Plumas and Lassen County Exploration: Phase 1

4-Jun-06

Mission: Explore territory heretofore unseen by us, catch a fish, discover the great hidden trove of morels, rampage a bit on Forest Service Roads (and annoy high-strung SUV drivers who prefer to get back to civilization at the rate of 70 mph or more by being in front of them with our beautiful dust-and-mud-covered doublecab for a whopping five minutes before letting them pass.....)

As our first proper camping trip in Bartholomew, I rate it a success, given the excellence of the weather, the handy way a doublecab with a full-length roofrack lends itself to outback scouting missions, and the unique experience of "having" to sleep under the stars. I'd almost be tempted to say "to hell with the Westy!", but I do realize that the seasons will soon change and the presence of cold and precipitation would change my tune right quick, so I'll keep quiet!

Late in the day on Sunday, we finished our prep...packed pretty much everything we might need based on our ideas of what we were to encounter, including a kayak for possible lake excursions...and ambled up a deserted Gold Lake Road in the slanting afternoon sunlight towards Hwy 89, then 70, and Portola. A brief stop there for fuel and supplies, and then off to one of two roads leading up towards Indian Valley in a vague sense.

North past Lake Davis we travelled on Beckworth-Taylorsville Road. Somewhere around the proximity of the lake itself, the "housing tract" aspect of the area (which wasn't too bad, actually) faded into somewhat organized-looking stands of trees and slowly into deeper and denser forest, albeit still with that "managed" look. I'm not exactly sure of where it happened, but the pavement ended, and the undergrowth grew more with abandon, and the trees had enough age to have developed that "I'm hiding something--something secret and mysterious" look.

After a few stops to check for the abundant fruiting of morels which never materialized, the road became rougher and a bit more challenging....certainly more dusty...as the walls of a canyon through which ran Grizzly Creek rose on both sides. By the time we reached the spot where we ended up deciding to camp, we were decidedly having fun, as this road was the equivalent of Bartlett Springs Road as experienced by participants of the Shasta Snow Trip. Plus, we had it all to ourselves! An evening walk, a campfire, a nice dinner, and the sound of the rushing creek made for a nice finish to the day, although the night itself was a little on the sleepless side since we hadn't adjusted or gotten used to our out-of-doors sleeping arrangement....

The next morning, roused by birdsong and shafts of sunlight, we had breakfast and got on our way. The Indian Valley area was our destination....Taylorsville to be precise....and a bit of rough road got us there in a jiffy. Some place called Genesee was also on signs which we were glad to see, for some of the forks in the road that we had guessed at were not to be found on the maps! The increased frequency of other campers gave some indication that we were getting close to "civilization", and indeed, there we were....more private property signs, fences, manicured trees, etc....

From the Taylorsville area (a nice example of "pastoral"), and back on asphalt, we struck out northish on 89 to Lake Almanor. Now, before you get on my case saying "But Hwy 89 is NOT a backroad, by your definition!" please grant me this boon: Understand that we were hoping to get to the vicinity of Mt. Lassen, or at least its associated National Forest, if not the National Park, so we had to take some roads that were, by our standards, no fun....sorry. At Lake Almanor, we went up the east side on A13, (seeing Mt. Lassen in the distance) and hit Hwy 36, where we zipped straight across the road into a maze of what basically amount to logging roads, and, looking at the map, saw that we might need to go back to Chester to get fuel if we wanted to have free rein on the way to the Caribou Wilderness and Silver Lake, which is where we decided to go, in case you were wondering.

Getting back to the issue of backroads or not: With this particular trip, we had decided to head northish, as far away as we could reasonably get, based on a general idea, and looking at maps only when we needed to, thus keeping it dynamic. Looking back, it would have been a bit nicer (Michele was right again) to have planned a bit more, as there were several back roads that we missed because we didn't know they were there.....simply not having spent enough time poring over the maps before the trip or at stops. Speaking of maps, if you're gonna get out there on Forest Service land with your bus, make sure you have more than one map---make sure you have a general map of the state or vicinity, a Forest Service map of the area, and a Delorme Atlas and Gazeteer or equivalent. It is fun sometimes to compare the differences, or the omissions, or the errors, whathaveyou. The redundancy can be quite useful!

