Hi all,
I finally obtained the Timber Harvest Plans (THPs) for the CHY and SPI lumber companies, in the Big Valley/Little Granite Creek area. Below, my first letter to William Schultz of CDF (the California Dept. of Forestry administers timber harvests on private lands).
This area is where damage recently occurred to the historic Big Granite Trail.
Very many other trails in the area have already been, not just damaged, but obliterated. I consider this intolerable, then and now.
I have my doubts whether the public comment period is even still open for the CHY THP. I am asking that the comment period be extended until next summer. It would not hurt for any of you to send a note to Mr. Schultz, asking that the public comment period for THP 2-04-169 be extended.
*******
December 15, 2004
William Schultz
CDF
6105 Airport Road
Redding, CA 96002
re: Timber Harvest Plan 2-04-169-PLA; damage to historic trails
Dear Mr. Schultz,
Please keep the public comment period open for THP 2-04-169-PLA; I had much difficulty in obtaining a copy, and although my telephone calls to CDF began in October, I did not get a copy until around December 10.
In the very same area is SPI's current "10% Exemption" harvest plan, 2-04EX-1061-3-PLA. I refer mainly to the basins of Big Valley and Little Granite Creek, south-flowing tributaries of the North Fork American River.
Please note that Foresthill District Ranger Richard Johnson of Tahoe National Forest tells me that TNF has contacted both CHY and SPI about further TNF land acquisitions in this area, including all of the CHY and SPI holdings in the basins of Big Valley and Little Granite Creek. I strongly support these acquisitions, which have been progressing slowly for years.
I had wrongly imagined that the devastation already caused by SPI and CHY harvests in the area was finished, and that TNF would be able to buy these lands before any further damage occurred.
Perhaps you will recall that I raised objections to a Siller Brothers THP last year, near Blue Canyon, around the gold mining townsite of Lost Camp. In part, I was concerned about the historic "China Trail," from Lost Camp to the North Fork of the North Fork American River.
Actually, the China Trail crossed that river and climbed to the crest of Sawtooth Ridge, across the canyon from Lost Camp; but the Sawtooth side of the China Trail had already been obliterated by logging. Hence I described the trail as leading to the river.
With regard to THP 2-04-169-PLA, and 2-04EX-1061, once again historic trails figure into my objections. I am quite familiar with the area, having hiked and skied there since 1972. It is an important part of Placer County's "high country." It is threaded through and through with historic trails, many of which have been utterly ruined by logging. Others have become logging roads.
One of the most popular hiking destinations in Tahoe National Forest, the Loch Leven Lakes, including Salmon Lake, is in this same area. The very popular North Fork American Wild & Scenic River is adjacent, to the south. The recreational value of the entire area is enormous.
In October, I heard from two different sources of recent damage to what remains intact of the Big Granite Trail. I was unable to get up there myself to see the damage before snow fell and blocked the roads up.
The Big Granite Trail led from Cisco, on the railroad, past Huysink Lake (named for Bernard Huysinck of Dutch Flat, an avid outdoorsman of the 19th century), into Little Granite Creek at Four Horse Flat, and then down Little and Big Granite Creeks into the North Fork American canyon.
Placer County appears to have expended money maintaining the Big Granite Trail in 1896 (Minutes of the Board of Supervisors, 1896). It is an historic public trail, like the other trails which have been either entirely or partly obliterated, in the same general area: the Big Valley Trail, the Sugar Pine Point Trail, the Cherry Point Trail, the Mears Meadow Trail, the Monumental Creek Trail, the Big Bend-Devils Peak Trail, and the Snow Mountain Trail. These were all once maintained by Tahoe National Forest.
In attempting to discover which lumber company had caused the most recent damage to the Big Granite Trail, I found CHY THP 2-04-169-PLA on your CDF website, and assumed CHY was the culprit. However, I knew that CHY lands bordered SPI lands in the area of most recent damage, that is, around the common line between sections 4 and 9, T16N, R13E. And emails to Jeff Dowling of CDF elicited the information that SPI has an active "10% Exemption" harvest plan in the area, including Section 9.
So I am uncertain which company, CHY or SPI, ran a bulldozer in beside the trail, above and in Four Horse Flat, and, so I hear, caused quite a lot of damage.
SPI seems to have been responsible for most of the destruction of the Sugar Pine Point Trail, although CHY contributed to its ruin in the Pelham Flat area. The more southern part of this trail remains partly intact, as it passes through the south half of Section 17 to its terminus in TNF Section 20. In the Exemption document 2-04EX-1061, there is a map showing this Section 17. Note the pass, on the ridge dividing Big Valley on the west from Little Granite Creek on the east, where roads fork, in the SW 1/4, at the head of a small tributary of Little Granite Creek. The relatively intact part of the Sugar Pine Point Trail parallels the more eastern road, south of the pass. Then, as soon as it crosses into Section 20, it is undamaged.
Incidentally, there is interesting lithic scatter at that very pass, suggesting that it may be on the line of a Native American trail. The lithic scatter has been exposed by construction of a log landing. Not far away, in Section 20, is a more significant prehistoric site associated with the Martis Complex.
There is also an active Northern Goshawk nesting site in Section 20.
SPI and CHY have not touched the land lightly. They have destroyed trails and left scars which will mar the scenery for generations. The great grove of centuries-old Incense Cedars in Big Valley is gone, only a torn-up weedy meadow studded with stumps showing it ever existed. The grove was directly on the line of the Big Granite Trail.
This is an area of great scenery, with many fine overlooks, in direct contrast to assertions made in the CHY THP. I love the view down Big Valley to the American River Canyon, from near Huysink Lake, for instance. There is a very unusual geology in the area, with narrow bands of metamorphic rock (the Taylorsville Sequence), much more broadly exposed in the Feather River country to the north, making their southernmost appearance here. Fossil ammonites are found in the Sailor Canyon Formation near Huysink Lake. The glacial history is also of special interest, as these canyons received overflow from the South Yuba ice field to the north; the North Fork American is anomalously deep, in part, because it robbed the South Yuba of its own Yuba ice, as it were. The Emigrant Gap Mafic Complex, with its quite unusual intrusive rocks, gabbros and dunites, flanks the area on the west.
There are many small ponds and wet meadows in the area. It is a lovely place, which partakes of the special magic of the North Fork American. Tremendous, unconscionable damage has already occurred to the historic trails there. Rather than harvesting more timber, CHY and SPI should mitigate the damage they have already caused.
Of course, CDF presided over these timber harvests.
A good start on CHY's and SPI's mitigation would be to give the lands to Tahoe National Forest, or at the least, agree to sell the lands to TNF at very favorable terms, deferring further harvests until funding becomes available.
Considering CDF's role, let the State of California contribute its millions of dollars to the task of restoring these lands to public ownership and revegetating the roads and skid trails, and restoring the ruined foot trails. President Lincoln was wrong to give these lands to the Central Pacific Railroad. True, the gift helped make Republicans rich, but it is costing all of us of every political party very dearly, in the long haul.
It seems that "10% Exemption" harvests are exempt from both environmental review and public comment. I will remark however, that every piece of land involved in this Exemption harvest is not only known to me personally, it is important to the future of Placer County's and Tahoe National Forest's wildlands. And that includes the SPI parcel(s) out on Sawtooth Ridge, where for years I have advocated restoration of the obliterated Sawtooth Ridge Trail, and acquisition of the private inholdings by Tahoe National Forest.
I have more comments I wish to make on CHY THP 2-04-169, so, in conclusion, please keep the public comment period open. It would be best if the comment period remained open long enough to make a direct examination of the harvest areas, now under snow.
Thanks for your consideration of these matters.
Sincerely,
Russell Towle
Box 141
Dutch Flat, CA 95714
cc: Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
*******
Cheers,
Russell Towle
Showing posts with label Big Granite Trail. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big Granite Trail. Show all posts
Friday, December 16, 2005
Monday, February 28, 2005
Damage to Big Granite Trail: update
Last fall word came in from Tom Martin of Alta that the historic Big Granite Trail (BGT) had suffered new and additional damage from logging operations.
