Trinity Alps & Vicinity: Including Whiskeytown, Russian Wilderness, and Castle Crags Areas. Mike White

       47. Bingham Lake

      Duck Lake Trailhead

       48. Big Duck, Little Duck, and Horseshoe Lakes

      Paynes Lake Trailhead

       49. Paynes Lake

      Trip from Sawyers Bar/Etna Road

      Taylor Lake Trailhead

       50. Taylor, Hogan, and Big Blue Lakes

       CHAPTER 4 Trips in Castle Crags Area

      Trips in Castle Crags State Park

      Castle Crags State Park Trailheads

       51. Root Creek

       52. Crags Trail to Castle Dome

       53. Flume Trail, PCT, and Bobs Hat Trail Loop

       54. River Trail

      Trip from Forest Service Road 26

      Forest Service Road 26 Trailhead

       55. Castle Lake Trail to Mount Bradley Lookout

       THE BIGFOOT TRAIL

       RECOMMENDED READING

       ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      Acknowledgments

      As is the case for all my book projects, support and encouragement from my wife, Robin, are absolutely essential—my efforts would be fruitless without her help. I would also like to thank those friends who joined me on the trail for the updates during the 2016 and 2017 seasons: Tic Long, Andy and Mark Montessoro, and Bob Redding. And I would also like to thank the staff at Wilderness Press for once again performing magnificently on this project.

      —Mike White

      Preface to the Sixth Edition

      Naturally occurring fires have always played an integral role in the ecology of the Klamath Mountains, but decades of fire suppression, paired with climate change, seem to be exacerbating the recent effects of forest fires in the area. Over the years, both fires in the immediate vicinity and fires in more distant locales filling the sky with smoke and unhealthy air have altered my own personal plans to update the trails covered in this guide.

      Most of these events have been triggered by lightning strikes, and obviously there is little that can be done to prevent them from a human standpoint. That said, a heightened awareness of fire danger and a rededication to the sound principles of fire protection should be at the top of every person’s list of ways to minimize any future human-caused events. In the summer of 2018, while this book was in production, sparks from the rim of a trailer’s flat tire started the devastating Carr Fire, which torched the trails in Whiskeytown National Recreation Area (see Chapter 1), burned more than 225,000 acres, and destroyed more than 1,000 homes. Please be extra cautious when recreating in the Trinity Alps and vicinity.

      Whenever I’m involved in putting together a new edition of a guidebook, I attempt not only to update as much of the previous information as possible but also to add some new trips to make the purchase more appealing to the reader. The sixth edition does have a few new trails added toward that end, and more day-hiking opportunities have also been identified. Although no new trails have been built to add to the already extensive network of existing trails in the region, there has been one new designation of import: The Bigfoot Trail. This trail is a long-distance, south–north route of about 360 miles traversing the Klamath Mountains, from the Yolla Bolly–Middle Eel Wilderness in California north into southernmost Oregon near the Red Buttes Wilderness and then dipping back into California to end near Crescent City. Check out for more information about this unique route.

      With the combination of outstanding scenery, biological and botanical diversity, and ample opportunities for solitude, the greater Trinity Alps is still one of my favorite mountain areas. May this guide assist you in discovering some of the same attributes of this area that I have grown to love.

      —M. W.

      SUMMARY OF TRIPS

      Mount Shasta from the Eagle Creek Divide (see Trip 28)

      Introduction to the Area

      Imagine for a moment that you’re driving north on I-5 south of Redding, California, on a glorious spring day, after a north wind has cleared the air above the upper Sacramento River Valley—a day when you can see for a distance of more than 100 miles. As the freeway crests a ridge, the frosted cone of Mount Shasta directly north suddenly enthralls you and your passengers, the majestic peak towering into the sky above the surrounding lowlands. Over to the northwest, a row of snowcapped peaks above the lower ridges behind Redding intrigues you. Most of your riders may be surprised to see snowy mountains toward the Northern California coast, but those in the know may recognize the Trinity Alps, and soon regale the group with interesting accounts of past experiences in one of the state’s most diverse mountain ranges. With the possible exception of fishing stories, the tales they tell about these mountains are probably true.

      The Trinity Alps, along with the nearby Whiskeytown Unit of Whiskeytown-Shasta-Trinity National Recreation Area, the Russian and Castle Crags Wildernesses, and Castle Crags State Park—all within a remote and diverse range known as the Klamath Mountains—make up the scope of this book. This range of about 8,300 square miles encompasses a large area of northwestern California and southwestern Oregon, extending from the Sacramento Valley all the way north to the Willamette Valley. The area is deeply dissected by rivers, with the Trinity Alps Wilderness, Russian Wilderness, and Whiskeytown NRA drained by the Trinity, Scott, and Salmon Rivers, and Castle Crags drained by the upper Sacramento River.

      The Trinity Alps forms the centerpiece of this guide, an area of about 525,000 acres of splendid wilderness and near-wilderness. The federally designated Trinity Alps Wilderness, set aside by the U.S. Congress in the California Wilderness Act of 1984, contains a half million of those acres, an area of more than 780 square miles. The wilderness includes all of the 234,000 acres previously protected as the Salmon–Trinity Alps Primitive Area, plus, obviously, a great deal more land.

      Compared with the Sierra Nevada or Cascade Range, the Trinity Alps is a much smaller mountain range in both height and expanse. However, bigger is not necessarily better, as the Alps are filled with rushing streams, high waterfalls, gorgeous mountain lakes dimpled with trout rises, glaciated granite peaks, remnant glaciers, and cool green forests—plus some unique features