now only in memories and photographs. The scenery was as green and summery as could be.

I did stop for another flower, one that I didn't photograph on the way up and I wanted to make up for this omission.

Nevada Pea, Lathyrus nevadensis 

My family had passed me by again. When I caught up with them they were all seated under a tree near a small but very lively brook. Pappa Quail had the food sack out and they were all waiting for me to pull out the cooking gear which I carried.

Silvery Lupine, Lupinus argenteus

Was had a hearty lunch and a nice, long break. Then it was time to move on. Before long we were going in and out of the mosquito-infested aspen groves.

Somewhat lower, and we were back inside the conifer forest, the trail taking us through thin groves and sunny patches where forest shrubs were blooming too.

Mountain Snowberry, Symphoricarpos rotundifolius 

A colorful patch of mule ears, geraniums, and Indian paintbrush, which filled a large sunny patch marked our arrival at the bottom of the Pine Creek Basin. I remained behind for a few seconds to enjoy the sight, then hurried after my family all the way to the place where we had camped on our first night out. 

The place was not occupied so we happily set our camp there once again, then went exploring a little. I found another trail in the forest, one that was not labeled on my map. I followed it to a little lake in the woods. We've seen that lake from the main trail on our first day's hike and now I got to see it up close. I returned to the campsite and brought the chikas back there with me to enjoy the nice view.

The sun was setting slowly. The chikas got to play by the creek while Pappa Quail and I rested. Then we had a nice, quiet dinner, cleaned up and went into the tent. That night all four of us slept soundly, without any worries.