Lighthawk
Weekend warrior
I thought I would share a quick trip, since that's where we are getting most of our camping value these days.
Back story: My first experience attending the Banff Mountain Film Festival was in 1986. We camped in our VW in the town park in Telluride and took in films and panel discussions in the Opera House.
It was a wonderful experience and since then I've tried to catch the film festival when it goes on the road. It's our good fortune that the tour includes The Yuba Theater in Downieville, just an hour away from our home. We ordered tickets for both Friday and Saturday night and were able to see eight of the eleven award winning films.
Quick trip: tighten the 'buckles, hoist the propane bottle (got enuf?), pump up the tires and airbags, and go! I even left the jacks on. We were on the road by 5pm and got to Downieville just as the sunlight was being pushed to one side of town. Downieville is a historical mining town, that used to be called The Forks, where the North Yuba River and the Downie River confluence. There are reports that chinook salmon used to swim all the way up the North Yuba, long ago damned. Heavy gold mining activity pulled over $30M worth of gold out of nearby lode mines, including the Monumental Nugget, weighing in at 106 pounds. Population peaked around 3000, but today is only a tenth of that. Winters are very quiet up there.
The FS is accommodating and leaves several of the river campgrounds unlocked during the winter months. We stayed at Union Flat CG, which was mostly full over the festival weekend. Weather was mild and the skies clear with a full moon in the works. Perfect.
Small towns draw like minded folk. I've been biking and skiing up here since the eighties. It was good to reconnect with old friends at the small home town theater, buying bake sale goodies. Fun raffles of gear and local prizes inside the cozy venue held the crowds attention. Some of the films were almost an hour long and others only four minutes. Amazing ski photography at a new level by Sherpas Cinema for example: Longer epics, like ON THE TRAIL OF GENGHIS KHAN: THE LAST FRONTIER took the meaning of Wandering to a whole new level.
Saturday we drove up past Bassets, finding the gate to Gold Lakes Hwy open. I put it in 4WD as the road was mostly snowmobile packed snow. We parked at the intersection of Sardine Lake Rd. and Packer Lake Rd. where plowing stopped and there was about two feet of snow. Susan and I enjoyed perfect ski touring up to Packer Lake, having the whole basin to ourselves. North facing slopes had several inches of dry powder and sun-kissed slopes were corn.
A sunny lunch rock ended our loop where we were briefly visited by a red-breasted sap sucker. Cool bird.
Even though we brought food, it was worth the wait to order up a plate of chicken enchiladas from Cocina Del Oro in Downieville.
We enjoyed another night of movies. Susan even won a raffle item for a subscription to the Mountain Messenger, Sierra Counties newspaper for 158 years.
For our last night I had researched some BLM land in Ross Meadow near Portola. We wanted to spend Sunday visiting Sierra Valley to do some birding and soaking (kinda predictable, I know). My BCNav app on my phone has an overlay of land ownership and I had identified BLM land in a beautiful meadow we had biked a few years ago. It was perfect for us. We heard a pack of 'yotes break into eerie song, responding to the wail of the train running along the Feather River.
We walked the lighting frozen ground in the morning, wandering out into the sunlight on the meadow. We saw a mountain bluebird perched on an old cedar fence post. When he flew off I looked closer and there was a cavity nest in the post. Continuing to Sierra Valley, we saw several pairs of Sandhill Cranes and also a pair of Bald Eagles. Cool stuff.
It was Easter and the hot springs had lot's of families, but we didn't mind. We did our usual three hour tour, grabbing showers at the end. On the way out I spotted an unusual bird sitting on a wire. It was about the size of a robin, but all red. I grabbed a quick shot, which we later identified as a Red Crossbill. Sure enough, his bills don't meet square, but slide past each other.
We were home by 5pm and camper was on the dolly, inside the garage unloaded by 6pm. Usually I would have more photos to share, but my hard drive is nearly failed and I'm limping along until I get my new (750GB!!) drive installed on my MBP.