The BGT originally connected Cisco on the north to the North Fork American River on the south, and beyond to the La Trinidad Mine in Sailor Canyon. See the Cisco Grove and Duncan Peak USGS 7.5-minute map quadrangles.
The more northern parts of the BGT became roads long ago, for instance "The Grade" is what a local's local calls the road from Cisco Grove up to Huysink Lake. This road shows on a map from 1902. Currently one accesses the BGT by driving past Huysink towards Pelham Flat. An unmarked road left leads to the trail. Descending, one enters Four Horse Flat, where the original line of the BGT was destroyed by logging, some ten or fifteen years ago.
It is in this same area where new damage occurred last fall. The snow fell before I had a chance to get in there. Two lumber companies own land there, intermeshed with Tahoe National Forest (TNF) lands: Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI; famous for clearcuts) and another outfit called CHY. It turns out both have timber harvest plans, either approved (SPI) or pending approval (CHY) in the area. I was unable to determine "who done it."
I obtained the CHY and SPI harvest plans from the CA Department of Forestry (CDF), and wrote a letter to Deputy Chief Bill Schultz, complaining of the damage to a truly great and wondrous historic trail. This trail makes, I'd say, the very most scenic entrance into the North Fork canyon of all the old trails.
Now, it is remarkable and horrible that, in a frenzy of timber harvests in the 1960s, very many of our historic trails were ruined, utterly obliterated. What I find strange is that the process continues to this very day.
I copied my CDF letter to Governor Schwarzenegger, for I have a feeling, an odd feeling, that almost nobody in our State or our County governments has the slightest inkling that these historic public trails are being ripped up by bulldozers.
Today I received a letter from Dale Geldert, Director of CDF, in which he writes "Governor Schwarzenegger has asked us to respond to your letter regarding harvesting practices and protection of historic trails in the North Fork of the American River." Geldert goes on to remark that the CHY harvest plan is still under review and that no decision will be made until the snow melts and on-the-ground inspections can be made by CDF personnel.
I also learn, from John Betts, an archeologist who has worked hard to preserve and document petroglyphs in the Sierra, and who once worked for CDF, that CDF almost never hears from people who care about historic trails. It is so far off CDF radar that one might lose hope; but John says what is really needed is people like us making comments on timber harvest plans, and demanding the old trails be protected. John says CDF almost never hears about these trails, and often does not know they exist.
We wrote letters to CDF about such a trail at Lost Camp (south of Blue Canyon) not too long ago. The historic China Trail was actually marked as a skid trail, in the Siller Bros. Lumber Company harvest plan, that is, bulldozers were *supposed* to use the old trail to drag logs up to a landing. But our letters forced a small change, protecting the China Trail.
We couldn't stop the timber harvest at Lost Camp, but we did change the plan and protect the China Trail from what might have been very significant damage.
Such is some news about the recent damage to the Big Granite Trail. The public comment period will, it seems, remain open on the CHY harvest plan, at least until next June, when the snow will be gone, and the on-the-ground inspections can go forward.
The BGT originally connected Cisco on the north to the North Fork American River on the south, and beyond to the La Trinidad Mine in Sailor Canyon. See the Cisco Grove and Duncan Peak USGS 7.5-minute map quadrangles.
The more northern parts of the BGT became roads long ago, for instance "The Grade" is what a local's local calls the road from Cisco Grove up to Huysink Lake. This road shows on a map from 1902. Currently one accesses the BGT by driving past Huysink towards Pelham Flat. An unmarked road left leads to the trail. Descending, one enters Four Horse Flat, where the original line of the BGT was destroyed by logging, some ten or fifteen years ago.
It is in this same area where new damage occurred last fall. The snow fell before I had a chance to get in there. Two lumber companies own land there, intermeshed with Tahoe National Forest (TNF) lands: Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI; famous for clearcuts) and another outfit called CHY. It turns out both have timber harvest plans, either approved (SPI) or pending approval (CHY) in the area. I was unable to determine "who done it."
I obtained the CHY and SPI harvest plans from the CA Department of Forestry (CDF), and wrote a letter to Deputy Chief Bill Schultz, complaining of the damage to a truly great and wondrous historic trail. This trail makes, I'd say, the very most scenic entrance into the North Fork canyon of all the old trails.
Now, it is remarkable and horrible that, in a frenzy of timber harvests in the 1960s, very many of our historic trails were ruined, utterly obliterated. What I find strange is that the process continues to this very day.
I copied my CDF letter to Governor Schwarzenegger, for I have a feeling, an odd feeling, that almost nobody in our State or our County governments has the slightest inkling that these historic public trails are being ripped up by bulldozers.
Today I received a letter from Dale Geldert, Director of CDF, in which he writes "Governor Schwarzenegger has asked us to respond to your letter regarding harvesting practices and protection of historic trails in the North Fork of the American River." Geldert goes on to remark that the CHY harvest plan is still under review and that no decision will be made until the snow melts and on-the-ground inspections can be made by CDF personnel.
I also learn, from John Betts, an archeologist who has worked hard to preserve and document petroglyphs in the Sierra, and who once worked for CDF, that CDF almost never hears from people who care about historic trails. It is so far off CDF radar that one might lose hope; but John says what is really needed is people like us making comments on timber harvest plans, and demanding the old trails be protected. John says CDF almost never hears about these trails, and often does not know they exist.
We wrote letters to CDF about such a trail at Lost Camp (south of Blue Canyon) not too long ago. The historic China Trail was actually marked as a skid trail, in the Siller Bros. Lumber Company harvest plan, that is, bulldozers were *supposed* to use the old trail to drag logs up to a landing. But our letters forced a small change, protecting the China Trail.
We couldn't stop the timber harvest at Lost Camp, but we did change the plan and protect the China Trail from what might have been very significant damage.
Such is some news about the recent damage to the Big Granite Trail. The public comment period will, it seems, remain open on the CHY harvest plan, at least until next June, when the snow will be gone, and the on-the-ground inspections can go forward.
CDF Contact Info
Henry Calanchini reminds me that I often neglect to provide contact info; for instance, if it is important to let CDF know we care about historic trails, then let's have an address!
OK. So far as CDF, here's what I've got, excerpted from the snail mail letter I sent last December:
*******
December 15, 2004
William Schultz
CDF
6105 Airport Road
Redding, CA 96002
re: Timber Harvest Plan 2-04-169-PLA; damage to historic trails
Dear Mr. Schultz,
Please keep the public comment period open for THP 2-04-169-PLA; I had much difficulty in obtaining a copy, and although my telephone calls to CDF began in October, I did not get a copy until around December 10.
In the very same area is SPI's current "10% Exemption" harvest plan, 2-04EX-1061-3-PLA. I refer mainly to the basins of Big Valley and Little Granite Creek, south-flowing tributaries of the North Fork American River.
Please note that Foresthill District Ranger Richard Johnson of Tahoe National Forest tells me that TNF has contacted both CHY and SPI about further TNF land acquisitions in this area, including all of the CHY and SPI holdings in the basins of Big Valley and Little Granite Creek. I strongly support these acquisitions, which have been progressing slowly for years.
I had wrongly imagined that the devastation already caused by SPI and CHY harvests in the area was finished, and that TNF would be able to buy these lands before any further damage occurred.
[the rest omitted)
*******
Cheers,
Russell Towle
OK. So far as CDF, here's what I've got, excerpted from the snail mail letter I sent last December:
*******
December 15, 2004
William Schultz
CDF
6105 Airport Road
Redding, CA 96002
re: Timber Harvest Plan 2-04-169-PLA; damage to historic trails
Dear Mr. Schultz,
Please keep the public comment period open for THP 2-04-169-PLA; I had much difficulty in obtaining a copy, and although my telephone calls to CDF began in October, I did not get a copy until around December 10.
In the very same area is SPI's current "10% Exemption" harvest plan, 2-04EX-1061-3-PLA. I refer mainly to the basins of Big Valley and Little Granite Creek, south-flowing tributaries of the North Fork American River.
