ROSSMOOR TRAILS CLUB
TRAILS CLUB HIKES AND CAMPS IN THE HIGH SIERRAS
By Don Geahry, Safari Coordinator
Mid July must be the perfect time to be in the High Sierras as our trails club's hearty hike/camp section has enjoyed outstanding weather on week long trips there for several years now! This year may have even been the best yet with comfortable days to hike and warm nights to enjoy fellowship around the fire. We were at Plumas Eureka State Park north of Truckee just west of Graeagle. We were able to haul all our gear for our deluxe version of senior camping thanks to Ken Davis and his mighty Ford V-8 pickup! Although we had many fires burning in our mountains at that time we were relatively unaffected camping at 5300 and hiking to 7000 feet. Most fires at that time were just north of us with winds also blowing to the north, so we were relatively clear although we drove through some smoke getting there. We again had deluxe camping with flush toilets, full bathrooms with hot and cold running water and hot showers near out camp site. We had two large sites with plenty of room for all our tents and space to spare. We moved our tables together and set up a common cooking, eating, socializing area between the camps. We had Jamison creek running just behind our sites and life was great!
We hiked all five days along streams and to many lakes. We swam in two of the lakes as the weather was warm and the water was fine after the first few seconds of cooling shock! The lakes were granite based and warmed somewhat by nature's solar rays warming the rock and water. Our prime midweek hikes were to Jamison and Rock lakes, a good climb over a rocky alpine trail, the next day to Eureka lake and toward Eureka Peak, more of a climb that day than we wanted but great views! On Thursday after much review and discussion we decided to try another lake hike starting directly from our camp ground, this time in the other direction to Smith Lake. We had recieved mixed reviews of this hike, but it turned out to be a wonderful, yet difficult hike, as described by the final Ranger we talked to. We were really ready for a cooling swim in Smith lake as the trail was steep, with sections in the sun, yet all considered a great destination worth the effort.
The final evening we went to a restaurant for a relatively fancy dinner in the remote Sierras. We ate at the Iron Door, only a few minutes away in Johnsville (we think the only business in that town?!). Not that we had been eating poorly the prior nights in our camp site, as we had been fixing meals of Camp Surf and Turf and more on our own. We appear to be a hiking group that eats very well, some say better than we hike, but that shall remain unconfirmed.
