Exploring Plumas and Sierra counties

MTG

Caught the Bug
So our Elk hunt fell apart at the last minute so we decided to head up to a friends cabin near Graeagle, CA instead. Spent last night enjoying a steak dinner, good wine and better company. Woke up this morning, had breakfast at the Knotty Pine restaurant and set off for a day of exploring. Didn't take many pictures but here are a few.

Started off in Johnsville and headed south along Jamison Creek. On a side note I'm definitely going back to eat dinner at the Iron Door steak house in Johnsville.

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Doesn't take long to get into some beautiful country.

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Found a pretty amazing camping spot that would be fun to get a small group to go back too.

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Got pretty steep and loose in spots. I spent more time in 4 low than I had anticipated. In fact, I even had to use the lockers a couple times.

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Checking out yet another amazing view.

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Luckily this was a controlled burn.

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Looking down at Spencer Lakes while standing on the Pacific Crest Trail. I can now say I hiked part of the PCT. ;)

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View looking down on Wades lake, Rock Lake, and Jamison Lake.

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Explored some ruins at the Four Hills Mine.

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We headed down towards Hawley Lake and the road started to get a little more technical and I didn't take many photos from here on out. We even started out toward Snake Lake but thought it would be best saved for a day when we had someone else with us. So we turned south and headed down toward Butcher Ranch Creak, took in the view of the Sierra Buttes (below), hooked up on the 93 and made our way back to Graeagle on the Gold Lake Highway. We didn't stop at any of these lakes due to time but managed to finish off the day with the kids catching a couple of fish in a pond.

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Sierra Buttes. Maybe next time. I'd like to hike to the lookout tower soon.

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Thought this was funny. While heading down the hwy the Jeep navigation suggested a "shortcut" After taking on quite a bit of new pin striping we decided it was best to turn around. I can't imagine the GPS giving these directions to someone driving a sedan or luxury SUV.

Beautiful country up there. Can't wait to explore some more.




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Ddays

Hooked
Man, so beautiful out there. Wish our mountains back East were of the same scale as those out West.
 

MTG

Caught the Bug
Wow, fun looking trip and you couldn't have asked for better weather.

Yeah, it was a good day.

I had to go back and look up your thread on Snake Lake. Looks like we were coming into it a different direction.

A lot a trails up there to explore. There were also a few roads/trails we were on that didn't show up on the map we had, the Jeep Nav or my GAIA GPS app.
 

MTG

Caught the Bug
That was a lot of lakes that need fishin'...


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So many lakes in the area that they aptly named it Lakes Basin. ;)

We were checking out the trail map to see how we could get as close as possible, but it looks like many of them are hike in only so we just kept trucking along.
 
I thought of our past conversations when we were on the PCT. I know have a solid 15 feet of the trail under my belt.

Oh man. That was a fun day too.

Maybe in twenty some odd years we'll link up and through hike the pct when we have the time. lol
 
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