September Doings

Before I do another Jeffery's Trip post, I thought I'd toss in a few photos of our days of September.

View of the Caribou Penstock from behind Cherry Hill on a Monday hike with Brenda

Zinfandel grapes ready to be picked and turned into wine

Jeffery and I arrive at Drakesbad, a little resort in the southeast corner of Lassen National Park

I loved this swing set with cup-holder drinks table

Low Overhead Clearance in the Root Cellar

Jeffery is ready to hike!

Looking back/over towards the Drakesbad resort from our trail, which connects to the Pacific Crest Trail

Boiling Springs Lake

One of the little islands that get created by the water levels and bubblings

Lassen and Boiling Springs Lake

Same view, zoomed out

Old boardwalk path through the fens (is that the right word for a marshy grassy place with a creek running through it?)

Now we head towards the Devil's Kitchen, through the messy forest that I neglected to photograph, sadly.

A creek running into the Devil's Kitchen with minerals in it

This is just one part of the Devil's Kitchen area, where you can hear the ground thump and bump and moan, and, like Bumpass Hell, it has boiling springs and fumeroles and cool colors

Jeffery watches the steam rise

cool rock boulder with texture.  

 That's all for Drakesbad.  Now for some more local shots

Liked the sky texture with the tree in the foreground.  This is right below Tobin, and it had rained (yes, rain!)

Close-up of the clouds and rocky peak

I love these long-armed trees on the Tobin Trail

Godzilla rock in September colors

I'm King of the Mountain!  Shay used to love this rock at the beginning of the Tobin Trail

This is the familiar view of the Jackass Creek waterfall, but you can hardly find it up there.

The Jackass Creek waterfall as it spills below the railroad tracks.  Even at this low volume, it's quite a flow!

Jeffery's Trip -Day Part One - Mount Hood

In August, Jeffery drove up to Mt. Hood, Oregon, and then to Mt. Saint Helen's, Washington to hike up mountains and be with his buddies for some fun.  I haven't taken time to get these photos posted, but am going to do so now.  It's long overdue!  This Mt. Hood section is on his own, before meeting up with the bro's.  He has wanted to check Mt. Hood off of his bucket list, and now he can say he did it!

The trip requires some travelling food - Riley's Jerky, straight from the source in Greenville, CA!

There it is, after a long journey!  Mt. Hood.

Mt. Hood at day's end.  Jeffery will start to climb it tomorrow morning, very very early, in the dark, as usual.  He'll go up through the two sunlit pinnacles to the top, through all that snow.  The top is at 11,250 ft.

As the moon sets, day comes on

Looking up to where he has to go

Looking down and out to the south, and Mt. Jefferson

Mountain shadow - selfie; Mt. Hood

Day comes onto Mt. Jefferson in the south, which is 10,495 ft. tall.

Scenery along the path upwards

The path ahead

To show how steep, treacherous, and difficult it is.

Still heading up!  Last-ever solo trek, he promised me.

I really, really dislike photos of crevasses like this; thinking of what might lie hidden underneath.

View of Mt. Jefferson from the top of Mt. Hood

This is what he really looks like at the summit

This is his "cool" summit shot.

If you look at this as his trip down the hill, subsequent photos will make sense to you.  I know, it makes you dizzy, but look way down where he'll end up, and think of the hike he has ahead.  Makes me tired.  And I'm grateful for views of this world.

Back in the "real world".

You can see this place in the photo I noted above.  It shows he's almost back to the Timberline Lodge where he began.  He arrived back at 1:30 p.m., having left at 3 a.m.

The moon over the Columbia River in Hood River, OR

Tunnel 15 with Jeffery

After my hike with Brenda, I was more than ever determined to find the east end of Tunnel 15, the trail around it, so we could reach where Brenda and I had been turned around on the outside of the tunnel,and the continuation of the old Storrie Road.  It has been Jeffery's wish to be able to run from Jackass Creek across from Tobin, to Rock Creek, via the old road, which is now more trail than road.  Alas, we found that the work needed to put the old road back into decent shape is too big a task.  But we did find it!!!  Woot woot!  So, here are photos of Jeffery's and my foray, where we learned much, and beat ourselves up completely for only 3 miles on my Fitbit.

There it is!  Lit up by the morning sun.  We had to scramble up a very steep bank to get here from the highway below.

My t-shirt says "I'm not dead yet".

Jeffery by the tunnel, for perspective

Informative signage.  The tunnel is slightly curved, and 3/5 of a mile long (basically) so you can't see the other end.

Jeffery liked the towers for the power lines, and noted that this style of tower means it went out of the Buck's Creek Powerhouse.

Jeffery's art shot of insulators

Skirting the tunnel towards where Brenda and I got from the other end, earlier in the week.

Here's where we "can't" go further from the east. Brenda and I were directly above the large boulder beside the highway when we couldn't go on.   A section of dense busheriy is the only obstacle between the two directions, but a set of loppers would probably clear us a path through.  Another day.

Buck's Creek Powerhouse wasn't spewing, but it was droning a rather loud, annoying hum.

Behind this wall of rock is the train tunnel, yet there is an adit at the base; see it?  It has wood at it's mouth, and water coming from it.  Let's check it out.

There's a pool of clear water with algae outside the "cave"

We each take a turn looking in.

There's water inside, and dripping from the rocks, and we can't figure out where the train tunnel is, relative to this tunnel with a creek in it.

When we get back to the tunnel opening, we hear a train, so Jeffery got up on top to take this photo.

See him on top there?

See him up on the suspension bridge we'd spotted earlier, and which he had to try to reach while I waited atop Tunnel 15 in the shade.

The sun is lighting up the top section of the Buck's Creek penstock as we walk along the railroad tracks east towards Storrie, searching now for the access to the old Storrie Road.

Looking down onto part of the Storrie Retreat

the old tram way down to the Storrie Retreat, which was once a P.G.&E. Camp

zoom up of the cart.

Well!  We found the old road, saw the brushy ravine that cuts it off east to west, and took the un-traveled west side leg, back towards Tunnel 15, only now, a terrifying scramble up a steep hill above the railroad tracks.  We're approaching the Storrie water tank

The road becomes merely a path and then we approach the suspension bridge, which holds up a pipeline

Proof that I made it to this place.  T'was getting mighty warm out.  The Buck's Creek Powerhouse is far below behind my head

Jeffery crosses the bridge, despite my terror.  You can see almost the whole length of the penstock we climbed to the left.

His view of me from the other side.  See me?

His shadow selfie.  Isn't that so him?  It's the hat.

His view from the bridge of the Storrie Bridge on the highway.  Also please note the steep bank we now have to descend to reach the railroad tracks.  I will mostly slide down on my bum, clinging to any green thing or stable rock I can find.  I will be very sweaty when I reach the tracks.

Our 3rd train of the day comes right at the perfect time for a last photo at Tunnel 15

While the train went through the Tunnel, we went and saw if we could hear it from the outside; we couldn't, but if we felt a rock it vibrated, and when I put my ear to the rock, I could hear the train.  Now we're standing in the nice cool breeze that is flowing through the tunnel.  And I'm still not dead yet!

We are about half-way down the bank from the tracks to the highway, when I think to photograph how steep it is.  There is the now familiar Buck's Creek Powerhouse in the background.

Phew!  Went home and had some lemonade, and rested in a cool breeze for a while.