Back story: My first experience attending the Banff Mountain Film Festival was in 1986. We camped in our VW in the town park in Telluride and took in films and panel discussions in the Opera House.
It was a wonderful experience and since then I've tried to catch the film festival when it goes on the road. It's our good fortune that the tour includes The Yuba Theater in Downieville, just an hour away from our home. We ordered tickets for both Friday and Saturday night and were able to see eight of the eleven award winning films.
Quick trip: tighten the 'buckles, hoist the propane bottle (got enuf?), pump up the tires and airbags, and go! I even left the jacks on. We were on the road by 5pm and got to Downieville just as the sunlight was being pushed to one side of town. Downieville is a historical mining town, that used to be called The Forks, where the North Yuba River and the Downie River confluence. There are reports that chinook salmon used to swim all the way up the North Yuba, long ago damned. Heavy gold mining activity pulled over $30M worth of gold out of nearby lode mines, including the Monumental Nugget, weighing in at 106 pounds. Population peaked around 3000, but today is only a tenth of that. Winters are very quiet up there.
The FS is accommodating and leaves several of the river campgrounds unlocked during the winter months. We stayed at Union Flat CG, which was mostly full over the festival weekend. Weather was mild and the skies clear with a full moon in the works. Perfect.
Small towns draw like minded folk. I've been biking and skiing up here since the eighties. It was good to reconnect with old friends at the small home town theater, buying bake sale goodies. Fun raffles of gear and local prizes inside the cozy venue held the crowds attention. Some of the films were almost an hour long and others only four minutes. Amazing ski photography at a new level by Sherpas Cinema for example: Longer epics, like ON THE TRAIL OF GENGHIS KHAN: THE LAST FRONTIER took the meaning of Wandering to a whole new level.
Saturday we drove up past Bassets, finding the gate to Gold Lakes Hwy open. I put it in 4WD as the road was mostly snowmobile packed snow. We parked at the intersection of Sardine Lake Rd. and Packer Lake Rd. where plowing stopped and there was about two feet of snow. Susan and I enjoyed perfect ski touring up to Packer Lake, having the whole basin to ourselves. North facing slopes had several inches of dry powder and sun-kissed slopes were corn.
A sunny lunch rock ended our loop where we were briefly visited by a red-breasted sap sucker. Cool bird.Even though we brought food, it was worth the wait to order up a plate of chicken enchiladas from Cocina Del Oro in Downieville.
We enjoyed another night of movies. Susan even won a raffle item for a subscription to the Mountain Messenger, Sierra Counties newspaper for 158 years.
For our last night I had researched some BLM land in Ross Meadow near Portola. We wanted to spend Sunday visiting Sierra Valley to do some birding and soaking (kinda predictable, I know). My BCNav app on my phone has an overlay of land ownership and I had identified BLM land in a beautiful meadow we had biked a few years ago. It was perfect for us. We heard a pack of 'yotes break into eerie song, responding to the wail of the train running along the Feather River.
We walked the lighting frozen ground in the morning, wandering out into the sunlight on the meadow. We saw a mountain bluebird perched on an old cedar fence post. When he flew off I looked closer and there was a cavity nest in the post. Continuing to Sierra Valley, we saw several pairs of Sandhill Cranes and also a pair of Bald Eagles. Cool stuff.
It was Easter and the hot springs had lot's of families, but we didn't mind. We did our usual three hour tour, grabbing showers at the end. On the way out I spotted an unusual bird sitting on a wire. It was about the size of a robin, but all red. I grabbed a quick shot, which we later identified as a Red Crossbill. Sure enough, his bills don't meet square, but slide past each other.
We were home by 5pm and camper was on the dolly, inside the garage unloaded by 6pm. Usually I would have more photos to share, but my hard drive is nearly failed and I'm limping along until I get my new (750GB!!) drive installed on my MBP.
