Saturday was a beast. It started with a climb of around 500 feet up and over a ridge that separates the Swift Creek drainage from the South Fork of the Salmon River and Trinity County from Siskiyou County. That was followed by a long steep descent down to the uppermost reach of the South Fork of the Salmon. Shortly after heading south at the trail junction, I saw three young men headed the other way with huge packs. The trail is near a dirt road with several vacation homes at the outlet of Josephine Lake, which is probably where they were coming from. After stopping for water at the Salmon River (which I could straddle at this point it was so small), I began a climb of 1,750 feet up and back into Trinity County. I met a couple of young ladies headed the other way with butterfly nets attached to their packs. At the top of the climb was another open meadow that led up to a 7,620-foot incisor on the Sawtooth Ridge. It was only about 340 feet above me and would have been an easy walk across a wide open sloping meadow, but I needed to make some miles, as it was already afternoon.
Now began another knee shattering descent of 1,740 feet down, down, down. At the bottom, I turned back east and began following the trail up Deer Creek, gaining back a little of the elevation that I had just given up. I stopped at Deer Creek Camp for a much needed lunch break…at 3:30. After refreshing a bit in Deer Creek, I began my third and longest climb of the day, gaining 2,300 feet to the ridge coming off the north shoulder of Seven Up Peak. I was rewarded with more alpine meadows, springs, and views of Deer Creek Canyon to the south and north and Sawtooth Ridge to the west. I descended into Bear Basin, finally coming to a campsite alongside Bear Creek at 6:30. Clouds were piling up to the north and east, and I was treated to a different light show this night. Lightening lit up the sky off in the distance as I drifted off to sleep.
I rose earlier than I wanted to and was on the trail by 7:00. It was all downhill from here back to the Swift Creek trailhead. Around 7:45, I passed another campsite with three tents set up – slackers, still sleeping at 7:45
. Soon after, I came to one more magnificent meadow with grass and flowers stretching from Bear Creek on my left to the steep canyon walls on my right. I made it back to the Swift Creek Trail by 8:30 and arrived back at my car at 10:30. Swift Creek begged to be visited several times on the way back, but I had run out of time. Maybe some other day.The trip was fairly isolated as I only saw a total of seven other hikers besides the three tents on Sunday morning. The views from the lakes and high ridges were awesome and the meadows with flowers in bloom were a pleasant surprise. There was still some snow, but none near the trail. Even though the total distance hiked was only 30 miles – according to my tracing on Cal topo – I would recommend taking a bit more time on this loop than I did in order to enjoy the sites and maybe go on a few side trips along the Sawtooth Ridge or up Tri Forest Peak for instance. There are several established campsites that would allow flexibility on where to camp each night.
