hairy_apple
Adventurer
My wife and decided somewhat at the last minute we needed to squeeze in one more camping trip. Every weekend until November is now full, mostly with unfun things and we realized this was our last chance to get in a good camping trip, even if just an overnighter. Lucky for us, we live in Grass Valley, right at the base of the Sierras and some of the best areas in the world for camping. So we packed up the trailer, and the cruiser and decided on Henness Pass road. It was one of the original overland routes into California, and was a very active wagon road through the early part of California's history. Also, the chance to take a dirt road over the summit into Nevada was excited me.
A friend came with us, who had never been up to Bowman lake, or any of that area before, and I figured most of Henness Pass road from 49 up to Jackson Meadows was likely pretty boring, so we skipped the first half of Henness Pass road, and went up to Meadow Lake to camp. Spent the day just exploring, showing my friend some of the amazing lakes. I was pretty horrified to see how low Bowman lake was.. it was depressing to see it that low. I was up in the area in May, and it was low, but not anywhere close to this so I suspect they might have done some work on the dam or something and dumped water.
We came across a pickup with a flat tire, and a bunch of guys standing around looking pretty confused. I asked if they needed help, and they said they'd figure it out.. but I stopped anyway. I had a tire plug kit and a compressor, so I figured I could have them on their way again pretty quick. Plugged up their tire and filled it and they were back on their way to go fishing. My buddy and I laughed a little at how amazed they were that we were able to fix their tire in the middle of nowhere. They were a bunch of kids... and I know I got lucky I never had any issues when I was that age because I would have been equally unprepared. Sorry, no pictures of the tire fix.
Moved on to our turn off, and headed to Catfish lake.. which is closer to a large pond. Had lunch and scooted on down the road to Meadow lake, and down Fordyce Jeep trail a short way. We stopped and showed our friend some of the stuff we knew was there, and we explored a little more and found the remains of a stamp mill. I figured from all the crushed rock, there had to be a stamp there, but it took a while to find it. But it was pretty impressive how much was still there. It looked like it had been a pretty good size one by the foundation. At this point, it was getting later in the day, and we headed back up into Meadow lake to find a camp site for the night.
Old smashed car... strange thing to find up here.
A friend came with us, who had never been up to Bowman lake, or any of that area before, and I figured most of Henness Pass road from 49 up to Jackson Meadows was likely pretty boring, so we skipped the first half of Henness Pass road, and went up to Meadow Lake to camp. Spent the day just exploring, showing my friend some of the amazing lakes. I was pretty horrified to see how low Bowman lake was.. it was depressing to see it that low. I was up in the area in May, and it was low, but not anywhere close to this so I suspect they might have done some work on the dam or something and dumped water.
We came across a pickup with a flat tire, and a bunch of guys standing around looking pretty confused. I asked if they needed help, and they said they'd figure it out.. but I stopped anyway. I had a tire plug kit and a compressor, so I figured I could have them on their way again pretty quick. Plugged up their tire and filled it and they were back on their way to go fishing. My buddy and I laughed a little at how amazed they were that we were able to fix their tire in the middle of nowhere. They were a bunch of kids... and I know I got lucky I never had any issues when I was that age because I would have been equally unprepared. Sorry, no pictures of the tire fix.
Moved on to our turn off, and headed to Catfish lake.. which is closer to a large pond. Had lunch and scooted on down the road to Meadow lake, and down Fordyce Jeep trail a short way. We stopped and showed our friend some of the stuff we knew was there, and we explored a little more and found the remains of a stamp mill. I figured from all the crushed rock, there had to be a stamp there, but it took a while to find it. But it was pretty impressive how much was still there. It looked like it had been a pretty good size one by the foundation. At this point, it was getting later in the day, and we headed back up into Meadow lake to find a camp site for the night.
Old smashed car... strange thing to find up here.
