Trip Reports Page Two

Last year, 2002, was one fun year for me backpacking and camping; I did the Mountaineers Route on Mt. Whitney; a one-week backpack trip deep into the gorgeous West Elk Wilderness in southwestern Colorado with my three brothers!; treks into the Hoover Wilderness, and the Carson Iceberg Wilderness; some camping and hiking up at Lake Alpine along Highway 4; and last but not least, it all started with my first visit to wonderful Henry Coe State Park in April, doing a five-day backpack exploration of the park.

I left home in Contra Costa County early enough on a weekday morning (fearlessly facing 680 and 101 commuter traffic!) to arrive at Coe’s visitor center right when they opened at 8:00 am. The park staff told me there were only two other parties “in the outback” at that time. I reserved my itinerary with no problem, purchased the obligatory goodies (new flower book; some power bars; etc., etc.) and set out for my first destination: Upper Camp.

I discovered this camp the last time I backpacked into Coe, and fell in love with it. I've had a glance at only some of the other Western Zone backpack camps throughout my travels, and I consider this camp one of the nicest. It's very shaded, fairly well shielded from heavy winds if they're kicking up. And on top of that, during Spring, Coyote Creek can really thunder along in the background ~ 30 yards away—wonderful to sleep to—though I chose to collect my water supply from a small streamlet that flowed directly next to the tent-site there.

There is even another backpacking camp, Mexican Flat, further up the creek from Upper Camp; some visitors passed me during my stay once at Upper Camp to head there; but I haven’t gone in that far yet. They told me the next morning that it’s pretty nice.

Well, just like last year on my way to Upper Camp, I stopped for lunch at the junction of Hobbs Road and the trail to Frog Lake . . . nice spot. I was already clicking along wildly with my camera at the showcase of flowers.

The trek up, and over Middle Ridge after lunch was enjoyable and scenic, though the hike down the other side felt arduous with my heavy pack. A small Ringneck Snake came out on the road on my descent, but he wouldn’t “get with the program” and permit me enough time to my get my camera ready, so I have no photograph of him to brag about . . .

My plan was to camp up at Mt. Sizer or thereabouts. (It’s within the Blue Ridge Zone, so you can make your camp anywhere.) I wanted to try this last year, but I was doing Coe during a unusually warm week back in April 2002, and I simply was unprepared to tote enough water up-ridge that time to do so. But this visit, I loaded up all my jugs and containers with all the water I could haul, so I could have an enjoyable stay atop Blue Ridge that night. There's no water source up there; you must carry up all you'll need, if you plan on making camp there.

Then there's the hike up Hobbs Road to the intersection with Blue Ridge Road. Holy Cow! That's nothing to sneer at - with a full backpack on (plus I was lugging over a gallon of water), it's one challenging hill! But the views are well worth it. I just started early, and took my time. Right during the very steepest section of the road, a State Park official pickup truck with four uniformed people riding inside came chugging up. Man! That was a sight to see! It was really working hard to gain the elevation.

After resting, I traveled the level road down to the Mt. Sizer area; I looked around for a suitable spot to make camp. There’s that unidentified road (on my map, anyhow) that heads out northeast from Mt. Sizer, and I found an ideal landing there with a great view. I had been sitting there relaxing for almost an hour when another park truck drove up, pulled up next to me and warned me that it’s inadvisable to make camp there, that I was actually technically trespassing on land belonging to the gun club down the hill. A careful look at the map verifies this, though one could argue I was right on the zone boundary line. Well, I moved further back into the zone, and then south along the main road . . . found another spot. It was clear and level, but it was too close to the road, and sure enough, several jeeps and trucks were zipping by throughout the afternoon and evening. But the location had a wonderful view (south-facing).

Got up early; water was getting depleted, so I packed up and headed down to Black Oak Spring; park staff had already assured me of the reliability of water there. I met a Russian couple at the spring; I headed over towards Hat Rock; trail disappeared; I meandered in no particular direction, and after a while, decided to use a GPS; finally got onto a fire road perhaps outside park boundary, then wound around the backside to Hat Rock; bad headaches kicked in; yanked out the Tylenol.

