She is spending my last week with me and we are flying out of Sacramento together in 4 days.
4 days? It hardly seems possible. I guess I got too comfortable and at home here. I mean I had to keep reminding myself, this is all Uncle Al and Mary's place. You are just a visitor. I,m so grateful to them. It seems. looking back, that over time, He has afforded me some of my greatest personal opportunities.
So I've tried keeping that in my consciousness . And tried not to abuse the privilege of being here. I have enjoyed working in the yard and gardens and keeping the house ( which was pretty easy to do only cleaning up after myself) I've been able to do some hiking and wandering and took lots of photos and was able to let go of some of the stress.
But........getting back to it......Erin is here. For only a week. We could just sit on the deck and hike the trail here on the property. But we're in the mountains. And exploring we did go. I had it in mind to take her up for a little ways on the PCT ( Pacific Crest Trail, if you don't know about that trail you can hike it from Mexico to Canada) and also to take her on the trail that goes the back side of Bucks Lake to go swimming and sunset on Bald Rock or some combination of those things. Heading up the hill though, she mentioned that she really wanted to go to Granite Basin, that the best time she had here and her favorite memory here was going to Granite Basin fishing with Uncle Al.
Now, I've been asking people here all summer about Granite Basin and how to get there, and not one of them could tell me. Their reply is always the same, "Oh, there's too many roads back there, you don't know which way to go or what one to take. No one knows how to get there." But I have seen two signs, though quite a distance apart from each other, for Granite Basin. One sign reads 5 miles and one, further up the hill reads 3 miles. I opted for the 3 mile trip. It took me about 45 minutes to get to the bottom of the graveled road where there is a large parking area, a clearing, in the forest. We got out and hiked less than a quarter of a mile, through tall pine and granite rock, past a graveyard, there in the remote wilderness for miners and one that said "claim jumper" to the most lovely clean running creek over granite rocks you could imagine. Where you can see trout swimming around the rocks. This spot was not the Granite Basin that Erin had been to, nor the one that I had remembered from 35 years ago. This area was more closed in by the deep canyon, narrower and the hike though steep was shorter and cleaner. (not brushy) I had a little eerie feeling in there, and though I wanted to explore more downstream, and so did Erin I felt we shouldn't tarry there in that remote, isolated spot of the wilderness. And after turning back toward the trail did observe a stone shelter which I'm sure someone has been sleeping in.
Out of the basin we drove and up to Bucks Lake. Well, WOW. I sure wish I had taken Larry's advice earlier in the summer and hiked this easy and beautiful trail sooner , II surely would have done this at least once a week if I had. I can't even describe this to you without being able to post the photographs. Just think, National Geographic. Think of vast blankets of tall. cool. green ferns growing under towering firs, spruces, pines, and thick carpets of pine needles, the air fresh and crisp their fragrance mingling with the clean scent of the lake. Gooseberries and choke cherries and all kinds of berries and wild flowers growing along the trail and opening up to large slabs of granite hot from the sun from which you can dive into the clear water of the lake. We sat there on the rocks watching kayaks and small sail boats and little fishing boats floating around and hundreds of tiny little fish darted around the rocks on the edge of the water. Erin took a cold and refreshing swim.
OH Ilona and Dad, I just kept wishing you were here on this hike. I kept thinking of you and how you would have loved it. If I get this opportunity again, and can afford to do it, you are going to just have to come out. This is so beautiful. Kim too! You guys would appreciate it so much.
On the way in we spoke to a young backpacker who had just come off of the PCT, he was waiting for his ride. He told us that he had once hiked for 4 months from Mexico to just below Yosemite, He had hiked from March to June. On the way out we saw tracks of horses and deer that we hadn't seen on the way in. Bucks Lake, much less isolated than Granite Basin.
On the way back down we could catch glimpses of the western horizon in all its glowing red, orange, gold and violet evening sunlight.
I suggested going up Bald Rock for the Sunset but by the time we got there it was dark. And we were pretty hungry. At home we had a nice dinner, shared a new potato ( from one of Larry's friends, it was just dug) and Erin went out with the flashlight and picked some tomatoes and I had thawed out some stuffed zucchini that I made a few weeks ago. It was a veggie feast and then we went to watch some television and crashed.
Today, I'm going to work around the yard and we are going to wash the car and take in that sunset on Bald Rock. I've got to delete some photos off of the camera though. I keep filling the card! And then I have to go back and delete shots that aren't the best. I'm planning on making salsa today too. I've picked a basketful of peppers and tomatoes already this morning.
Have a nice day.
love
mom/sal
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