Hiking to Granite Lake

Hi Blog!  Today is Thursday, October 3rd.  We had the Tannery Gulch Campground all to ourselves, since no one else was allowed to check in after 3:00 p.m. yesterday.  It made for a very unique camping experience.  You expect to camp by yourself when backpacking.  However, being in an empty campground made us feel like we were in some kind of post-apocalyptic zombie movie.  One advantage, we were able to play our I-pod as loud as we wanted and nobody was around to complain.  We snuggled into our sleeping bags while Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet began to lull us to sleep only to be awakened briefly by American Pie.  The batteries soon ran out and we drifted off to never-never land.

The next morning, it was downright cold when we got out of our tent.  The sun was just peeking over the ridge, casting yellow light on Granite Peak.

The houseboats moored on the far side of the Trinity Lake are lost in the morning mist.  After a hearty breakfast of hot oatmeal and camp coffee (a delicious combination of instant coffee and hot cocoa mix), we took our morning coffee walk over to the not-so-nearby stand of aspens we had seen at sunset yesterday.  If you squint, you can just see the aspen on the right side of this photo.

After climbing up and down the red clay banks of the lake, we eventually wandered back to camp and began packing up.  We only got to camp the one night, but a least we got this one night.  We decided to take the advice of the Shasta Recreation Company employee we chatted with yesterday and hike to Granite Lake.  He said it was an awesome hike and also mentioned the road to the trailhead is used by logging trucks so it would have to remain open.  On the way to the trailhead, we saw evidence of the government shutdown of the Wilderness Area.  Here is the type of gate that confronted anyone who wanted to enter any campground in the area:

Just beyond Trinity Center, we made the turn onto Swift Creek Road.  A road sign indicated five miles to the trailhead.  The first mile or so was paved, then the gravel started.  Great White is by no means an off-road vehicle, but the Shasta employee did say this road was used by trucks, so it should be wide enough.  The trailhead was still four miles away.  As we slowly (and I mean slowly) made our way into the back-of-the-beyond, we worried we might come face to face with one of those logging trucks; however, the further we inched our way forward, we could see that any logging activities in this area were completed some time ago. There was no evidence to be found of active logging.  All that remained were the ruts and bumps in the road.  GW bounced and groaned, but never lost his footing.  His antenna did take a beating from the low hanging branches, but all-in-all he made the drive look easy.  Who needs a Jeep when you have Great White!

As we arrived at the trailhead, we were surprised to learn that we were not alone.  There was another big truck with a horse trailer behind it, plus two cars.  As we unloaded our gear, yet another car pulled in.  Just before hitting the trail, we chatted briefly with four old (50-something) navy buddies out for their annual backpack adventure.  As we started down the Swift Creek Trail, we could see yellow metal blazes high up on the trees.  As we got closer, we could see they were old licenses plates.  Leave it to California to recycle old licenses places into trail markers.

It would be five miles before we reached Granite Lake.  The hike would take us through five very different environments.  The first part of the hike was along Swift Creek.  This large body of water roars through the valley cutting a very deep gorge.

After about a mile, the Granite Lake Trail starts and we leave the Swift Creek Trail behind.  Dave is pointing the way up to the lake.

But first, we have to get across Swift Creek.  It is just too swift to walk across, so the Forest Service has kindly provided us with a really cool bridge.

The next part of the hike took us through very, very old growth forest.  These giants had to be 400 to 500 years old.  Here is just the top of the tree that had to be cut when it fell across the trail.

Granite Creek is just what you would expect of a mountain stream.  It constantly tumbles down toward the valley below.  We passed so many waterfalls it was hard to decide which waterfall photo to include in the blog.

After passing through the old growth forest, we came out into a great glacial bowl.  We were surrounded by mountains on three sides.  The lake was still two miles away!

We climbed up further and further into the bowl toward the base of Gibson Peak.  As we turned back to see from whence we came, we could see Mt. Shasta in the distance some 50 miles away as the crow flies.  (You have to look closely - Mt. Shasta is that tiny white spec at the horizon on the left side.)

With just a mile left to go, we came upon these large meadows.  Granite Lake once occupied this space, but it has now been filled in over time.

We had one more topo line to climb, which took us past these amazing giants.  We were almost at 6,000 feet, and this area spends a lot of time in the clouds.  The trees are just covered with moss.

Here we are at the base of the lake with Gibson Peak looming over us.  We took our boots off and soaked up some sun while munching on our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  We both thought it was a spectacular hike.  Every mile offered a different experience.  This is one of the best hikes we've done.  However, we learned. long ago, that picking your favorite hike is like picking your favorite child.  You just can't.  You love them each for their uniqueness.

We expected the four backpackers to catch up with us at the lake, but they never did.  We didn't see them again until we started on our way back down the trail.  They were excited to learn that we left them some views and that they had the place to themselves.  We were very jealous that we weren't backpacking in this amazing place.  However, we needed to give Kathy's back a rest from carrying heavy packs, and it was totally illegal to be camping (even in the back-country) without a permit and no permits could be issued because of the government shutdown.  Those that had been issued were revoked by the shutdown, and anyone camping was doing so illegally.  Oh well, I guess these guys figured it is better to ask for forgiveness than ask for permission.

The hike back down the trail was like visiting old friends, but in a new light.  It was almost 2:30 when we headed back down.  Some folks say out and back hikes are boring.  They would rather do loop hikes and always see new things.  However, we find that on the way back you tend to see things you missed as you hiked out, so we are always seeing something new.

Since we had no campground to go back to, we decided to just drive back to Weaverville - "The Gateway to the Trinity Alps." We'd could get some grub and find a place to crash.  We saw an advertisement for La Grange Cafe in the 101 Things to do in Shasta, and figured it was a good place to start.  We scored - the food was top-shelf.  Dave enjoyed wild boar and venison sausage over red cabbage cooked in a Zinfandel reduction.  Kathy had roasted duck breast with a wildberry compote with seasonal vegetables and risotto with acorn squash.  (Can you tell we were hungry from the hike?)  We had to take a pass on the creme brulee for dessert because it was just too much good food.  Although, we did discover a new pinot noir - Little Black Dress from Mendocino.  It was luscious, and we plan to buy some more before we leave California.

At dinner, we explained to our waitress that we were refugees from the government shutdown of the national forest campgrounds and were looking for a place to stay.   She recommended we stay at the 49er Gold Country Inn.  When Dave called to see if they had a vacancy, the owner asked if we wanted a small room or large room with hot tub.  After hiking 10 miles, I am sure you can guess which room we picked - hot tub!  Did I mention the king size bed and the electric fireplace?  And all of this at back-country, mountain prices, too!  Just think, if the campground hadn't shut down, we would have been sleeping in a tent.  Adventure is what happens when your plans go awry.

So far, we are liking this Weaverville adventure.  Check out the next blog to see what we uncover during our stay.