Please note that Foresthill District Ranger Richard Johnson of Tahoe National Forest tells me that TNF has contacted both CHY and SPI about further TNF land acquisitions in this area, including all of the CHY and SPI holdings in the basins of Big Valley and Little Granite Creek. I strongly support these acquisitions, which have been progressing slowly for years.
I had wrongly imagined that the devastation already caused by SPI and CHY harvests in the area was finished, and that TNF would be able to buy these lands before any further damage occurred.
[the rest omitted)
*******
Cheers,
Russell Towle
Thursday, October 7, 2004
New Damage to the Old Big Granite Trail
Hi all, Tom Martin wrote,
Last Sunday, October 3, 2004, Tom Martin, Judy Martin, Leslie Gault, and
Jimmy Green hiked from the trailhead on Huysink Lake Road to the Upper Big
Granite Trail to the old logging road to the Cherry Point Trail to the
Salmon Lake Trail and back to the trailhead.
We noticed that the road off of the Huysink Lake Road was freshly graded.
First we thought that the loggers graded the road to the logging pad at the
end of the road. We were wrong.
They graded past the road leading to the hunters' camp but quickly turned on
the old logging trail just past the turnoff. They graded parallel to the
road to the hunters' camp and continued grading parallel to the Upper Big
Granite Trail for approximately one-third of the distance to the creek
crossing. The grading was done so close to the trail that debris and rock
covered this portion of the trail.
The middle third of the Upper Granite Trail to the creek crossing was
completely destroyed. The remaining third of the Upper Granite Trail to the
creek was untouched, but the logging equipment was still there. An old
logging trail was part of the Upper Granite Trail from the other side of the
creek to the old logging road. This trail was re-graded as a road again
with big earth berms. The entire length of trail was hard to hike.
The US Forestry posted the Upper Granite Trail with a sign at the old
logging road. I always thought that the US Forestry recognized this trail.
Apparently, the US Forestry failed to identify this trail in the
timber-harvesting plan. The loggers did stay approximately 100 feet away
from the creek.
Another well established trail might become extinct due to logging.
The Big Granite Trail once began at Cisco Grove and, passing Huysink Lake at the very head of Big Valley, crossed into Little Granite Creek and dropped down and around east into Big Granite Creek, crossed, and dropped to the North Fork American not far downstream from New York Canyon. Following the construction of roads into Huysink Lake and Pelham Flat and Sugar Pine Point, parts of the Big Granite Trail became roads, and most of the old Sugar Pine Point Trail was utterly destroyed. The section of the Big Granite Trail, from the ridge making the Big Valley/Little Granite Creek divide, down to the crossing of Little Granite Creek, was almost ruined by logging, some twenty years ago or less.
Now it appears it has been further damaged.
Tahoe National Forest, I have heard, thinks of this section of private land, owned by Sierra Pacific Industries, as being "in the queue" of future land acquisitions. I'm afraid I mistakenly though that SPI would hold off on further logging until the purchase could be made.
This is bad news.
Last Sunday, October 3, 2004, Tom Martin, Judy Martin, Leslie Gault, and
Jimmy Green hiked from the trailhead on Huysink Lake Road to the Upper Big
Granite Trail to the old logging road to the Cherry Point Trail to the
Salmon Lake Trail and back to the trailhead.
We noticed that the road off of the Huysink Lake Road was freshly graded.
First we thought that the loggers graded the road to the logging pad at the
end of the road. We were wrong.
They graded past the road leading to the hunters' camp but quickly turned on
the old logging trail just past the turnoff. They graded parallel to the
road to the hunters' camp and continued grading parallel to the Upper Big
Granite Trail for approximately one-third of the distance to the creek
crossing. The grading was done so close to the trail that debris and rock
covered this portion of the trail.
The middle third of the Upper Granite Trail to the creek crossing was
completely destroyed. The remaining third of the Upper Granite Trail to the
creek was untouched, but the logging equipment was still there. An old
logging trail was part of the Upper Granite Trail from the other side of the
creek to the old logging road. This trail was re-graded as a road again
with big earth berms. The entire length of trail was hard to hike.
The US Forestry posted the Upper Granite Trail with a sign at the old
logging road. I always thought that the US Forestry recognized this trail.
Apparently, the US Forestry failed to identify this trail in the
timber-harvesting plan. The loggers did stay approximately 100 feet away
from the creek.
Another well established trail might become extinct due to logging.
The Big Granite Trail once began at Cisco Grove and, passing Huysink Lake at the very head of Big Valley, crossed into Little Granite Creek and dropped down and around east into Big Granite Creek, crossed, and dropped to the North Fork American not far downstream from New York Canyon. Following the construction of roads into Huysink Lake and Pelham Flat and Sugar Pine Point, parts of the Big Granite Trail became roads, and most of the old Sugar Pine Point Trail was utterly destroyed. The section of the Big Granite Trail, from the ridge making the Big Valley/Little Granite Creek divide, down to the crossing of Little Granite Creek, was almost ruined by logging, some twenty years ago or less.
Now it appears it has been further damaged.
Tahoe National Forest, I have heard, thinks of this section of private land, owned by Sierra Pacific Industries, as being "in the queue" of future land acquisitions. I'm afraid I mistakenly though that SPI would hold off on further logging until the purchase could be made.
This is bad news.
Sunday, September 14, 2003
Big Granite Trail
Saturday I returned to Four Horse Flat for a reconnaissance of problematic parts of the Big Granite Trail. This trail once began at Cisco on the railroad--tho it may well be older than Cisco, which only dates to 1866--and climbed to the pass between the South Yuba and the North Fork American at Huysink Lake (named for Bernard Huysink, a 19th-century outdoorsman of Dutch Flat), skirted the headwaters of Big Valley, and entered the basin of Little Granite Creek through another pass. The trail descended Little Granite Creek, crossed to Big Granite Creek, and finally dropped to the North Fork American, where a ford led to the American River Trail. A short distance upstream, the Sailor Flat Trail was thought of as the continuation of the Big Granite Trail, and one could climb past the La Trinidad Mine, and on beyond Sailor Flat to Robinson Flat.
The Big Granite Trail is one of the sixty-odd historic trails declared to be "county roads" in the notorious yet abortive 1953 Placer County BOS ordinance which intended to preserve public access to public trails. This ordinance was repealed in 1954, and replaced by a weaker ordinance, which mentioned no trail specifically, but only provided that all "public trails" were declared to be "county roads." But who is to say which trail is public? Not Placer County. Not Tahoe National Forest.
At any rate, Four Horse Flat is south of the Loch Leven Lakes, in the glaciated valley of Little Granite Creek. The most detailed map of the region is the USGS 7.5 minute Cisco Grove quadrangle. The Flat is a meadowy area on the north side of the creek, at about 6000' in elevation, with an odd mixture of trees more often found at lower elevations, such as White Fir and Incense Cedar, and trees of the out-and-out high country, such as Aspen and Lodgepole Pine. This is where the Cherry Point Trail meets the Big Granite Trail. Very unfortunately, the area (within Section 9) was logged some fifteen or twenty years ago, and the original lines of the various trails disrupted and obliterated, by logging roads, skid trails, and log decks.
A few weeks ago, with Catherine O'Riley et. al., I had walked past Four Horse Flat on a logging road, and noted a fairly new sign on a tree reading "Big Granite Trail." Yet a tangle of brush and logging slash separated this sign from the old foot trail itself, a few yards away. So my first order of business was to resolve this issue.
The rest of my family was heading for Salmon Lake with friends Neil and Cindy and I dropped them off at the Salmon Lake Trail. There were all of ten vehicles parked there. Then I drove a scant half-mile further to the pass between Big Valley and Little Granite Creek--a TNF sign gives distances to Husink Lake, Pelham Flat, and Big Valley, here, at an elevation of about 6600'--and started off down the unmarked road, or jeep trail, which skirts a mass of Mountain Alders as it descends a small valley. Blazes showed this to be the line of the BGT. These groves of shrubby alders grow in wet areas and are for all intents and purposes impenetrable to humans. The courses of trails are often governed by these alder thickets.
