Sunday July 20, 23.2mi/37.3km
Ridge above Rhoda Creek (563.1/6410ft) to North Fork Moose Creek (539.9/2760ft) (ID)
I woke up to a cold morning and started hiking with my insulated vest on. The trail weaved around little bumps on the ridge top and was pretty enjoyable.
Looking down on Shasta Lake.
And then then walking around its shoreline, which was quite buggy.
The next set of lakes I came to was called Two Lakes. There is a little side trail that loops around them, which apparently is not maintained. And to really make their point, the sign is on the ground and not on a post.
Looking south down the Rhoda Creek Valley.
For the last lake, I traversed high above it.
The trail was mostly pretty nice, but occasionally this little Alpine bush would obscure the tread, since it grows pretty thick.
Looking back at the ridgeline I just traversed, and the lake far below.
Some trail crew did some impressive rock work here.
After a couple of hours I left the ridgeline trail and turned off onto the disturbingly named Wounded Doe Creek Trail.
The guidebook had warned that the trail might be brushy and slow going. That might have been true back when there was a trail. I was able to find a very faint trail tread for the first quarter mile, and then it simply disappeared into the forest.
So for the next 3 hours I bushwhacked the 2.5 mile trail corridor, never actually finding any trail but occasionally finding some evidence that there was a trail, including a couple of Cairns and some sawed logs. Given that no humans ever travel this way, this snake was quite surprised to see me.
Sometimes when there was a meadow the bushwhacking was easy and I was able to move quickly.
As I was bushwhacking I thought how nice it would be to have a trail. As I analyzed the situation, I realized a trail is just a brush-free corridor that allows for easy navigation and faster travel. This non-existent trail parallels Wounded Doe Creek, so I decided to just walk in the creek. That worked okay but it wasn’t much faster since the rocks were slippery and I had to be careful. Eventually I exited when I saw another meadow since those are fast traveling.
At the very end of the bushwhack I was just a minute from the trail junction when I saw this really old saw leaning up against a tree. Very strange.
A very faint trail had come over the pass from Fish Lake, and after I passed that junction I had clear trail again.
The simple joys.
The rest of the Wounded Doe Creek Trail was fairly nice hiking, and I was excited for the next trail which I assumed would be even better. I was wrong, the Rhoda Creek Trail traveled through a burn area, with lots of fallen trees.
One of the fallen trees I was able to use to my advantage since it laid directly on top of the trail, so I just hiked along the top of it.
That 3 mile trail took me a couple of hours, and by the time I hit the Moose Creek Trail it was late afternoon. As soon as I turned onto that trail I had to ford its namesake creek.
I hiked alongside the North Fork Moose Creek for an hour, constantly looking for a campsite, but the trail was benched into a steep hillside.
I was getting slightly worried since darkness was approaching, but at the last minute I found a tiny flat spot tucked into a copse of cedar trees. Perfect.