Rested and lunched at Hat Rock, but did not climb it as previously planned. Walked down Rock House Ridge; trail became indistinct at places; view of Miller Field from the ridge was particularly lovely. Reached East Fork Coyote Creek. Searched around for a camping landing; I really wanted to get to the other side of the creek because I saw a very level clearing to make camp; I searched and searched but I could not cross anywhere. (It looked too risky, remember it was March). Finally decided on the only level spot I could find along the creek on my side (west side). Lots of Miniature Lupine everywhere.

Packed up and headed down the Narrows Trail towards Los Cruzeros. Flowers landscaping the flats were mind boggling. Vast carpets of Goldfields especially. Towards the latter part of that hike, I had to

bushwhack at one point on some vague trail. Perhaps it was a wildlife trail; saw huge turkeys. Ended up crisscrossing up and eventually onto lower Willow Ridge Trail. Followed it back down to Los Cruzeros; met picnickers at the first landing. I told them I had one spot reserved and would look around; they offered to vacate that landing; I told them: “No, wait—let me check out the others.” I elected to scout out the following two landings, and selected the second one, though it offered no shade whatsoever. Several parties came afterwards that day. Saw a fabulous newt that evening.

Yike! Tent was totally dripping wet the next morning, and inside as well! I had not placed the fly on the night before; sun came up blazing very early and dried everything off quickly. So today’s plan was to head down The Narrows towards China Hole; but at the creek junction by Mahoney Meadows Road, I had great difficulty identifying any usable trail to take, and my remaining progress was halted. (Maybe the creek was still too high?) I decided to backtrack to Los Cruzeros camp #1 and up onto good ol’ Poverty Flat Road. Finally reached the flats; stopped and had lunch near the creek, even though last year at precisely the same spot after napping, I awakened to a fairly large rattlesnake sitting calmly right near me (a little too close, frankly!) He had been just sitting there perusing my presence . . . Well, no snake this time, but shortly after resuming my walk through Poverty Flat, came across one hefty buff turkey strutting his stuff. Took some pictures.

Well, then it was time to psyche myself up: After a little self-motivation and chest pounding, I busted out the long, uphill hike out of Poverty Flat all the way back to the Visitor Center. Shooting Stars were especially plentiful along the north-facing hillsides during much of the hike uphill.

Mexican Flat is about 3/10 of a mile up the Middle Fork from Upper Camp. There is no constructed trail to it, though there has been a wildlife trail starting on a bench up the hill about 100 feet higher than Upper Camp, which goes most of the way there. When the bench narrows into steep slope, you descend to the creek, cross it, and there you are! {BACK TO TEXT}

This 1300-foot climb in 1.3 miles is known as the Short Cut, since it is the shorter way to get up Blue Ridge from Park Headquarters, as opposed to going all the way down to Poverty Flat and up above Miller Field. {BACK TO TEXT}

Landowners whose property is surrounded by park lands or which have no other roads to reach it, have a legal right-of-way to drive to their property. Blue Ridge Road and Poverty Flat Road can be particularly busy when the weather is nice, for there are several private parcels north of the park, including a gun club. The majority of dirt roads, however, are not right-of ways, and the only vehicles you may encounter are those of park staff, volunteer workers, and game wardens. {BACK TO TEXT}

It's usually reliable, anyway. During my ten years at Coe, there were some times when the pipes of Black Oak Spring were clogged or broken. One time, a tree fell on the spring box. Ranger Breckling asserted you could always get water from the spring box, but even apart from the rare fallen tree, I don't feel that getting into the spring box is self-evident. And the more people who get into the habit of opening these normally closed wooden boxes, the more likely it is that it will get left open—maybe just enough to have a mouse or a wood rat drown within—which has happened! The moral is: don't place your absolute trust in assurances of reliability. Find out if a good observor has actually seen it in recent weeks or days—or have enough backup water available to get you to a truly reliable source! {BACK TO TEXT}

The portion of the recently named "Narrows Trail" between Los Cruzeros and the base of the Shafer Corral Trail was unfortunately put on the 2002 official park map, though no trail was constructed and no permanent trail had existed. I say "unfortunately" because usage trails do not have the review for rare or unusual plants or for archaeological site impacts that planned trails do under the California Environmental Quality Act. Map surveyors probably happened upon a seasonal wildlife trail, or a cow path from trespassing cattle that looked apparent at the time, but which can easily become overgrown. Once a "trail" is shown on the map on frequently visited areas, usage increases such that a trail is created where absent or obscure before, but this area may be too far out to see that effect. {BACK TO TEXT}

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