12th post PCT Western States to Robie Point

May 31, 2024

Today’s meet up group has six hikers. We’re going to be hiking the Western States Trail. The hike starts off by crossing this bridge over the American river.

This long stemmed, purple flowered, Harvest Brodiaea  has popped up along the side of the trail as we hike high above the river below.

The trail drops down around the edge of the valley and passes this beautiful waterfall on this wooden bridge.

Just after the waterfall, I come upon this patch of beautifully yellow daisies

Another couple beautiful flowers I’ve come to are the Pink Horr Rock-rose. And yellow Common Madia

On my hikes, I always enjoy seeing interesting rock formations like this one that’s sitting above us

After going through another small valley we reached the last section section of trail before we turn around It is a long uphill portion to Robie Point. The river is still visible below us.

When we reached Robie point, we took a side trail up the hill to an old house Foundation that in its day, I’m sure was beautiful. It has trees growing up around it now blocking the view. I can only imagine what it looks like with them all gone.

As we leave Robie point we drop back down on the opposite side and circle around mid slope. There’s a beautiful view of the river below and the site where the Auburn dam had once been planned.

We’ve returned back to the Bridge where we started and are crossing it on the way back to the cars. The temperatures have gotten pretty warm but still doable.

11th post PCT Bassie Falls

Today I’m looking forward to a good hiking trip with my BAS meet up group. We have nine people and will be hiking to Bassi Falls.

We’ve come to our first little stopping point that can look out over the river. It’s actually considered a creek, but it’s flowing really well today. 

As we continue up, the trail parallels the river. we take an occasional little side hop to see a nice river view. I love the sound. It’s absolutely beautiful. 

There’s definitely a difference between solo hiking and group hiking. I like to keep my quicker pace so I hike ahead and stop about every quarter mile and wait for the group to catch up. Very different from my PCT days where I would hike a few hours at a time between stops

We’ve arrived at our first area with a nice vivible Cascade coming down the hill

After a short curve up and around, I’ve come to the top of the Cascade I was just looking at.

Right along the river this Utah Service Berry grows with the pretty white blooms . There’s also this fern called the Mountain Misery and the Wavy Leaf Soap plant.

A little bit up the trail I came across a nice large patch, Bracken. Another fern.

I was able to snap a picture of this beautiful orange butterfly as he landed on this yellow flowered, Tall Western Groundsel

Moss covered trees are another item I find very beautiful and enjoy looking at and photographing. This particular species is known as Wolf Lichen.

We round the corner and get our first view of Bassie Falls. Impressive from far it will be incredible at its base.

I’ve come across another fern known as the Serpentine Fern and right beside it is this pretty white Mariposa Lilly

This purple Spreading Phlox is a beautiful bloom as well.

We reached the base of Bassie Falls absolutely incredible. The power of nature is astounding. It’s a great spot to stop for some lunch.

As we started further up the trail towards the top of the falls, I was able to get a picture of this smaller brown butterfly.

We went up a nice rock scramble. This beautiful pink Mountain Pride grows right out of the side of the rock, also growing out of a rock crevice is the semi flowered Blue Ryed Mary

After spending a few minutes at the top of Bassie Falls we headed up another side trail in hopes of reaching at the top of this rounded mountain top

This beautiful red Coast Paintbrush is in bloom as we continue up the hill. Looking back, we can see a reservoir in the distance. I believe it is Union Valley Reservoir, where I camped last weekend.

We timed out about halfway to the top, turned around, and headed back down to the river. 

We scrambled back down to our lunch location where we had a few people stay back. Once we meet up, we returned to the cars with another hike behind us with a total mileage of about 5.8 miles short but enjoyable hike.