All right...back to our trip. This is where the not-so-good stuff happened. Or didn't happen. Whatever. We searched for morels in many of the ugly, thrashed, logged and trampled areas we drove through on the way to the Caribou Wilderness, but to no avail. It sorta sucks to be hanging out in nasty-looking places hoping for something good to come of it but that good thing never happens. It's depressing. Again, whatever. We continued due North....and higher in elevation. We started to see snow in patches here and there. Hmmm. Snow would put a stop to our progress. And it did. We finally got to a place where it would have been foolish to press on, as the road was covered with a foot or more of old snow.....and that's just what we could see. So, having forged a new plan to access the Caribou Wilderness area and Silver Lake from the other side, we headed back down the way we came. We stopped a couple more times to hunt mushrooms, which we did finally find this time: Sierran Puffballs.

So: A bright spot in our day. Lunchtime! Lunchtime means beer. Cool. In this case, it also meant sauteed puffball, smoked salmon, and some yummy bread and carrots and cheese, and the immediate presence of a wide, rushing creek, which had a road going through it. Temptation. No, not the urge to have another beer, but the urge to ford that creek. Tempered by a singular wisdom, the decision was made: No creek crossing of the dangerous sort should be had today. OK...just as well. I really had no desire to be trapped in an overturned doublecab as it was being propelled downstream!

To my sorrow, I passed up a pretty decent rampaging bus video opportunity....but as Michele said, it might as well be in a nice-looking setting, as that's one of the basic concepts of backroadbus.com: To get in a bus, find pretty, groovy, out-off-the-way places, and drive through them. I apologize for any disappointment you might now be feeling, and I promise to capture the next bus-bending, tire-scrabbling hill climb I do on tape for your viewing enjoyment.

Without a video that could have been cool, but with a remarkably clear sense of purpose, and the special knowledge that I had recently held a small frog found while crossing a small rivulet/stream that was running down the slightly marshy logging road as I hunted for mushrooms, we returned to the main roads, and headed east on 36 to County Road A21, which would take us to Silver Lake Road, which, we hoped, would take us to Silver Lake, in the Caribou Wilderness. Unfortunately, it, too, was snowed over....probably only a mile or so from Silver Lake.

We then tried Crater Lake (yes, still in CA), just a short drive up A21, and then a fast, dusty, washboard-bumpy ascent up to an interesting if not stark lake...we opted not to stay there, as it was still rather early in the day and we wanted to get some more exploring in. So, almost as if in defeat, we backtracked all the way down to Quincy....our destination: Either Bucks Lake or nearby Snake Lake, both of which are nestled high in the mountains outside of Quincy.

This is where things started to get good! Finally. Most of the rest of the trip, especially in Lassen National Forest, we were plagued by the sight of logged, raped, and "managed" forests. Yes, trees existed in abundance, but nothing really felt natural.....so even though we still saw the same signs of Forest Disservice activity, they weren't as bad or as obvious in the Quincy environs.

We got to Snake Lake first....spent some time on the true backroads surrounding the lake on the upper hills north and to the west, looking for Smith Lake, which we found on the next day's adventures. Snake Lake is a great place! It is very secluded, although within earshot of daytime traffic on Quincy roads, it is also a "rampaging" campsite. Little roads weave off through the forest in every direction....roads for VW bus, mountain bike, horse, ATV, motorcycle, whatever....it's not so sacred that one would feel bad rampaging there, but on the other hand, it is strange and beautiful enough in a natural sense so as to impart a nice camping feel as well.




