Salmon falls bridges loop

 January 28

This morning, I will be doing a hike starting at Sweetwater Trail and Salmon Falls Road. I will cross the old Salmon Falls Bridge and head up the Darrington Trail to the new Salmon Falls Bridge which will lead me back to Sweetwater Trail. I will be hiking a loop today. The trail starts off under a canopy of oak trees.

Soon we come to an area that is underwater in the summertime, but now is a wide open plane.  Like yesterday‘s trail this area also has evidence of gold rush activity. The river to our left has tailings from dredging operations and I have come to some foundations, water troughs, and collapsed bridge remnants that at one time crossed the river.

The old salmon Falls bridge is completely underwater during the summertime however, has the lake level drops in the winter it appears and is fully uncovered 

After crossing the bridge, I head up the hillside on the opposite side of the lake. I can look back over the open land and see the bridge from the opposite side.

I continue back into Oak under story and get occasional glimpses of the river and the bridge in the distance. One of the oaks has a broken branch hanging from some threads over the trail. It’s a good reminder to be aware of your surroundings.

I have found a western jack-o’-lantern a mushroom. It is growing in a fan shape. That is fairly interesting.

I cross a small stream and then reach a portion of the old San Falls Road there is still some small pieces of asphalt that are being reclaimed by the earth

When the lake is full, it has many channels, extending out laterally into the valleys. The tree line shows how high the water will get when the reservoir is full.

I am getting my first glimpses of the new Salmon Falls bridge.  In about 20 minutes, I will be crossing it.

As I wind back-and-forth along the hillside, the bridge gets closer with better views.

Having reached Salmon Falls Road I now walk across the bridge before dropping back down into a parking lot and the Sweetwater Trail access

After winding back-and-forth up and down through the oak under story again, I can look out across the dried lake bed and see the old bridge that I crossed at the beginning of the hike

I reached the heart parking lot having hiked 7.8 miles today. When I left the house today, I wasn’t even sure where I was gonna hike or how far I plan to go, but this was a good fit for this morning.

Brown’s ravine solo hike

 Monday January 27

Today I’m doing a solo hike at brown’s ravine. Before Folsom lake was built this area was a gold mining community. When the dam was built the town was vacated. On this hillside is an old foundation. You can still see the rock basement walls.

This trail has some beautiful views of the lake. The water level is low this year but not as low as I have seen in recent years.

As spring approaches new growth its starting to emerge.

I am regularly amazed at the power of nature. This tree has blown over with a large rock still wrapped in its root ball.

I feel very blessed to live so close to such a beautiful area. When down on the lake side of the hill you can escape the infrastructure and enjoy the quietness of nature. At the top of the hill the roads are visible.

There is another construction project in process that I don’t  understand. This dyke was reinforced about 15 years ago. About seven years ago a new spillway was built. Now, they are raising this levee a few feet. If the lake was at capacity on a regular basis I could understand, but it rarely is close to full!

Fungi. It comes in so many neat and varied shapes 

One of the neat things about this trail is that a lot of mountain bikes use the area. There a a lot of small side trails that split off of the mail trail.

I ended up doing a figure eight route and hiked 4.7 miles

Acorn Creek to Satan’s Cesspool

 January 7

This morning we are departing from the Acorn Creek trailhead with a destination of Satan’s Cesspool, a set of rapids along the American river. We have sunny skies with cool temperatures of about 37°F at our start.

The trail starts off through a fairly flat trail under a canopy of oak trees. The beautiful Tyoyon plant with its red berries standing out against its darker green leaves is interspersed amongst the Oakes.

There are beautiful, moss colored rocks of all sizes in this area. We are walking parallel to a corn Creek with its beautiful water sound in the background.

We have two very small creek crossings before passing by more moss covered tree trunks. 

In addition to the varied green covered moss, we also are coming across a large number of fungi showing off many different shapes and earthy colors.

The Scotchbroom is an attractive bush, however, is an invasive species that is very difficult to manage.

One very interesting topological feature on this hike is a very obvious transition from Oak, woodland tree-line and brush absent of a trees. Literally on one side of the trail the Hillside is covered with oak trees, the other side of the trail has no trees and thick brush made up of Manzanita and chemise.

I’ve come across another large, wild mushroom along a section of trail that again shows the rapid transition from wooded to non-wooded

We’ve been hiking mid slope along the hillside and now will drop down a number of switchbacks a little lower in the valley. This terrain is sprinkled with Oakes but wide open on the under story.

This picture of a large oak shows its resilience. The trunk snapped off yet. It is still thriving with sideways grove off its branches.

Soon we enter a portion of trail that is wide open with nothing but grasses around us.

We reached a junction where we take a side trail down to the river. There is a small tributary off to our side that has beautiful clumps of ferns growing in it.

This elevation also supports the growth of pine trees. One of which pictured rises high into the sky with no branches on its lower section.

We reached the river and walk across rocks that are normally submerged in the summertime. The power of the water has made them very smooth over the years.

The river is a a beautiful setting. We sat on some rocks overlooking the water for lunch.

We have come across a Pacific Madrone. It has a broad based leafs that it keeps you around. surprisingly It is considered an evergreen even though it has broad leaves and not needles.

I was able to get a close-up picture of the Pacific Woodfern as well. This is the one shown in a larger clumps in the tributary.

On our return trip, we have a good view of the river, which now is well below us in the distance.

This area is part of gold mining country. The minors would dig deep pits, exploring the ground, looking for gold veins. This one has filled with water. My attached video at the end of this posting shows another one that is dry.

As I came over one small rise, there is an oak tree bare of leaves, but sporting very round clumps of mistletoe high in canopy. It reminds me of a tree seen in the Dr. Seuss books.

It is a bit difficult to see in the pictures, but there is gold mining evidence with this water channel lined with rocks. It was built for diverting water to allow for sluicing.

 We arrived back to the parking lot having hiked 6.93 miles with the total elevation gain of 1063 feet. The temperature started at 37°F climbing to our current temperature of 60°. The skies remained cool and it was a beautiful day for a hike.