Sometimes Fluid Plans Melt Out of Old Snow: Passing the Lore Day 2, up Grouse Ridge Trails and Down Grouse Ridge Road.

 

 

Date: July 25, 2023

Place: Tahoe National Forest, California

Coordinates: 39.370465, -120.601704

Length: Estimated 7 miles

Level: strenuous

A link to the first day's accounts.  

 

On the morning of the second day of my backpacking trip with my elder chika I woke up first and quietly sneaked out of the tent, leaving my chika to sleep in a bit. She didn't sleep well, claiming that her sleeping bag was too small and not insulating enough. She was dressed up in all of her layers and was cold still, so when I left the tent I threw my sleeping bag on hers as an extra cover, sending her into another hour or so of deep, comfortable sleep. I figured that sleeping in and waking naturally would give her a better start of the day.

Sierra Mariposa, Calochortus minimus, near our camp site

Meanwhile I went back to the ledge where we had dinner last night and gathered more sticks for the wood stove, and to fetch more water from the nearby creek. 

Our Mesa

After doing all that I walked around the other rock ledges, checking out the views and enjoying the wildflowers display. The nearby ledge there was a fantastic vista point, looking down at Blue Lake.

Blue Lake

Looking southeast was a bit more challenging because the rising sun shone into my eyes and into the camera lens. I could barely see below on the other side of the valley, the thin line of I-80. Although barely visible, it was very, very audible. The hum of the constant traffic was reaching all the way to us. It was the one thing that bothered my sleep that night. 

View Southeast

After breathing in the mountain views I dropped my gaze to the ground and started looking for wildflowers. I didn't have to look hard at all, there was plenty of bloom, even in the area of rock outcrops. 

Pussy Paws, Calyptridium umbellatum

Growing on rock outcrops has some monumental challenges, such as shortage of soil and with it, shortage of moisture. The plants that rise up to this challenge have evolved to make use of what little soil is trapped in the narrowest of cracks. 

Jewelweed, Streptanthus tortuosus

In time, plant roots contribute to the weathering of the rocks and the widening of the cracks, until eventually the rocks split. 

Mountain Pride, Penstemon Newberryi

I could almost imagine this process happening fast enough for me to see. Because I was there for such s fleeting moment in the natural history of the place, I simply enjoyed the present state of wildflowers blooming. 

I went back to the campsite and found my chika awake and in good mood. As she was getting ready for the day I grabbed the bear canister with the food, the stove, and the water bottles and went back to the rocky ledge to prepare breakfast. I glimpsed something shining at the valley floor below and when I looked down there I saw the south fork of the Yuba River. I smiled. Only a month before I hiked with Pappa Quail a trail along the north fork of that river. 

Yuba River, South Fork

My chika joined me and we had our breakfast. I left her to clean the dishes and went back to the campsite to take the tent down and pack everything. 

Broad-leaf Lupine, Lupinus latifolius

My chika finished with the dishes and soon was busy photographing the birds that were active around us. She was particularly excited about a little warbler there - apparently it was a lifer (first time sighting) for her. 

Nashville Warbler

I was glad seeing my chika following her strongest passion. If she wasn't taken by the whole backpacking experience, at least she could enjoy birding out in the wild. She was of course, hoping to find some lifers on this trip and was willing to tolerate the discomfort for the chance to see them. 

Sharp-shinned Hawk

It was after 9:00 am when we finished packing and ready to get going. My excellent mood was dampened when a few steps into the Grouse Ridge Trail I saw a place where a previous hiker had done his business and left the toilet paper there. Yes, it was originally buried but someone, an animal likely, had dug it up and scattered it around. It really sucks that hikers, theoretically nature lovers, don't love nature enough to take out all that they had packed in. 

Moose Horn Violet, Viola lobata

Today we planned to go up to Grouse Ridge, which was above the snow line. My friend who recommended this trail to me suggested that we'd sleep there and at first I thought it might be a good idea too - to go up, set camp, and then go on some local exploration without carrying the heavy packs. I expected that our ascent on Grouse Ridge Trail would be slow but we actually climbed at a very nice pace. 

Grouse Ridge Trail

We slowed down or stopped whenever there was something nice to see. Birds, for example. Even far away birds.