The wildlife there was amazing. "Teeming" is the first word that springs to mind, but barely does the reality of the wonders lake justice. First of all, the Snake Lake was almost completely covered with what at first glance seemed to be slime, but turned out to be lily pads. Through these lily pads swam mama ducks with lings close behind. When I was videotaping some baby ducks in the water, I heard a squeak and a plop.....squeaking frogs!? They turned out to be bullfrogs, which were a lot of fun to listen to later as they warmed up for a performance which never happened. While we were listening to the frogs, we discerned a splashing in the nearby overflow/runoff from lake to swamp, and it turned out to be baby catfishes or something trying to swim up the concrete spillway/road. Bizarre. Are they trying to get into the lake? Maybe they thought the beavers we saw needed company. It was truly amazing to see those beavers swimming around. They seemed to be curious about us, and one swam towards us as if to say hi. The amazing yellow birds, the wierd bugs, the bats flitting about in the night sky, and the evening lily-pad kayaking left a deep impression! I probably left a lasting impression on the bullfrog I was able to grab...he just "stilled" while I held him loosely, but hopped away when released....very strange.

The campsite we chose was at the south end of the lake, surrounded by very tall fir and cedar trees, with enough space for many buses....it would be a cool place for a group campout, as there are many many things to do in the immediate vicinity. Indeed, the campsite itself is comprised of rolling berms and trails. Nearby Smith Lake is quite similar, in that it sports many semi-challenging and fun tracks on which to rampage, but is much smaller than Snake Lake, and its edges are more overgrown. We explored Smith Lake a bit, stopped long enough there to capture a heron in flight on video and a Bart scrabbling around a steep corner, and eventually headed out for Bucks Lake.

According to the map (not topographic), the distance from the end of Snake Lake Road to Bucks Lake was not very much. While this is true, there is something that makes the otherwise short little jaunt (about ten miles) take longer: A hill. OK...it's a mountain. Whatever it is, it's steep, but well worth the work. At the bottom, a sign indicates that the incline ahead is very very steep, and that if you're in a truck or RV, go to the left, and you'll get to Bucks Lake in nine miles. Otherwise, go the steep way and you'll get there in six. Of course we opted for the steepness, which was nice, since the road was pretty and the views were grand. It was not too bad for Bart....it was a cool morning, and a hard climb in 2nd gear got him nice and warmed up.

At the summit of the pass, (five-thousand something feet, I think), we crossed the Pacific Crest Trail, and then begann a relatively short descent into the Bucks Lake Basin. We were looking for a nice spot to put the kayak in and do a little fishing, but since we did not know the lake, we didn't know if the perfect spot was just around the next bend, so we ended up kayaking and fishing at Little Bucks Lake....just beyond the spillway for Big Bucks Lake (both lakes are reservoirs, but I think they started as smaller natural lakes. One of the spots we passed while looking for a put-in spot was a nice naturalized inlet on the end of Bucks Lake opposite the dam. A small creek, lined with reeds wound gently into the lake from the hills, and became one with the lake after running under the bridge we crossed. The lake ended there in diverse ways, as the junction between water and land went from reeds and grasses on the streambank to more steep grassy bank under the bridge then to a rocky outcropping from which a scraggly tree jutted, and then, past a shady cove bent out of sight. Upon circumventing this area, we saw that the area we couldn't see from the bridge was basically a calm, flat wetlands area...a haven it must have been for the twenty or so geese that were lounging about.... we didn't get a picture because I was sure that we'd be back that way shortly....we weren't, so don't hold your breath.

The road around the lake towards the dam wound around a bit, but unfortunately, started to look more reservoir-like, complete with flotsam from careless boaters and campers. People should not leave their trash lying around! Really...it's such a pain. To come all this way from the apartments, the suburbs, the neighborhoods, even the backwoods homesteads with intent to hang out and enjoy the great outdoors is cool and rewarding....so why is it so often treated like a dumpster? Bizarre. Anyway, one spot we came to up off the main road had huge chunks of incredible granite lying around. I like granite. So I took a small piece...then I took this picture:

Winding over the dam and down a road diminishing in width (according to the sign), and changing from asphalt to dirt, we immediately found Little (or Lower-not sure) Bucks Lake, (which was nice) and then a Boy Scout camp sans Boy Scouts (another nice thing) but then went back up the road a bit to a spot where we couldn't see the spillway itself, and down a steep precipitous path we went, carrying kayak, video bag, fishing gear, etc. I left Michele to fish, which didn't turn out well, as there apparently weren't any, and I was gone for an hour and a half...the kayaking was nice. I saw several geese, including one pair with a gooseling, which I shot at great length with the video camera. I investigated several shaded coves, a dam, found an isolated camp on the other side of the lake, and shot lots of semi-useless video, all while thoroughly enjoying myself. In retrospect, we should have brought two boats, as Michele's time was not so thrilling, and she might have been happier had I not been gone for so long.....

Now that it was lunchtime, or felt like it, anyway, we went back the way we came until we got to the upper end of the alternate route to Bucks Lake, which we chose, as we had not seen it. It was nice, but not as pretty as the steep way. We did find several nice puffballs which accompanied us on our way to Silver Lake....a different Silver Lake from the one we were unable to reach before....this Silver Lake is in the same area as Bucks Lake and Snake Lake. All can be accessed from Bucks Lake Road, which, interestingly enough, seems to be a sort of extension of Hwy 162. Yep, the same Hwy 162 that Brian Piercy started the Shasta Trip , and plays a part to this day in the Shasta Trip. Looks like this road basically goes from Hwy 101 to Quincy. Cool! (Sorry, just a personal moment with my Gazeteer!)



From Bucks Lake Road northward and up, exhibiting a little playfulness on the loose gravel around corners, and dashing through shady groves of aspen, and then springing out into more open areas as we climbed. The road deteriorated a bit, and then a bit more....before long I was enjoying my favorite pastime....dodging rocks. A few gullies here and there to add a bit of excitement, but despite indications, the conditions never really got that challenging....just a consistent steepish climb with bumps and a view. Can't really say how long the road was....I was distracted by all the little roads veering off to the left and to the right with mysteries beckoning.....fun for later! According to the maps, many of these roads meander through the mountains and meet up with roads from many of the other places in this report, as well as many that will be reported on soon. Cool!





We arrived at Silver Lake just in time for lunch despite having stopped to videotape driving through a puddle just in case it was cool-looking. It wasn't, but that's OK. There were empty camping sites (nice ones!) on the hillside just opposite the lake, but when we crested the hill, we saw not only more (empty) sites and the lake itself, which was quite pretty in a classic alpine lake way. From the earthen dam, the sign that asks people to please not swim in the water because it is a water supply, and the spillway gate control wheel out at the end of a rickety trestle, I gathered that Silver Lake is another reservoir, but, like the Bucks Lakes, I believe there was something of a natural lake there before the dam. It was really quite grand, so we broke out the grub, some amber ale, cooked some puffballs, and had lunch.







We did a little exploration on the trail alongside the lake, complete with viewings of yet more geese, several snakes that liked to swim, and several billion tiny fish hiding from the big fish in the shallows. Michele did a little fishing while I prowled around with the camera, and with resolve to return here to camp, we made for the waiting road....time to be getting homeward!



We stopped on the way down from Silver Lake to take some video of a mountain and Bart, and then headed out to Bucks Lake Road to go check out a side road that went to some creek area, but finding that it was not what we expected (or liked), we made for Quincy and then home, via Gold Lake Road.



And so ends our Plumas/Lassen Reconnaisance Trip Report.....hope you enjoyed it! We'll be going back to these special places soon, and will be taking the time to explore many more of the backroads we now know are there, including the fun journey of taking Bucks Lake Road toward Oroville, but then accessing another set of backroads that will have us rumbling around on roads that connect to our immediate home area.....but that's another report, and from the looks of the documentation on those roads, that report will be chock-full of stories of bad roads, challenges, wildlife sightings, old mines, ghost towns, and maybe even morel-stuffed trout.....!

As of the time of this writing, there is a video clip under construction....I'll have it out in a few days, I hope!

Gene Cornelius 14-Jun-06

Return to top