Heaven on the East Fork Trinity River - Dispersed Glamping in my Backyard (Image Heavy)

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cascadiarunner

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The snow is finally melting on the passes here in Siskiyou County, so the girlfriend and I decided it was time to do our first dispersed camp trip of the year. A few weeks back we were out exploring and found this beautiful camp site on the East Fork of the Trinity River, above Trinity Lake. It's totally secluded and remote, nobody for miles. In the winter this would be a 3+ hour drive but when the snow melts it's a great opportunity to take the backroads over some high passes down in to this drainage. The great thing is there are several routes here from my house so we decided to go a different way there and back.

So we loaded up the 4 runner and hit the road for a weekend adventure. On the way there we took off down I5 and exited in Castella, CA, about 15 miles down the road from my house. From there we winded up Castle Creek Road along the beautiful rocky formations of Castle Crags, a much overlooked mountain here in Northern California, overshadowed by neighboring Mount Shasta.



After crossing over the highest point (~5500ft) the single lane paved forest service road turned to dirt and we left the Sacramento River watershed to descend in to the Trinity River watershed. They call this intersection of drainages the Trinity Divide. I've always been fascinated by watersheds and how 2 drops of water could land a few inches from one another and one could end up hundreds of miles away on their course to the ocean.

On the culvert of Crow Creek you can see someone spray painted the emblem of the State of Jefferson, a proposed U.S. state that would span the contiguous, mostly rural area of southern Oregon and northern California. It's a movement that is pretty popular around here.



After winding down the mountain we reached the East Fork of the Trinity River. The emerald water here is just unspeakably beautiful. Here there is a surprisingly nice bridge (for such a low traffic area) that crossed over to the other side of the creek. There are some world class swimming holes here.



The road gets rougher and rougher as we wind our way down the canyon, towards our destination. Here in the first image you can see a lovely mountain called Bonanza King, which hovers menacingly over the river. There's a wonderful fire lookout at the top of Bonanza King that I've dirt biked to before, amazing view! After winding back down to the water, this time on the east side of the river we arrived at our little slice of heaven.

We set up camp and relaxed by the river for a few hours. In the second photo here you can see an aerial photo of the camp area and the bedrock formations that make for such good swimming holes. Lots of gold here too! We cooked up some Italian sausage over the campfire and I enjoyed one of my favorite IPAs, Hop Venom by Boneyard Brewing out of Bend, Oregon. I set up my $10 led string over our Slumberjack Roadhouse Tarp (highly recommended) for some mood lighting. The lights are perfect for keeping your campsite lightly illuminated and creating a nice atmosphere; I plug them in to a solar powered USB battery pack and they'll last for weeks.



Some more pics of the camp site and the verdant and frigid swimming holes. I also had to throw in some pics of my dog Dexter, as he's, as they say, a damn good boy. He'll be 9 years old next month and besides his graying face, you'd never know it. He is still as adventurous as ever - a true companion, and fantastic camp guard dog (friendly as can be but will not abide any animal intruders).



After a few hours of swimming a buddy joined us and we made some amazing spicy sausage and chicken stew over the campfire. Also pictured is some chorizo and eggs I made for breakfast that morning, along with my little buddy who swears that isn't begging. The next morning I flew the drone for some aerial shots before getting packed up and hitting the road.



We went back up to the Trinity Divide but instead of descending in to Castella again, we took Forest Service route 26, which stays along the Trinity Divide before dropping in to Mount Shasta, my hometown, along the headwaters of the Sacramento River. In this first picture you can see the East Fork drainage, Bonanza King, and just a slight hint of Trinity Lake. Also pictured are some of the peaks of the incredible Trinity Alps, a lesser known but very impressive rugged and remote range here in Northern California. We also came across a little bear cub on the road.



As we cross back over the Trinity Divide at 6,600 ft we get our first glimpse of being back home, glorious 14,179 ft Mt. Shasta. As we wind down the Canyon we get a few more glimpses of the home shrine before finally returning back to the comforts of home. Only a 48 hour getaway but it sure was sweet.

 

DividedSky

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WOW... Beautiful area!
I've only been up to Shasta once before (about 20 years ago). I didn't trust my car to make the trip, so we rented a toyota corrola instead. I drove that puppy down rough dirt roads, across streams... Stuff I'd NEVER do today unless I was in my truck!
I lived in SF at the time, so when a rattler came slithering through our camp spot, I kinda freaked. Now that I live in SOCAL, rattlers are not a big deal any more.
 
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cascadiarunner

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Beautiful!!! Lovely photos and great description and trail information!!
Thanks, this is my first time doing a report like this so I might have gone overboard haha.