Western Tanager, male

One thing that made me happy was seeing all the water everywhere. Very frequently we either crossed or walked along a reek or a brook. Besides the beauty of this sight, it was also nice to not have to carry a lot of water on us. One bottle was enough, knowing that we could fill it up at almost any point on the hike. 

A brook in the forest

The higher we ascended, the fewer flowers we saw. Still, on the lower part of the trail there was bloom to see.

Few-flowered Blue-eyed Mary, Collinsia parviflora 

And birds, too. Every now and them my chika would pause and listen. Sometimes she'd aim her camera at something, I couldn't tell at what, but then, there was a bird there. She sees everything. Everything feathered, that is.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

On our way up we crossed a few small clearing with meadow vegetation and a small brook flowing through. At some point we had to put deet on - there weren't that many mosquitos, but the few there were, were very bothersome.

Violets were starring that day. I saw at least three, possibly four different species of violets. There are nearly twenty of them in Nevada County, maybe at some point I'll see them all.

Baker's Violet, Viola bakeri

I saw some white between the trees and pointed it out to my chika, who exclaimed with delight. She loves snow,especially on a warm day.

Lowest snow

We didn't see more snow for a while and the soil seemed pretty dry. The forest clearing here featured low manzanita bushes rather than meadow vegetation. Possibly because no creek was flowing through that clearing.

Grouse Ridge Trail

My chika has eyes for wildlife, especially birds, but she also see other cool sights. She pointed out a small flowering plant that had bovine skull-looking flowers. It has a fitting name too.

Steers Head, Dicentra uniflora 

Shortly after crossing the dry clearing we started encountering more snow. At first we could cross the snow patches and catch the trail on the other side, but it didn't take long before the trail was completely covered. All of a sudden, it became a challenge to follow that trail.

Snow covered trail

On my last post, about the first day of this trip, I mentioned that my navigator was acting up. I really needed it now because it was really difficult to tell where the trail was, under all that old snow. Trying to find other hiker's footprints wasn't very helpful because there were hardly any. This isn't a heavily used trail, and  it had been a few days of a freeze-thaw cycle to effectively erase even the tracks of the few hikers that I knew for sure were there the week before. Adding to the difficulty were the tree wells - the big thaw holes that formed around tree trunks, leaving a very narrow stripe of snow in between to walk on.

Tree wells

My navigator, which I didn't trust very much that day, showed the trail to be mostly in the forest. Walking through the forest however, was nearly impossible, so I pulled us out into the open, oriented us in the direction we needed, and started marching on the snow in a more or less direct line, occasionally looking back to see that my chika is keeping up.

Looking back also gave my a great view of the mountains south of us, the same mountains we saw from our camping area.

Looking back

There was no sign of any wildflower, naturally. The large snow field was interrupted by snow - melt areas where the old, frozen grass of last year's was being exposed, and the surface was all shiny with newly thawed water. We had to be really careful on the edges of the melting area, not to sink through the snow.

Snow-melt circle

It was very tiring to get up on this leftover snow. Unlike fresh snow, the old snow was treacherous and there were a lot of thawed cavities below a thin, crispy crust, and I had to carefully check with each step it it will hold me. It was also quite slippery and hard, making it more difficult to dig my shoes in for a better foothold. If it was fresh snow I'd have brought snow shoes, but those wouldn't have made it better here. I wondered if crampons would have made it easier, but I have no experience with them, yet. I also had to rely on old fashioned pathfinding rather than on my failing navigator. That sense of mine at least, was working perfectly fine. We got right up to where we wanted to be, if a little off from where the trail was marked.

Grouse Ridge

Tired, we found an exposed rock in one of the exposed areas and sat down for a break. The warmth of the day was left far down behind us, here we needed to pull our jackets out. A chilly wind was blowing, and I thought that the place looked gorgeous, and I would have loved to stay there for the night, but I didn't think that my chika would have enjoyed it. Not when the night we slept at the lower elevation was too cold for her.  

Peak-A-Boo

My chika's earlier good mood seemed to have blown with the wind. She voiced her wish to go down the same route we came up and spend the second night exactly where we were last night. I don't her I'm considering more options. Meanwhile she saw a bird and got up to take a better look.

