June 30, 2011, 9:41 pm Karen and I did a short loop hike in Lakes Basin today. I had thought we might do a longer loop hike that goes on the west side of Long Lake, but as we climbed from the trailhead up towards Big Bear Lake we were soon trail finding on solid snow. We passed by the picturesque lakes of Big Bear, Little Bear, Cub, and Long Lakes. I like this area and hope to get back for some further trail exploration.
 Long Lake and Mt. Elwell
Tantalizingly, there was an unfound geocache on top of Mt. Elwell. I think the hike was doable, but Karen does not enjoy snow hiking. That’s another reason to return.
Links
—Lakes Basin 2011 photo gallery
June 28, 2011, 10:39 pm Some parts of Plumas Eureka State Park are closed for toxic clean up—not uncommon in old gold mining areas. We drove to a trailhead along Little Jamison Creek and headed out toward Grass Lake, and perhaps even Rock Lake and Jamison Lake, depending on conditions.
 Grass Lake With lots of snow still on the surrounding peaks, the creek was roaring, especially at the falls. We had lunch at Grass Lake. After relaxing and playing around, the kids headed back to the trailhead—some to go geocaching and some to hit the swimming pool. Karen and I decided to continue on up the creek to see what Rock Lake was like. We started to run into more snow (at about 6,000 ft) and saw evidence of avalanches (broken off trees and debris). About half-way to the lake the trail crossed the creek. Have I mentioned the creek was roaring? We didn’t want to get wet, and we’re not keen anymore about balancing on narrow logs that are 3′ to 6′ above the water. So, we turned back.
After returning to the trailhead, we hiked through the nearby (closed) campground and up a fairly nice dirt road that wasn’t yet open due to big rocks and tree falls. We found a geocache that overlooks a couple of small waterfalls on Jamison Creek—although with the amount of water in the creek they were pretty impressive.
Links
Jamison Creek 2011 photo gallery
June 27, 2011, 9:33 pm  Upper Salmon Lake We headed to Upper Salmon Lake for a day hike today. On arriving we discovered the lake still had some ice in it, and the surrounding mountainsides had quite a bit of snow. We wanted to go past Upper Salmon Lake to Horse Lake, or maybe even Deer Lake.
After missing the trailhead and struggling to find a way to move from the lakeside use trail to the real trail up the hill, we had a clear trail back to the lodge. There are no roads to the lodge—guests take the water taxi. We quickly discovered that to go up the hill toward Horse Lake we’d be completely on snow. This was a bit more than the little kids could manage in their tennis shoes, so we found a bare rock on the hillside, ate our lunch, and headed back to the trail head.
Mark, Annmarie, and the kids headed back to the swimming pool. Dan, Janet, and the twins were off to find some geocaches. Karen and I drove over to Portola to explore and buy some groceries.
Links
—Upper Salmon Lake 2011 photo gallery
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