Monday, July 30, 2007
Hiking for a view of the whitewater along the lower McCloud River, July 27
Scenic area near Mt Shasta, CA
I carpooled with Hubert, BruceH and TedD to the City of McCloud (Siskiyou County, California, USA) and then south on Squaw Valley Road to the Lake McCloud Dam. Then we turned onto the dirt road and drove down to Ash Camp (N 41.11690 W 122.06068 - copy/paste these coordinates into the Find box at ACME Mapper - Topo view).Ash Camp is a nice little primitive campsite that is on the lower McCloud River. The Pacific Crest Trail runs along this section of the McCloud River enabling us to take a short hike and check out the river . A feisty little rattlesnake on the trail coiled and rattled at us. This stopped us for a moment, but then the rattlesnake headed downhill and we were able to continue down the trail. I was dreaming that this class IV section of river might mellow out to an easier level at summertime flows, but that was clearly not the case. At a flow of 300 cfs (from Dreamflows) the rapids were still very loud and very white from our vantage points on the road and on the trail. I won't be kayaking this section of river anytime soon. The trail was great and the river canyon was very pretty, so its definitely worth going back to hike a little more of it.
More pictures from this hike.
Camping at Friday's R.V. Resort
Then we drove back north on Squaw Valley Road to our campsite at Friday's R.V. Resort (phone 530-964-2878). This was a great meeting place for our group because we could reserve a campsite in advance. The resort is excellent for tent camping because the sites are well spaced in a very nice wooded area. (There are BLM or Forest Service campsites in the area, but they don't allow reservations and may be filled up with fishermen coming to this world renowned fly fishing stream.)Eventually we were joined by MasaO, KenyaO and JimH, and later PaulG. We enjoyed the evening around the campfire for a while and then sacked out. I misjudged the coldness of the summer nights at this elevation (again !) and didn't bring a warm enough sleeping bag, so I spent a cold night doing more shivering than sleeping. Hopefully I'll learn this lesson before I make this mistake too many more times.
More about:
• Trip Reports - Whitewater River Kayaking in California.
• Hiking & Camping Trip Reports - BRT Insights.
• Siskiyou County Hiking Trails - Redding Wiki.
• California Hiking Trails - Statewide Information.
• California Maps - Atlas & Gazetteer by Delorme, 2008.
Tags: whitewater, rivers, kayaking.