Townsend's Solitaire

After our break I called my chika and we continued to the top of the nearest hill to take a look around. The freshly exposed soil was waking up to a late spring with new budding everywhere. It would have been nice to return there a couple of weeks later, but I already knew that that woulds not happen.

Spring Sprouting

We reached the top of the hill and a splendid view spread before us. The ridge continued both north and south of where we stood. Most of the snow was gone now but the lakes in view were only beginning to thaw.

View Northeast

A thick cornice extended from the trail to the edge of the slope and I gingerly approached the edge to get a better look and the frozen lake below. For a moment I wished I was there on my own, and without a deadline to be back on. One day I'd go back there to do more exploring.

View North

I was surprised to see some wildflowers up at the very top of the hill. There was some phlox, but my photos of it didn't turn out good. There was also a bush that bloomed in intense yellow.

Mountain Maple, Acer glabrum

There were more birds there, too, and my chika happily clicked her camera. Then she said she was tired, found a flat, snow-free spot on the ground, and laid down for a nap, wrapped in her jacket. 

Rock Wren

I gathered some dry sticks and started my wood stove. Despite the melting snow all around, there wasn't any surface running water to fill the bottles with. The melted water seeped directly into the thirsty ground. After scraping the dirty surface off a cornier of the cornice, I dug out a bunch of clean snow and started melting and boiling it on my stove. I woke up my chika to a warm cup of miso soup, and after that we gathered our stuff and got ready to go.

View Northwest

I had already made up my mind not to stay up here, fearing it'll be too cold, but I also didn't want to go back whence we came. After poring over the map and having a quick chat with a couple of day hikers that came up by Grouse Ridge Road, I decided that we should descend on Grouse Ridge Road. There was one major issue with that plan - there was no trail connecting Grouse Ridge Road with Blue Lake Road. My plan was to go down grouse ridge road, which on its west and lower part, went nearly parallel to Blue Lake Road. We would find a place to camp around where the distance was the shortest, and tomorrow we would go off trail and cross country down the slope to Blue Lake Road. 

Our first challenge though was finding Grouse Ridge Road. It was completely covered with old snow up there. There was more day hikers traffic on that road however, so once I picked up the trail, it was easy enough to follow it. 

Grouse Ridge Road

Another peak towered over to the west. On top was a fairly new wood hut, which I assumed was a fire lookout. We saw a few hikers up there and for a moment I thought it would be nice to go up and check the view from there, but decided that it would be better to continue down the road.  

Was there and avalanche here?

After an initial struggle walking on the uneven old snow, we descended to the thaw line and saw more and more of the exposed dirt road. We had to pass a huge fallen log which blocked the road, and past it we saw a rugged pickup parked on the snow, likely of the hikers we saw earlier. I looked at the trees flanking the road - the snow level was marked very well by the line of lichen growth. 

We descended at a good pace, but eventually my chika requested a break. Ahead of us was a sharp curve of the road and my chika suggested that we'd camp there. I thought it was way to early to set up camp, but that curve was a nice place to stop for a break, and so we did. The view from there was very nice. 

The best part about that spot was the patch of fawn lilies that bloomed there. We sat down on a fallen log, looking at the flowers and chatting. 

Purple Fawn Lily, Erythronium purpurescens

Then the chika said she could hear frogs. We sat quiet for a bit, and then I could hear them too - the sound was rising far from below. We approached the edge of the slope and saw a little lake there, nestled in the woods. The frog choir was coming from down there.

Frog Lake

From the edge of the slope I had a nice view point to the west, where the mountains sloped down gently into the foothills, 

We resumed our hike. Now the road was mostly clear of snow, and snow patches were smaller, fewer and far between. Every now and then we saw a nice pullout that looked like a nice area to set camp, but all of them were already occupied by disperse campers, so we continued downhill hoping to find a nice place to ourselves. 

Grouse Ridge Road

In some places there were puddles of water on the road, from melted snow, for sure. What astonished me was that many of them had worms in the water. Thin, white worms. Many, many of them, all wiggling together in the shallow puddles. A found out later that these were horse hair worms. which spend their early stages of life as parasites on insects, and when their time comes to mature, they affect the insect's brain to find fresh water and drown itself in it, thus releasing the mature worms to the water. There they mate and lay eggs on bits of rotting vegetation, eggs that are eaten by insects, and a new life cycle of worms begin. 