The jeep trail ends at an elaborate hunters' camp, with sleeping platforms, and even piped water! From there the foot trail drops into a grove of large Incense Cedar, only lightly logged, and still impressive. A few weeks ago it showed no signs of recent use, but yesterday I was angered to see that some four-wheeled ATVs had been on the trail, tearing it up a bit, scattering small boulders and leaving heaps of dust. There ought to be a vehicle closure on this trail.
The Cisco Grove quadrangle shows the Big Granite Trail following this tiny tributary of Little Granite Creek southeast into Four Horse Flat, but this course has been abandoned in favor of a logging road. I searched without success for the original line of the trail, and then took the logging road, which drops gently to the southwest, and intersects another logging road at the aforementioned sign.
Here the old trail reappears just a few yards below, yet the most direct route is blocked. Yesterday I saw that, just at the sign, one switches back northeast--the wrong direction--on the lower logging road, and then almost immediately, one switches back sharply southwest, on the original trail. Old blazes on the trees confirmed this to be, in fact, the Big Granite Trail, and there is also a second sign, just where the trail is reached.
I decided to scout back north into Four Horse Flat and see if I could discover more of the original line of the trail. Soon I saw a duck, and a blaze, and a bit of undisturbed trail, and another duck, and wondered who it was, who had apparently, just like me, tried to find the old trail. The path climbed slowly into a meadow, and then, just as it would seem to have climbed higher, into the forest, I lost it. In the general scheme of things, this particular trail does not show on the Cisco Grove quadrangle; it is a "short-cut" which avoids *two* crossings of Little Granite Creek, by simply staying to the west of the creek.
For, the way the map has it, the BGT drops steeply down the little tributary, skirts Four Horse Flat on the north, crosses Little Granite Creek to meet the Cherry Point Trail, and then turns sharply southwest and crosses the creek again.
I planned to ascend the Cherry Point Trail later, and deferred further explorations in this area until I had visited another "problem" on the trail, well downstream.
As I walked back south on the "short-cut" trail, I was able to recognize its exact course more accurately. Soon I was back on the main trail, and followed along southerly, through forests and meadows, where the ATVs had flattened the late-season wildflowers. It was a lovely warm day, and butterflies were everywhere. There were blues and checkerspots and Lorquin's Admirals. I noted the recent tracks of perhaps half a dozen mountain bikes.
At a certain point, a little ways south into Section 16, at an elevation of about 5800', the most-used line of the BGT crosses Little Granite Creek to the east side, where it remains. However, the Cisco Grove quadrangle shows it staying on the west side for another half-mile south. I have walked both routes. The west-side trail is the old, original trail. I don't quite know why it was abandoned. Mule trains used this trail in the olden days, and in places, it was eroded into a narrow, bouldery trench. Add to this that the old trail crosses the creek in what might be considered a more hazardous route, over huge granite boulders, and I guess we have the reason for the new crossing.
The new crossing is a little awkward in its own right, impeded by alders, and everyone tries to make it across without getting their feet wet, and what with the alders, the banks of fine-grained weak sediments get broken down. I did a little lopping to help open the crossing, and then took a lunch break. Exploring a bit on the east side of the creek, I saw some six-foot-diameter Incense Cedar and White Fir. No logging had ever occurred here, in TNF-owned Section 16.
It was time to start back north towards Salmon Lake. I had stored waypoints for the two crossings of Little Granite Creek up by Four Horse Flat on my GPS unit, and found that that area had been heavily impacted by logging. A logging road had been carried across the creek, either directly on the line of the old trail, or quite near it, and then this new road became directly superimposed upon the old trail. As I walked along and neared the northern crossing, I guessed that the road diverged very slightly from the old trail, so, I dropped away toward the creek, and found the crossing. This is just where the old BGT and Cherry Point Trail joined. The creek was dry here, and spread wide over a bouldery floodplain. I crossed, and followed along what I took to be the BGT to the northwest for a while, but the large trees which might have held blazes had been all cut down, and the faint trail-like groove in the ground might have been no more than a skid trail. I returned, re-crossed, and followed a faint trace of the Cherry Point Trail east. I found a nice old aspen tree with not only a blaze, but initials carved into the trunk, as well as the claw marks of bears, who often scar aspens to mark their territories.
However, immediately to the north the trail seemed to coincide with the logging road. The creek itself was inviting, since it flowed directly over the metasediments of the Sailor Canyon Formation, although the flow was almost non-existent. The water-polished rocks were lovely, and I scampered higher and higher. Just a little ways north these Jurassic metasediments abruptly terminate at the granite pluton of Loch Leven Lakes. I was intrigued to see evidence of contact metamorphism in the Sailor Canyon fm. rocks: little zones of granitoid texture here and there. I wanted to follow right up to the contact itself, but Mountain Alders began to close in tightly, and I didn't want to get too far off the line of the Cherry Point Trail. So I left the creek and struck away uphill to the east until I hit the logging road which now counts as the Cherry Point Trail.
This proved to be the trail by which the half-dozen mountain bikes had descended, perhaps aiming for the North Fork, the American River Trail, and then climbing out of the canyon at Mumford Bar. These bikes cause quite a bit of erosion on steep trails. I saw a pair of large grouse along the way. There are some rather scenic escarpments of granite, and wet meadows, and nice views of Cherry Point Ridge, its north face all cloaked in Red Fir. Eventually I got far enough north to strike out west, cross-country, to Salmon Lake, and the rest of my party. Up there, in the highlands, the northeast wind was brisk, and although the kids swam, the adults stayed dry. We saw a Goshawk and a falcon in the area, along with numerous birds I did not recognize, with dark greenish wings, given to perching on tree-tops, and making sudden hawklike forays out for flying insects, and then resuming their perch. There were dozens of these. Sometimes they would flock together, sometimes they would spread out widely to their individual perches.
A large party was camping above the lake, with all of ten tents. We thought that they might be Boy Scouts.
From the lake one can see parts of Snow Mountain, and even Lyon Peak and Tinkers Knob, in the distance. From an eminence south of the lake a much wider view embraces the length of Little Granite Creek, Sugar Pine Point and its Little Slate Ridge, and the main North Fork canyon itself.
Around four o'clock we hiked back out to Forest Road 38 and the cars.
Summing up, logging has severely impacted both the Big Granite and Cherry Point trails, especially near Four Horse Flat. Both trails now follow logging roads in this area. It seems possible that the "short-cut" portion of the BGT, in Four Horse Flat, might be reestablished, offering an alternative to the logging road now in use.
The Big Granite Trail is one of the sixty-odd historic trails declared to be "county roads" in the notorious yet abortive 1953 Placer County BOS ordinance which intended to preserve public access to public trails. This ordinance was repealed in 1954, and replaced by a weaker ordinance, which mentioned no trail specifically, but only provided that all "public trails" were declared to be "county roads." But who is to say which trail is public? Not Placer County. Not Tahoe National Forest.
At any rate, Four Horse Flat is south of the Loch Leven Lakes, in the glaciated valley of Little Granite Creek. The most detailed map of the region is the USGS 7.5 minute Cisco Grove quadrangle. The Flat is a meadowy area on the north side of the creek, at about 6000' in elevation, with an odd mixture of trees more often found at lower elevations, such as White Fir and Incense Cedar, and trees of the out-and-out high country, such as Aspen and Lodgepole Pine. This is where the Cherry Point Trail meets the Big Granite Trail. Very unfortunately, the area (within Section 9) was logged some fifteen or twenty years ago, and the original lines of the various trails disrupted and obliterated, by logging roads, skid trails, and log decks.
A few weeks ago, with Catherine O'Riley et. al., I had walked past Four Horse Flat on a logging road, and noted a fairly new sign on a tree reading "Big Granite Trail." Yet a tangle of brush and logging slash separated this sign from the old foot trail itself, a few yards away. So my first order of business was to resolve this issue.
