I had a short but educational backpacking trip on August 5 – 7 I learned that I am in no condition to do 20-mile days in the Sierras. I also learned that the Trinity Alps have some beautiful alpine meadows and white granite peaks. The trip started at the Swift Creek trailhead. There were two picturesque meadows, Parker Meadow with Foster’s Cabin and Mumford Meadow, along the way to Horseshoe Lake, the headwaters of Swift Creek and the end of the trail. After a short break at Horseshoe Lake I backtracked half a mile to the Ward Lake trail junction. A short 1-mile hike brought me to Ward Lake and my campsite for the night. An older couple had the site in the trees above the marsh at the head of the lake, but the guy told me there were a couple of small sites on the peninsula that juts out into the lake. I set up camp and settled in with a good book for an hour or so until the sun had descended, hidden entirely by the rocky crags surrounding the lake, and the stars began to come out. The Milky Way was beautiful as always, and I caught sight of one falling star in the hour or so before I fell asleep.
- Parker Meadow
- Foster's Cabin
- Mumford Meadow
- Mumford Meadow Flowers
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.
- Swift Creek Canyon from the ridge above Ward Lake
- From the ridge above Ward Lake (Horseshoe Lake is on the other side of the red ridge)
- Deer Creek Side of Sawtooth Ridge near the top.
- Sawtooth Ridge (from below the meadow at the top)
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.
- Top of the Bear Creek drainage
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.
- Looking back up the drainage from Bear Basin meadow
- Bear Basin meadow
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.
