Four years ago, the Creek Fire roared through the swath of the Sierra National Forest where a fabulous camp site - nestled into the granite domes alongside - sits unobtrusively, a gem for those who find it. That fire changed many things about the landscape. Much of the undergrowth was incinerated, trees were burned completely or to slender black trunks reaching to the sky, scores of animals were caught in the blaze or forced to leave the area afterwards in order to find food and shelter. Still, only a year after the destruction, life was coming back. Now, four years…
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In what has become an enjoyable tradition, the end of June marked a few days of fun and relaxation in the Sierra with Pops. Usually, busy schedules keep us from getting up until just before Labor Day, but this year we pulled off our visit early! With perfect weather, we soaked in the sun and surroundings. Visited traditional lunch spots. And trapsed our way through blackened forests of the 2020 Creek Fire. And of course we ate well. This time, I've decided to break up the trip into two parts. The first - our 'usual activities' of lazing around camp…
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When you visit a place time after time, features that were once remarkable or breathtaking can start to seem normal or even become mundane. I don't think that's happened with me yet as I've visited over the years - or with my Dad over the decades that he's been enjoying this special place - but I still thought it'd be worthwhile to capture some of the landmarks that we enjoy when we're there. Some of these are large, others are small, and surely over the years every one of them will change or we'll find new perspectives from which to…
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There's no denying it - I'm getting older. Sure, there are the little things - injuries take a bit longer to heal, there's more than a bit of gray hair on my body, and I find myself saying things like, "I remember when candy bars used to cost 45¢." But surely the biggest indicator of my age is my resistance to change - a trait that I've called my own since I was twelve. Anyway, I'm that guy who is constantly looking to fix things that are broken. To make things I've come to love last just a little longer.…
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For the sixth time in as many years, I'm headed to a special spot in the Sierra of eastern California to enjoy a few days of wandering, chatting, and relaxation with my Dad. Having found this place more than 30 years ago, it's now the only place he camps anymore. If you recognize any of the places shown in the photos, please help to keep them special by not mentioning their names or locations. This year - like all the others - would be wonderful even if all we did was hang around camp and enjoy the world around us. In…
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More than 30 years ago, my dad found what is now his only camp spot. For the last five of those, I've been lucky enough to join him at least once over the course of the summer for a few days of relaxation and soaking in of the sights, fresh air, and some staying-in-one-place rather than the usual travels of my adventures. This year - like last - was up in the air for a while. Much of the Sierra National Forest is still recovering from the Creek Fire of 2020, and there are quite a few places that are…
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With Pops heading home after a better-than-we-could-have-hoped day at his favorite camp site, I figured that I ought to explore a bit more of the forest to see the effects of the Fire in a few more places that have become special over the years. And so, after hugs, smiles, and the knowledge that we could return in the future, Dad turned left and I turned right - leaving each other in literal clouds of dust. Even before we'd headed out, I'd speculated that the likelihood of me ending up back in our same camp site after running into closed…
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The last couple years have been tough on the forests of California. According to data from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, 2020 saw more burned acreage - 4.4 million acres - than any recorded year in history. More than 2.5 million additional acres have already burned as of September 30, 2021. Two of these fires - the 2020 Fire, and the 2021 Dixie Fire - had the largest impact on me, the Fire burning through my Dad's favorite camp site, and the Dixie Fire nearly destroying the homes of two of my Uncles (and their families). These…
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Having just completed the Nevada Backcountry Discovery Route (BDR), we now found ourselves in at the southern most tip of Nevada, quite a distance between us and home. We found ourselves there with a week to spare, having finished the trip a few days sooner than we'd originally expected. Only the timing was unplanned however, as we'd run the BDR this direction on purpose. By doing so, we hoped that we could meet up with Pops on our way home at the same spot we'd spent a few days with him just a month before. Well, as it turned out,…
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The next couple of days flew by faster than I think any of us expected - or wanted. We shouldn't have been surprised, really, because that always seems to happen when you're somewhere fun and surrounded by people whose company is enjoyable. And while the weather got a little more overcast - and a little cooler - they were still pleasant and went a little something like this... I'd set my alarm for right around sunrise. Actually no, it was well before sunrise - maybe 45 minutes or so - when I'd climb out of bed, grab the camera and…
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Prologue This was a trip I'd been waiting for. Well, not this trip exactly, but a trip to this location - - in the Sierra National Forest. See, after our last trip there, Pops and I regularly chatted about our next chance to visit this special place - we'd planned for it to happen in early July, but we'd both been keeping an eye on snow levels and road-and-forest status since January. At that time, COVID-19 wasn't something we were concerned about at all, but as winter turned to spring... and as the snow levels dropped, the closed status of…
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When you relax all day and know that the next will be more of the same, there's really nothing to do but sleep well at night , so that's just what we did - the only sounds around us, the rustling of a light breeze through the trees, and the tumbling of as it spilled through its channel a hundred-and-fifty feet below. Only the warm morning sun woke me from a restful night, my tent - a gleaming advertisement for @Cascadia Tents, the view - to rival any other. It was - as far as I'm concerned - one of…
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Well, it's not every day that I get to go camping with my dad, and it's not that often that I camp in the same spot for more than one night. I mean, I guess we camped in the same spot two nights in a row on the Idaho BDR when a brake caliper seized up, but that was clearly an exceptional situation! Plus, after last year's adventure - my first time experiencing one of Pops favorite spots in the Sierras - I knew this was a place that I wanted to return. Likely, for years to come. It really…
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"Dan?" I only half heard Pops say, rousing me from my afternoon nap. "Yeah?" There's been an incident in camp, and we're pretty much all packed up.Pops Well, I can tell you that getting awoken to that kind of news really gets your heart pumping. Especially with the type of afternoon we'd had so far. But, as is often the case with my stories, I'm getting ahead of myself... let's back up for a moment. Our day had been relaxing as usual - I forget the specifics of what we did, but it was mostly around camp and likely involved…
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There was plenty of relaxing around our camp in the Sierra's - and it was great. The way I see it, most of us live in the world running from one thing to the next, attention spans of a cricket. To really be able to relax, disconnect, and not worry about "doing something all the time" is an ability that's being lost. Not every trip lends itself to this kind of relaxation, but every trip does have moments where this can be experienced. Relish - even look for - those moments; they are grand. Even so, even this trip had…
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Having enjoyed even the short bit of dirt into - I mean the secret Sierra location, the next few days would be a whole different type of trip than I'm used to - we'd be sleeping in the same spot each night, there'd be no scramble to reach camp before dark, and any excursions were more likely to be on foot than in the trucks. Come to think about it, this was the camping I'd grown up with - well, except that it was a camp site much more like those of my trips today (as opposed to the "crowded"…
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Part 1: We Arrive, and It's Amazing Note: For anyone reading this "not in the family," it should be noted that this is a different type of trip report. Headed out with my Pops and his Jeep, there is libel to be more family ribbing than usual through parts of the report. It's all in good fun. 🙂turbodb Our awesome trip to Idaho ended like no other trip we'd taken to date - in more ways than one. Of course, we'd found the Overland Trail, but more importantly we'd ended the trip in another state, with no pit stop at…
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