The rest of my family was heading for Salmon Lake with friends Neil and Cindy and I dropped them off at the Salmon Lake Trail. There were all of ten vehicles parked there. Then I drove a scant half-mile further to the pass between Big Valley and Little Granite Creek--a TNF sign gives distances to Husink Lake, Pelham Flat, and Big Valley, here, at an elevation of about 6600'--and started off down the unmarked road, or jeep trail, which skirts a mass of Mountain Alders as it descends a small valley. Blazes showed this to be the line of the BGT. These groves of shrubby alders grow in wet areas and are for all intents and purposes impenetrable to humans. The courses of trails are often governed by these alder thickets.
The jeep trail ends at an elaborate hunters' camp, with sleeping platforms, and even piped water! From there the foot trail drops into a grove of large Incense Cedar, only lightly logged, and still impressive. A few weeks ago it showed no signs of recent use, but yesterday I was angered to see that some four-wheeled ATVs had been on the trail, tearing it up a bit, scattering small boulders and leaving heaps of dust. There ought to be a vehicle closure on this trail.
The Cisco Grove quadrangle shows the Big Granite Trail following this tiny tributary of Little Granite Creek southeast into Four Horse Flat, but this course has been abandoned in favor of a logging road. I searched without success for the original line of the trail, and then took the logging road, which drops gently to the southwest, and intersects another logging road at the aforementioned sign.
Here the old trail reappears just a few yards below, yet the most direct route is blocked. Yesterday I saw that, just at the sign, one switches back northeast--the wrong direction--on the lower logging road, and then almost immediately, one switches back sharply southwest, on the original trail. Old blazes on the trees confirmed this to be, in fact, the Big Granite Trail, and there is also a second sign, just where the trail is reached.
I decided to scout back north into Four Horse Flat and see if I could discover more of the original line of the trail. Soon I saw a duck, and a blaze, and a bit of undisturbed trail, and another duck, and wondered who it was, who had apparently, just like me, tried to find the old trail. The path climbed slowly into a meadow, and then, just as it would seem to have climbed higher, into the forest, I lost it. In the general scheme of things, this particular trail does not show on the Cisco Grove quadrangle; it is a "short-cut" which avoids *two* crossings of Little Granite Creek, by simply staying to the west of the creek.
For, the way the map has it, the BGT drops steeply down the little tributary, skirts Four Horse Flat on the north, crosses Little Granite Creek to meet the Cherry Point Trail, and then turns sharply southwest and crosses the creek again.
I planned to ascend the Cherry Point Trail later, and deferred further explorations in this area until I had visited another "problem" on the trail, well downstream.
As I walked back south on the "short-cut" trail, I was able to recognize its exact course more accurately. Soon I was back on the main trail, and followed along southerly, through forests and meadows, where the ATVs had flattened the late-season wildflowers. It was a lovely warm day, and butterflies were everywhere. There were blues and checkerspots and Lorquin's Admirals. I noted the recent tracks of perhaps half a dozen mountain bikes.
At a certain point, a little ways south into Section 16, at an elevation of about 5800', the most-used line of the BGT crosses Little Granite Creek to the east side, where it remains. However, the Cisco Grove quadrangle shows it staying on the west side for another half-mile south. I have walked both routes. The west-side trail is the old, original trail. I don't quite know why it was abandoned. Mule trains used this trail in the olden days, and in places, it was eroded into a narrow, bouldery trench. Add to this that the old trail crosses the creek in what might be considered a more hazardous route, over huge granite boulders, and I guess we have the reason for the new crossing.
The new crossing is a little awkward in its own right, impeded by alders, and everyone tries to make it across without getting their feet wet, and what with the alders, the banks of fine-grained weak sediments get broken down. I did a little lopping to help open the crossing, and then took a lunch break. Exploring a bit on the east side of the creek, I saw some six-foot-diameter Incense Cedar and White Fir. No logging had ever occurred here, in TNF-owned Section 16.
It was time to start back north towards Salmon Lake. I had stored waypoints for the two crossings of Little Granite Creek up by Four Horse Flat on my GPS unit, and found that that area had been heavily impacted by logging. A logging road had been carried across the creek, either directly on the line of the old trail, or quite near it, and then this new road became directly superimposed upon the old trail. As I walked along and neared the northern crossing, I guessed that the road diverged very slightly from the old trail, so, I dropped away toward the creek, and found the crossing. This is just where the old BGT and Cherry Point Trail joined. The creek was dry here, and spread wide over a bouldery floodplain. I crossed, and followed along what I took to be the BGT to the northwest for a while, but the large trees which might have held blazes had been all cut down, and the faint trail-like groove in the ground might have been no more than a skid trail. I returned, re-crossed, and followed a faint trace of the Cherry Point Trail east. I found a nice old aspen tree with not only a blaze, but initials carved into the trunk, as well as the claw marks of bears, who often scar aspens to mark their territories.
However, immediately to the north the trail seemed to coincide with the logging road. The creek itself was inviting, since it flowed directly over the metasediments of the Sailor Canyon Formation, although the flow was almost non-existent. The water-polished rocks were lovely, and I scampered higher and higher. Just a little ways north these Jurassic metasediments abruptly terminate at the granite pluton of Loch Leven Lakes. I was intrigued to see evidence of contact metamorphism in the Sailor Canyon fm. rocks: little zones of granitoid texture here and there. I wanted to follow right up to the contact itself, but Mountain Alders began to close in tightly, and I didn't want to get too far off the line of the Cherry Point Trail. So I left the creek and struck away uphill to the east until I hit the logging road which now counts as the Cherry Point Trail.
This proved to be the trail by which the half-dozen mountain bikes had descended, perhaps aiming for the North Fork, the American River Trail, and then climbing out of the canyon at Mumford Bar. These bikes cause quite a bit of erosion on steep trails. I saw a pair of large grouse along the way. There are some rather scenic escarpments of granite, and wet meadows, and nice views of Cherry Point Ridge, its north face all cloaked in Red Fir. Eventually I got far enough north to strike out west, cross-country, to Salmon Lake, and the rest of my party. Up there, in the highlands, the northeast wind was brisk, and although the kids swam, the adults stayed dry. We saw a Goshawk and a falcon in the area, along with numerous birds I did not recognize, with dark greenish wings, given to perching on tree-tops, and making sudden hawklike forays out for flying insects, and then resuming their perch. There were dozens of these. Sometimes they would flock together, sometimes they would spread out widely to their individual perches.
A large party was camping above the lake, with all of ten tents. We thought that they might be Boy Scouts.
From the lake one can see parts of Snow Mountain, and even Lyon Peak and Tinkers Knob, in the distance. From an eminence south of the lake a much wider view embraces the length of Little Granite Creek, Sugar Pine Point and its Little Slate Ridge, and the main North Fork canyon itself.
Around four o'clock we hiked back out to Forest Road 38 and the cars.
Summing up, logging has severely impacted both the Big Granite and Cherry Point trails, especially near Four Horse Flat. Both trails now follow logging roads in this area. It seems possible that the "short-cut" portion of the BGT, in Four Horse Flat, might be reestablished, offering an alternative to the logging road now in use.
Sunday, August 24, 2003
The Big Granite Trail
Friday dawned amid thunder, lightning, and much rain, and the exploration of the Big Granite Trail Catherine O'Riley and I had planned seemed much in doubt. However, the weather people all agreed that this storm would pass quickly, with clear skies Friday night and warming temperatures on Saturday. So with a bit of our usual devil-may-care spirit urging us along, Catherine swung by the little cabins near Dutch Flat around eleven, and off we went. Gus Wiseman and Greg Towle rounded out the party. We hoped to find Tom and Mary McGuire at the confluence of the North Fork with Big Granite Creek. They had hiked in Wednesday from the Sailor Flat Trail.