Horsehair, Nematomorph Worms

All my chika said was 'yuck', and she went on to photograph the birds that she saw foraging on the trail. 

Cassin's Finch, female

Actually, there were many birds in that part of the trail, including this lovely woodpecker. None of these birds however, was of the species that my chika really wanted to see. And none of them was a grouse, despite the road's name. 

White-headed Woodpecker, male

What surprised my that none of these birds was attempting to eat the worms. I guess they know what's not good for them. 

Purple Finch, male

My chika resigned to the fact that she was seeing only 'ordinary' birds. I thought it was nice that she got to see any birds at all - usually in the forest the birds are shy and don't come into the open much. 

Purple Finch, female

Down the trail there was much less snow, and I found a few more wildflowers. I still need to identify this one flower though. 

There were many more fawn lilies blooming by the road side. I couldn't stop photographing them, and it was very hard to chose photos for this post. 

The trees parted and the view westward opened up. I consulted my map and decided that it was a good place to start looking for a place to camp. 

Grouse Ridge Road

As if to annoy, we couldn't see any for a long while down from that spot. Moreover, the snow patches became rare and there were no more little creeks or brooks flowing across our path. All of a sudden I became worried that water might be an issue. 

I looked back, trying to assess to possibility of going back up to the nearest suitable camp site. Far above I saw that fire lookout building. I pointed it out to my chika, noting how far we walked down that road. 

We found another fallen log by the road side and sat down for another break. My chika photographed a chipmunk there. 

Long-eared Chipmunk

I saw that we were in a sugar pine area. On the right were signs of private property. The sins belonged to a logging company and they prohibited trespassing, wood cutting, and camping.

Sugar Pine Cone

Before we resumed our walk I shared my concerns with my chika. She took it to heart and started pointing out pullouts that looked like people have camped there before. Either of them would have been good it there was a source of water nearby, but none of them had. Not even a small snow patch to melt water from. 

Manzanita, Arctostaphylos sp. 

In one of these pullouts we could hear running water from not very far away. Unfortunately there was no way to get to the water - a thicket of vegetation blocked our way and without a machete and lots of patience there was no getting through. 

Bitter Cherry, Prunus emarginata

The day was getting old and my chika was tired. Her mood darkened again. Eventually I left her to wait in one of the pullouts that looked so nice to camp but was completely dry, and I went scouting ahead, wondering what should we do if I won't find any water. While I was away, the chika was busy birding. 

Red-breasted Sapsucker

I want a bit further down the road to a forest experimental ground that belonged to UC Berkeley. There was a dirt road there, and a sign warning people to entered at their own risk. It didn't look very promising. Farther into the research area, behind a stand of trees I saw something shining. Could that be .... I raised my camera and magnified my sight through the lens. It was water! I hurried back up the trail where I left my chikla and called her to come. I picked up my backpack which I left in her watch, and we started down the trail. 

We entered the research area, at our own risk. The shine turned out to be surface water indeed, but most of it was running on the dirt road, which didn't seem very nice to drink. We followed the road until we saw a small brook to the side. Good, now it was time to look for a place to camp.  

We had to walk down a little more to find a suitable place to camp, and that included hopping across little brooks that run over the dirt road. In one of them my chika found a moistly submerged frog. 

Pacific Chorus Frog

I, on the other hand, found little white violets, my last wildflower of the day. The sun was already low so we didn't linger there. 

Small White Violet, Viola macloskeyi

We found a place to camp by the side of the dirt road. I assigned my chika to pitch the tent and started to cook dinner. I was greatly relieved, having found a place to camp with water nearby. My only worry was that some researcher might decide to drive by that very night. I trusted the fallen log that blocked the road not far from us as evidence that this path wasn't used recently. 

We finished everything just as the sun was setting. I stayed out of the tent a bit longer, enjoying the quiet solitude (no freeway sounds here) before checking in for the night.

Despite having made no deal with me, my chika got another back massage before falling asleep.  

Many thanks to members of the California Native Plants Society for their help in identifying plants!

 

Link to the blogpost of the day 3 of this trip.