WOW... Beautiful area!
I've only been up to Shasta once before (about 20 years ago). I didn't trust my car to make the trip, so we rented a toyota corrola instead. I drove that puppy down rough dirt roads, across streams... Stuff I'd NEVER do today unless I was in my truck!
I lived in SF at the time, so when a rattler came slithering through our camp spot, I kinda freaked. Now that I live in SOCAL, rattlers are not a big deal any more.
I am truly blessed to live in such a beautiful area! We actually came across a rattle snake a few weeks ago while scouting this area, not too much of a bother but it makes me nervous for my dog.
 

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Great report. Always love pictures and I enjoyed the set up you used to display them. May have to play with that a bit, refreshing after the typical scrolling picture show.

Does the Trinity or Shasta have a Back Country Discovery Trail set up? If you google "Plumas back country discovery trail", you can see what I mean (or may be you are already familiar with these). I know Plumas and Lassen have them, in PDF form, for us motorized nature tourists, I was wondering if they existed for other spots.
 
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cascadiarunner

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Great report. Always love pictures and I enjoyed the set up you used to display them. May have to play with that a bit, refreshing after the typical scrolling picture show.

Does the Trinity or Shasta have a Back Country Discovery Trail set up? If you google "Plumas back country discovery trail", you can see what I mean (or may be you are already familiar with these). I know Plumas and Lassen have them, in PDF form, for us motorized nature tourists, I was wondering if they existed for other spots.
Thanks! Yeah I thought presenting kind of a hierarchical mosaic of images might be more pleasing than scrolling through a ton of full width photos. Of course if anyone is using the light mode on the forums the effect isn't quite as nice due to the background color being embedded in the images. I suppose I could use PNGs with a transparent BG but the file size would be massive.

As far as having a Back Country Discovery Trail I'm not sure, I haven't heard of anything around here. I've just relied on trial and error, google earth, and local hearsay for the most part. I'd like to establish a (near) completely pavement free route from here to the coast, or at least as far as I can get, eventually, and plan on publishing my routes. Getting around the Trinity Alps will be a challenge as will avoiding the various tiny settlements of people that really don't want to be bothered; it's an easy place to disappear so those types are attracted to it.
 

Ashton

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Yea, one of the things I didn't consider when I started this hobby is that I would run into people that went a long way to be alone and not get run into. I always wondered why they were so close to the road then.

Circumnavigate the entire state, north to south and east to west, on nothing but dirt you say? Interesting idea.... :p I know, you didn't say that. Any long traverse of pavement free driving that is mapped is a great thing, hope you find one!
 

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@cascadiarunner Was just at the east Fork this past weekend, but right above the lake and we did some exploring by Tamarack Lake. In fact, I think we stumbled across your camp. Is this about a mile down river of the bridge on road 25? I made sure to drop a pin as it's a super nice and secluded cap right on the river. Have you ever explored further downstream--- looks like there could be more camping down by Bear Flat (USFS map).

Cheers-- really enjoyed reading your write up, and I think we're going to try and hit Bonanza King and Girard Ridge Lookouts in July when camping up that way.
 
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cascadiarunner

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@cascadiarunner Was just at the east Fork this past weekend, but right above the lake and we did some exploring by Tamarack Lake. In fact, I think we stumbled across your camp. Is this about a mile down river of the bridge on road 25? I made sure to drop a pin as it's a super nice and secluded cap right on the river. Have you ever explored further downstream--- looks like there could be more camping down by Bear Flat (USFS map).

Cheers-- really enjoyed reading your write up, and I think we're going to try and hit Bonanza King and Girard Ridge Lookouts in July when camping up that way.

Thanks! This actually is Bear Flat. There are some good camp sites down from the bridge like you mentioned, I was actually out there yesterday hunting for more. Bonanza king lookout is amazing, such a cool location! Girard ridge is amazing as well, but they rent out the lookout so you normally can't go there during the summer. We actually rented it back in 2010 and had a huge campout with about 40 people.
 

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Fantastic! What an awesome adventure, with some spectacular photos for all of us to enjoy. You're very blessed to have such a loyal and gorgeous pupper to adventure with, too :)

To me, this is what overlanding is all about. Campsites are fine in their way, but personally I much prefer being way out in the bush away from everyone but your adventure companions, discovering beauty that others rarely see.

Great trip report.
 
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cascadiarunner

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Fantastic! What an awesome adventure, with some spectacular photos for all of us to enjoy. You're very blessed to have such a loyal and gorgeous pupper to adventure with, too :)

To me, this is what overlanding is all about. Campsites are fine in their way, but personally I much prefer being way out in the bush away from everyone but your adventure companions, discovering beauty that others rarely see.

Great trip report.

Thank you, I appreciate the kind words!

We recently added another adventure pupper to our little family, 3 camp trips with him so far and he is 100% hooked!