Through masses of fog and occasional sprinkles we wound our way in from the Yuba Gap exit, past Huysink Lake and the Salmon Lake trailhead, to a pass on the crest of the ridge dividing Big Valley on the west from Little Granite Creek on the east. A TNF sign there showed Pelham Flat ahead, Huysink Lake behind, and we parked in a log landing beside the road.
The Big Granite Trail seems to have once stemmed from Cisco, on the railroad, and by way of Huysink Lake crossed that very pass where we parked, before descending to Four Horse Flat and Little Granite Creek. It crossed the North Fork at a ford and climbed Sailor Canyon to the La Trinidad Mine and Sailor Flat, up on the Foresthill Divide. So at some point, perhaps the crossing of the North Fork, its name should change to "Sailor Flat Trail."
Gradually roads penetrated this lovely part of the Placer County high country--I have a 1900-era map showing a road from Cisco up to Huysink, for instance--and then in a sustained frenzy of timber harvests and road-building many of the old trails on the area were obliterated, such as the Sugar Pine Point Trail and the Big Valley Trail. Much of this occurred about twenty years ago. There is the usual "checkerboard" pattern of even-numbered TNF sections interspersed with the odd-numbered "railroad" sections, with a few local variations.
Most all if not all of these old railroad sections had been purchased by lumber companies, most notably, Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI). This alone caused an increase in timber harvests in the area.
As Rich Johnson of the Foresthill Ranger District recounted to us the other night, at the NFARA meeting, quite a few of the old railroad sections have been purchased by TNF in recent years. I would like to see these land acquisitions continue. For instance, considering only T16N, R13E, sections 7, 17, and 9 would stand at the top of my list. And of these, how much could be said about section 9.
From our parking place in the pass, at 6600' elevation, a steep jeep trail drops to the east, bears south into section 9, and in a few hundred yards ends at a hunters' camp, where there is enough room to turn around. The only time I had ever hiked this part of the Big Granite Trail was in pitch darkness--some six years ago, perhaps--feeling my way with my feet, for the trail itself was firm and compacted, while the rich forest floor was soft. Dave Lawler and I had taken a "short cut" to the trail from Sugar Pine Point, hitting it a couple miles down. We explored the lower part of Big Granite Creek and then ventured a mile or so down the North Fork all the way to the inner gorge below Big Valley Bluff. Then, on our way back up from the river, leg cramps struck, and our pace slowed until finally the fullness of night embraced our little world of gurgling brooks and dense stands of mountain alder and occasional meadows and gigantic ancient trees. With rare and unusual luck, we found the critical fork in the trail by feel alone, and had climbed out of Four Horse Flat, to the hunters' camp, and on up the jeep trail to the road above.
Catherine, Greg, Gus and I were glad to find the foot trail itself and plunged down into a very remarkable grove of huge old Incense Cedar. A fairly light "selective harvest" had been executed, perhaps ten or fifteen years ago, but the stumps were few, and the forest giants, everywhere, running up to five and six feet in diameter, some flaring out to near ten feet in diameter at ground level. The trail actually goes through the fire-hollowed center of one ancient cedar.
As Four Horse Flat is neared the trail suddenly merges with a logging road, often clothed in brush, various species of Ceanothus and Prunus being prominent. Here and there log landings held stacks of Incense Cedar sawlogs, left behind because they were too "pecky"--for a fungus will invade the heartwood of this species, and riddle it with little patches of "rot." Then the loggers come, and one can never tell from the outside just how "pecky" any one ancient Incense Cedar will be. So, you just cut it down, and look and see. It is very very irritating to me that this area was ever logged, and then, to see this--to see that a tree likely all of 500 years old is felled just on the chance the wood is sound--it is just infuriating.
Nevertheless, for all the roads, log landings, and stacks of cull logs, the harvest here had been rather light. We have an opportunity, right now, to lobby TNF to acquire this Section 9, T16N R13E, and other sections close by. Both the Big Granite and Cherry Point trails traverse this Section 9. For an area which has been logged, this is as close to true old-growth forest as one will usually ever see. With some concerted volunteer work the cull logs and stumps could be burned, the roads maintained as trails or closed altogether, and in as little as a decade one could hike through on the Big Granite Trail and scarcely realize that any logging had ever occurred.
And this would be a good thing. A very very good thing, for, there is something quite special, quite exceptional about this trail. Or many special things. For just one, the descent, of 3,600 feet, to the North Fork, is like going from Canada to Mexico in four or five miles! You start out up in the Lodgepole Pines and Red Fir of the high montane forest, and end up among sun-blasted manzanita and Canyon Live Oaks at the river. And there are many delicate shades of changing vegetation, of ecotones and microclimates, along the old trail.
Four Horse Flat is just below 6000' and has many grassy, ferny, flowery meadows, and wet meadows all clogged with Mountain Alder. The Cherry Point Trail merges with the Big Granite Trail in this area. The logging, I guess, has forced a new intersection of the two trails, and moreover, the main trail now in use, as one continues south towards the North Fork, is on the east side of Little Granite Creek, while the true Big Granite Trail holds the west bank for half a mile before it crosses to the east side, at about 5200'.
The forest is rich with huge old trees, White Fir rather than Red Fir, some Douglas Fir, and quite a notable incidence of Incense Cedar. Where the east- and west-side trails merge, Kelloggs Black Oak begins to intermix. This is an area of sudden transition, from the shady groves of ancient conifers, to a mixed oak and coniferous forest on the steep slopes of the canyon of Little Granite Creek.
Little Granite Creek, in this area, flows through metamorphic bedrock, but one might never guess, since a million granite boulders were dragged down here by the ice from the Loch Leven Lakes area and stranded, 12,000 years ago. The creek flows over and around these giant white eggs of granite, and more eggs are embedded everywhere on the steep slopes. The underlying metamorphic rock is almost entirely masked by these glacial deposits.
Below about 5,000 feet, the forest thins and one begins to gain good views of the surrounding terrain. A particularly monstrous cliff over on Sugar Pine Point is seen again and again as one descends. Then the trail bends east towards Big Granite Creek and steepens drastically, with many switchbacks, and passes a very notable and rare old grove of monstrous Canyon Live Oaks. I doubt I've ever seen so many giant oaks in one area. One had several large trunks, and two of these trunks, each near three feet in diameter, were connected about twenty feet above the ground by an arch of living wood. I called it the Monstrosi-Tree.
Having already made a descent of over 2000 feet, these steep switchbacks began to really take their toll, with toes crammed forward in our shoes, and despite the otherwordly fog and mist which swirled throughout the canyons and cliffs around us, we were sweating. At last the trail levels and bears east to the crossing of Big Granite Creek.
We took a long rest, and I explored downstream about a quarter-mile to the confluence of Little Granite Creek, in search of some fossiliferous Triassic limestone. I found some isolated masses of limestone, delicately fluted by solution-type erosion, with myriad little ridges and channels and hollows, but no discernible fossils. Later, upon re-examining my map, I saw that I should have gone much higher into Little Granite Creek. Another time, then.
The bed of Big Granite Creek just like that of Little Granite Creek had been, at the crossing: giant rounded granite boulders everywhere. We shouldered our packs and continued down the trail towards the river. It follows a roughly level line for a time, on a southerly bearing, and soon one breaks free of the forest into glaciated barrens of metamorphic rock. Far below, within what looks to be the impassible inner gorge of Big Granite Creek--and here flowing directly over the bedrock, without any granite eggs--we could see waterfalls and deep deep pools.
Crossing the Big Southwest Spur of Snow Mountain, the North Fork itself finally was in view, and after a few switchbacks we found our side trail leading west to the confluence of Big Granite Creek. Right at the fork there is an ancient TNF sign reading "Ford" and "Sailor Flat Trail" (and possibly "Robinson Flat") with an arrow pointing left. The post stands but the sign has split and lies on the rocks. We hustled on down to the river. Tom and Mary were not in camp, but we spotted them picking their way down cliffy areas beside the waterfalls just upstream. They looked a little shocked that strangers would arrive at their camp. However, Greg zoomed up there and identified our party, and soon we were lazing around the camp and chatting. Tom and Mary were there in the depths of the great rock-bound canyon during the several thunderstorms and were almost but not quite driven into a headlong retreat.
