BRT Insights - WW Kayaking & Hiking

Hiking for the fresh air and the incredible views!

JimH, OliverH, Royce & I drove up Capay Valley, turned east on Hwy 20 and stopped at the northern trailhead for the Cache Creek Ridge Trail (trail map - yolohiker - pdf) on 13feb2010. The first part of the trail was soft & muddy, but the trail got better as we got farther along.

Map of Cache Creek Ridge Trail & nearby landmarks.

• Instructions for online interactive topographic river maps & road maps.
• Click on Map button for road map, Topo button for topographic map.
• Full-Screen Map - landmarks along Cache Creek Ridge Trail.
• Names of landmarks (A, B, etc.) - DoubleClick or point on the red markers.

      N 39.00878 W 122.41482 - Cache Creek Ridge Trailhead (A)
      N 38.96808 W 122.39267 - impoundment in Brophy Canyon (B)
      N 38.95981 W 122.40555 - firebreak area on the ridgeline (C)
      N 38.94746 W 122.41671 - U-bend in Cache Creek at Kennedy Flats (D)
      N 38.95564 W 122.40147 - lunch spot (E)

      N 38.97490 W 122.76638 - Mount Knocti, elevation 4299 ft. (Lake County) (F)
      N 39.37684 W 122.75874 - Snow Mountain, elevation 7056 ft. (Lake County) (G)
      N 39.35985 W 122.74140 - High Rock, elevation 6350 ft. (Lake & Colusa Counties)
      N 38.90974 W 122.29757 - Cache Creek divides Cortina Ridge &
Blue Ridge (Yolo County) (H)

Wherever we weren't looking down constantly to avoid the mud the views were quite fine. We saw Mount Konocti to the west, Snow Mountain to the north-west and the gap where Cache Creek cuts between Cortina Ridge & Blue Ridge to the south-east.

Double-click on the photos to see a larger image. Use the back button to return.
• Cortina Ridge & Blue Ridge.

• Hiking the Cache Creek Ridge Trail.

• Cache Creek Ridge Trail photo gallery.

We had lunch at a great spot overlooking the Cache Creek valley. We were hoping to see some of the bald eagles which are known to overwinter there, but we didn't see any eagles soaring over the valley. I talked to a lady at the BLM office. She said that there are fewer bald eagles at Cache Creek this year and more of them upstream at Clear Lake (the source for the fish that the eagles eat). I think that supports my idea that the low flows due to drought are not releasing enough carp from the lake into the creek, so most of the eagles have to go upstream to get their fish directly from the lake this year.

Cache Creek Ridge Trail - gps track & map by ElRemaro.

ElRemero used his Garmin GPSMAP 76S to save a gps track of our exact hiking route and then plotted it on a map together with his photos.

• Go to Full-screen map & gps track of Cache Creek Ridge Trail by ElRemaro - EveryTrail.
• Mapping Methods and GPS Equipment for Travel Photography.

On the way home we stopped for dinner at Chuy's Taqueria in Winters, CA. The Saturday special of 2 soft tacos, beans & rice was quite excellent!

More about:
• Cache Creek Ridge Trail - Davis Wiki.
• Colusa County Trailheads Map - BRT Insights.
• California Maps - Atlas & Gazetteer by Delorme, 2008.
• California Hiking Trails Directory.
• Hiking & Camping Trip Reports - BRT Insights.
• Olympus Stylus 720SW camera. Photos edited with IrfanView & PanoStitcher softwares.

IceRocket Tags: hiking, trail, Cache Creek Ridge Trail, Cache Creek, Lake County, California.
Tags: photography, panoramic photography, landscape photography.

Labels: hiking