Paradise Lake Nevada County
Posted: Mon May 25, 2015 4:07 pm
My old friend "Ax Man" had planned a trip to take a couple of teenagers up to Paradise Lake.
He shared his plan with me and asked my thoughts so I recommended we make the hike.
We parked at the gate to Castle Pass road. The gate is still currently locked. This added a couple of miles
to our hike. The weather was also less than ideal. It was raining on the drive up and went from steady to light
all day long.
There is also still a lot of snow covering the trail. The snow was particularly deep on the north slope of Basin
Peak.
The rain went from sleet to snow and back to heavy rain. It was particularly heavy by the time we reached
Paradise Valley. The trail was now a steady stream.
In fact there were streams everywhere. The dogs were soaked and shivering but we all pressed on toward the lake.
We got to the lake, set up camp and then the rain (as predicted) began to stop. We watched a bald eagle fly from
one tree to another and wait for risers.
We cooked dinner and called it a night. That night the rains returned. The wind was also causing quite a commotion.
The weather did improve the next morning and the sun even made an appearance.
We bush whacked and rock climbed our way around the lake.
We did toss some flies and lures but never were able to bring a fish to hand. Late Sunday morning we packed up our
camp and headed back to the truck. We lucked out and didn't get rain on the trip back.
There was a work crew gathering fire wood at the Peter Grubb Hut in Round Valley. The new roof on the hut looks great!
Thanks for reading my report!
-Russ
He shared his plan with me and asked my thoughts so I recommended we make the hike.
We parked at the gate to Castle Pass road. The gate is still currently locked. This added a couple of miles
to our hike. The weather was also less than ideal. It was raining on the drive up and went from steady to light
all day long.
There is also still a lot of snow covering the trail. The snow was particularly deep on the north slope of Basin
Peak.
The rain went from sleet to snow and back to heavy rain. It was particularly heavy by the time we reached
Paradise Valley. The trail was now a steady stream.
In fact there were streams everywhere. The dogs were soaked and shivering but we all pressed on toward the lake.
We got to the lake, set up camp and then the rain (as predicted) began to stop. We watched a bald eagle fly from
one tree to another and wait for risers.
We cooked dinner and called it a night. That night the rains returned. The wind was also causing quite a commotion.
The weather did improve the next morning and the sun even made an appearance.
We bush whacked and rock climbed our way around the lake.
We did toss some flies and lures but never were able to bring a fish to hand. Late Sunday morning we packed up our
camp and headed back to the truck. We lucked out and didn't get rain on the trip back.
There was a work crew gathering fire wood at the Peter Grubb Hut in Round Valley. The new roof on the hut looks great!
Thanks for reading my report!
-Russ