The fog was lifting, the clouds thinning, and we struck up a cozy little fire using more or less sodden wood. Supper was a matter of roasting vegetarian hot dogs and other delicacies. We turned in around ten under starry skies. Mars so bright had risen just above the forested ridges near New York Canyon to the southeast.
I rose before dawn and built a new fire and heated water for coffee. Tom joined me and then Greg and Gus and what with coffee and cocoa and a modest little breakfast of Grape Nuts etc. hours passed. The sun struck the canyon rim and the slowly entered the canyon depths. Yet Catherine O'Riley remained snugly wrapped in her one-man tent. I took off downriver with my loppers and worked on the fine old trail, which never appears on maps. By the time I returned the sun was about blazing and everyone was stirring.
We explored west on the trail, which stays high for a quarter-mile before dropping to river level at a large gravel bar with a lovely deep pool. Here a few of us swam, the others strangely indulging in fears of how very cold the water might be. The water was cool but not bitingly cold. Some rocks rose in tiny cliffs along one side and allowed easy jumps and dives from about ten feet up.
An osprey flew over us twice while at the pool, and from the trees nearby a peeping was heard, which might have been a second osprey.
Regrouping and reclothing, we continued west on the trail, and another quarter mile or less brought us to a large sandy flat with a grove of oaks and some ancient wheelbarrows and a huge fire ring littered with garbage. A small cross had been erected where the trail reached the camp, and I have little doubt but that this had been the camp of the large Christian youth group party, of fifty kids and five or six adults, Ron Gould and Greg and I had seen on the Sailor Flat Trail in June. They need to do a *much* better job of picking up their trash and also in using basic sanitary practices, so that wads of toilet paper are not scattered through the area.
A little ways beyond the camp, the trail appears to ford the river. We followed it a short distance past the ford, where a line of boulders allows an easy crossing, and found the path not only indistinct but overgrown, so, the retreat was sounded, and we made the easy walk back east to Big Granite Creek.
After lunch we scrambled up the creek to an amazing pool and waterfall surrounded by cliffs with one just gigantic overhang. Some swam and some scrambled around on the water-polished metasediments of the Sierra Buttes Formation. The waterfall occupies a twisted little inner gorge, a gorge within a gorge, a spiralling slot in the cliff.
Finally it was time to leave. Around two p.m. we shouldered our packs and started up the side trail. Tom came along for a ways, since he had never been on the Big Granite Trail. We had the benefit of the warmest part of the day combined with the least possible shade as we switched back and forth up the almost bare rock of Snow Mountain Spur. A rather quick and brutal climb of 500 feet carries one across the spur and into the canyon of Big Granite Creek.
At the crossing we had a long rest, and Tom left us at a trot to get back to lovely Mary, who had stayed at the camp, alone. Then the long slog up and out really kicked into gear, if you can call a deadly slow trudge, punctuated by numerous stops, "in gear." That trail is a killer. That 3,600 feet is a terrible terrible thing. We did stop often and long and as a result reached the car at 7:20, with the shadows growing very long and the sun almost setting.
One curiosity of the ascent was a sign, reading "Big Granite Trail," the words nicely routed into a slab of wood and bolted to a tree, in the Four Horse Flat area. We had seen no sign the day before. And, following the logging road reach just above the sign, I saw a peculiar patch of trail which had been freshly dug out wider. And I saw that some of the branches I had lopped the day before had been neatly stowed off the trail; and yet no one in our party had been stowing the cut branches, that I was aware. Then, in a mud puddle, two bootprints were seen, leading up and out. So it all gave every indication that that very day, Saturday, someone had walked in and bolted up the sign and did a little trail work.
I will call the ranger station at Big Bend and ask Phil Sexton. Maybe he knows about the sign.
Such was a wonderful visit to the North Fork by way of the Big Granite Trail.
Through masses of fog and occasional sprinkles we wound our way in from the Yuba Gap exit, past Huysink Lake and the Salmon Lake trailhead, to a pass on the crest of the ridge dividing Big Valley on the west from Little Granite Creek on the east. A TNF sign there showed Pelham Flat ahead, Huysink Lake behind, and we parked in a log landing beside the road.
The Big Granite Trail seems to have once stemmed from Cisco, on the railroad, and by way of Huysink Lake crossed that very pass where we parked, before descending to Four Horse Flat and Little Granite Creek. It crossed the North Fork at a ford and climbed Sailor Canyon to the La Trinidad Mine and Sailor Flat, up on the Foresthill Divide. So at some point, perhaps the crossing of the North Fork, its name should change to "Sailor Flat Trail."
Gradually roads penetrated this lovely part of the Placer County high country--I have a 1900-era map showing a road from Cisco up to Huysink, for instance--and then in a sustained frenzy of timber harvests and road-building many of the old trails on the area were obliterated, such as the Sugar Pine Point Trail and the Big Valley Trail. Much of this occurred about twenty years ago. There is the usual "checkerboard" pattern of even-numbered TNF sections interspersed with the odd-numbered "railroad" sections, with a few local variations.
Most all if not all of these old railroad sections had been purchased by lumber companies, most notably, Sierra Pacific Industries (SPI). This alone caused an increase in timber harvests in the area.
As Rich Johnson of the Foresthill Ranger District recounted to us the other night, at the NFARA meeting, quite a few of the old railroad sections have been purchased by TNF in recent years. I would like to see these land acquisitions continue. For instance, considering only T16N, R13E, sections 7, 17, and 9 would stand at the top of my list. And of these, how much could be said about section 9.
From our parking place in the pass, at 6600' elevation, a steep jeep trail drops to the east, bears south into section 9, and in a few hundred yards ends at a hunters' camp, where there is enough room to turn around. The only time I had ever hiked this part of the Big Granite Trail was in pitch darkness--some six years ago, perhaps--feeling my way with my feet, for the trail itself was firm and compacted, while the rich forest floor was soft. Dave Lawler and I had taken a "short cut" to the trail from Sugar Pine Point, hitting it a couple miles down. We explored the lower part of Big Granite Creek and then ventured a mile or so down the North Fork all the way to the inner gorge below Big Valley Bluff. Then, on our way back up from the river, leg cramps struck, and our pace slowed until finally the fullness of night embraced our little world of gurgling brooks and dense stands of mountain alder and occasional meadows and gigantic ancient trees. With rare and unusual luck, we found the critical fork in the trail by feel alone, and had climbed out of Four Horse Flat, to the hunters' camp, and on up the jeep trail to the road above.
Catherine, Greg, Gus and I were glad to find the foot trail itself and plunged down into a very remarkable grove of huge old Incense Cedar. A fairly light "selective harvest" had been executed, perhaps ten or fifteen years ago, but the stumps were few, and the forest giants, everywhere, running up to five and six feet in diameter, some flaring out to near ten feet in diameter at ground level. The trail actually goes through the fire-hollowed center of one ancient cedar.
As Four Horse Flat is neared the trail suddenly merges with a logging road, often clothed in brush, various species of Ceanothus and Prunus being prominent. Here and there log landings held stacks of Incense Cedar sawlogs, left behind because they were too "pecky"--for a fungus will invade the heartwood of this species, and riddle it with little patches of "rot." Then the loggers come, and one can never tell from the outside just how "pecky" any one ancient Incense Cedar will be. So, you just cut it down, and look and see. It is very very irritating to me that this area was ever logged, and then, to see this--to see that a tree likely all of 500 years old is felled just on the chance the wood is sound--it is just infuriating.
Nevertheless, for all the roads, log landings, and stacks of cull logs, the harvest here had been rather light. We have an opportunity, right now, to lobby TNF to acquire this Section 9, T16N R13E, and other sections close by. Both the Big Granite and Cherry Point trails traverse this Section 9. For an area which has been logged, this is as close to true old-growth forest as one will usually ever see. With some concerted volunteer work the cull logs and stumps could be burned, the roads maintained as trails or closed altogether, and in as little as a decade one could hike through on the Big Granite Trail and scarcely realize that any logging had ever occurred.
And this would be a good thing. A very very good thing, for, there is something quite special, quite exceptional about this trail. Or many special things. For just one, the descent, of 3,600 feet, to the North Fork, is like going from Canada to Mexico in four or five miles! You start out up in the Lodgepole Pines and Red Fir of the high montane forest, and end up among sun-blasted manzanita and Canyon Live Oaks at the river. And there are many delicate shades of changing vegetation, of ecotones and microclimates, along the old trail.
Four Horse Flat is just below 6000' and has many grassy, ferny, flowery meadows, and wet meadows all clogged with Mountain Alder. The Cherry Point Trail merges with the Big Granite Trail in this area. The logging, I guess, has forced a new intersection of the two trails, and moreover, the main trail now in use, as one continues south towards the North Fork, is on the east side of Little Granite Creek, while the true Big Granite Trail holds the west bank for half a mile before it crosses to the east side, at about 5200'.
The forest is rich with huge old trees, White Fir rather than Red Fir, some Douglas Fir, and quite a notable incidence of Incense Cedar. Where the east- and west-side trails merge, Kelloggs Black Oak begins to intermix. This is an area of sudden transition, from the shady groves of ancient conifers, to a mixed oak and coniferous forest on the steep slopes of the canyon of Little Granite Creek.
Little Granite Creek, in this area, flows through metamorphic bedrock, but one might never guess, since a million granite boulders were dragged down here by the ice from the Loch Leven Lakes area and stranded, 12,000 years ago. The creek flows over and around these giant white eggs of granite, and more eggs are embedded everywhere on the steep slopes. The underlying metamorphic rock is almost entirely masked by these glacial deposits.
Below about 5,000 feet, the forest thins and one begins to gain good views of the surrounding terrain. A particularly monstrous cliff over on Sugar Pine Point is seen again and again as one descends. Then the trail bends east towards Big Granite Creek and steepens drastically, with many switchbacks, and passes a very notable and rare old grove of monstrous Canyon Live Oaks. I doubt I've ever seen so many giant oaks in one area. One had several large trunks, and two of these trunks, each near three feet in diameter, were connected about twenty feet above the ground by an arch of living wood. I called it the Monstrosi-Tree.
Having already made a descent of over 2000 feet, these steep switchbacks began to really take their toll, with toes crammed forward in our shoes, and despite the otherwordly fog and mist which swirled throughout the canyons and cliffs around us, we were sweating. At last the trail levels and bears east to the crossing of Big Granite Creek.
We took a long rest, and I explored downstream about a quarter-mile to the confluence of Little Granite Creek, in search of some fossiliferous Triassic limestone. I found some isolated masses of limestone, delicately fluted by solution-type erosion, with myriad little ridges and channels and hollows, but no discernible fossils. Later, upon re-examining my map, I saw that I should have gone much higher into Little Granite Creek. Another time, then.
The bed of Big Granite Creek just like that of Little Granite Creek had been, at the crossing: giant rounded granite boulders everywhere. We shouldered our packs and continued down the trail towards the river. It follows a roughly level line for a time, on a southerly bearing, and soon one breaks free of the forest into glaciated barrens of metamorphic rock. Far below, within what looks to be the impassible inner gorge of Big Granite Creek--and here flowing directly over the bedrock, without any granite eggs--we could see waterfalls and deep deep pools.
Crossing the Big Southwest Spur of Snow Mountain, the North Fork itself finally was in view, and after a few switchbacks we found our side trail leading west to the confluence of Big Granite Creek. Right at the fork there is an ancient TNF sign reading "Ford" and "Sailor Flat Trail" (and possibly "Robinson Flat") with an arrow pointing left. The post stands but the sign has split and lies on the rocks. We hustled on down to the river. Tom and Mary were not in camp, but we spotted them picking their way down cliffy areas beside the waterfalls just upstream. They looked a little shocked that strangers would arrive at their camp. However, Greg zoomed up there and identified our party, and soon we were lazing around the camp and chatting. Tom and Mary were there in the depths of the great rock-bound canyon during the several thunderstorms and were almost but not quite driven into a headlong retreat.
The fog was lifting, the clouds thinning, and we struck up a cozy little fire using more or less sodden wood. Supper was a matter of roasting vegetarian hot dogs and other delicacies. We turned in around ten under starry skies. Mars so bright had risen just above the forested ridges near New York Canyon to the southeast.
I rose before dawn and built a new fire and heated water for coffee. Tom joined me and then Greg and Gus and what with coffee and cocoa and a modest little breakfast of Grape Nuts etc. hours passed. The sun struck the canyon rim and the slowly entered the canyon depths. Yet Catherine O'Riley remained snugly wrapped in her one-man tent. I took off downriver with my loppers and worked on the fine old trail, which never appears on maps. By the time I returned the sun was about blazing and everyone was stirring.
We explored west on the trail, which stays high for a quarter-mile before dropping to river level at a large gravel bar with a lovely deep pool. Here a few of us swam, the others strangely indulging in fears of how very cold the water might be. The water was cool but not bitingly cold. Some rocks rose in tiny cliffs along one side and allowed easy jumps and dives from about ten feet up.
An osprey flew over us twice while at the pool, and from the trees nearby a peeping was heard, which might have been a second osprey.
Regrouping and reclothing, we continued west on the trail, and another quarter mile or less brought us to a large sandy flat with a grove of oaks and some ancient wheelbarrows and a huge fire ring littered with garbage. A small cross had been erected where the trail reached the camp, and I have little doubt but that this had been the camp of the large Christian youth group party, of fifty kids and five or six adults, Ron Gould and Greg and I had seen on the Sailor Flat Trail in June. They need to do a *much* better job of picking up their trash and also in using basic sanitary practices, so that wads of toilet paper are not scattered through the area.
A little ways beyond the camp, the trail appears to ford the river. We followed it a short distance past the ford, where a line of boulders allows an easy crossing, and found the path not only indistinct but overgrown, so, the retreat was sounded, and we made the easy walk back east to Big Granite Creek.
After lunch we scrambled up the creek to an amazing pool and waterfall surrounded by cliffs with one just gigantic overhang. Some swam and some scrambled around on the water-polished metasediments of the Sierra Buttes Formation. The waterfall occupies a twisted little inner gorge, a gorge within a gorge, a spiralling slot in the cliff.
Finally it was time to leave. Around two p.m. we shouldered our packs and started up the side trail. Tom came along for a ways, since he had never been on the Big Granite Trail. We had the benefit of the warmest part of the day combined with the least possible shade as we switched back and forth up the almost bare rock of Snow Mountain Spur. A rather quick and brutal climb of 500 feet carries one across the spur and into the canyon of Big Granite Creek.
At the crossing we had a long rest, and Tom left us at a trot to get back to lovely Mary, who had stayed at the camp, alone. Then the long slog up and out really kicked into gear, if you can call a deadly slow trudge, punctuated by numerous stops, "in gear." That trail is a killer. That 3,600 feet is a terrible terrible thing. We did stop often and long and as a result reached the car at 7:20, with the shadows growing very long and the sun almost setting.
One curiosity of the ascent was a sign, reading "Big Granite Trail," the words nicely routed into a slab of wood and bolted to a tree, in the Four Horse Flat area. We had seen no sign the day before. And, following the logging road reach just above the sign, I saw a peculiar patch of trail which had been freshly dug out wider. And I saw that some of the branches I had lopped the day before had been neatly stowed off the trail; and yet no one in our party had been stowing the cut branches, that I was aware. Then, in a mud puddle, two bootprints were seen, leading up and out. So it all gave every indication that that very day, Saturday, someone had walked in and bolted up the sign and did a little trail work.
I will call the ranger station at Big Bend and ask Phil Sexton. Maybe he knows about the sign.
Such was a wonderful visit to the North Fork by way of the Big Granite Trail.
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