Sacramento River Scouting Hike

Went on an afternoon scouting hike to a nearby stretch of the Sacramento River. 5 minutes walk to the head of the Buenaventura trail and we're off.

The trail descends towards the Sacramento River.

Over a half dozen feeder streams in this short walk. We've had rain lately, not sure but these are probably intermittent. The Agave on the hill tells of a Mediterranean climate. It gets pretty darn hot here in the summer...mild winters.

First views of the Sacramento River.

In no time we're at the Sacramento River Trail. This trail starts at Hilltop and Dana Road...13.8 miles later you're at the Keswick Dam. From there pick up the Rail Trail and the next stop is Shasta Lake Dam. That's Mt Lassen in the background.

Not being fond of paved trails, this one going toward the water looks better.

I hit this little east/west oriented arroyo and the suddenly wind was whistling strong from the east. As soon as I exited the funnel...the wind was again calm.

A couple steps later and I was on the Sacramento looking upstream,

and downstream.

This stretch looks like excellent nymphing water. Reminds me of a stretch on the Esopus in the Catskills. The river is very low however running at 3250cfs which is 9% of average. For those unfamiliar with fly fishing, nymphs are the larval stage of aquatic insects. On the rocks I noticed there were good numbers of Caddis flies size 14-16 black bodies and tan mottled wings. I saw no fish activity but it was 1:30 in the afternoon; nap time for most trout.

I headed downstream toward riffles. It was slow going as the south side was boggy and overgrown. Many clear seeps and feeders.

The end of someones meal, probably a Steelhead skeleton.

After the bogs I had some boulder hopping to do. Here's a nice dry nymphing platform.

Much of this is probably underwater at 100% flow.

Almost there.

The head of a beautiful riffle stretch shaped in a U with the bottom pointed upstream.

This side the riffles spilled away from me into deeper water. On the far side of the deeper pool was a deep swift run over larger rocks. Nice.

The rocks were covered with moss. It was like walking on dry cement. My hiking boots stuck like glue.

More of this riffle stretch.

Very nice.

Moving on downstream the bank is overgrown with all kinds of thorny growth from blueberries to poison oak. Bushwacking and bleeding at it's finest. An old bridge abutment in the middle of nowhere.

Making my way towards what I'll call the Rocky Islands. Not very easy to get there...lots of thorny dead ends and detours.

But looks like it's worth a closer look.

Not a bad stretch, definitely looks like it's worth bouncing a nymph through here.

Took a snack on the downstream side of Rocky Islands and noticed there were also some size 16 olive mayflies about.

There were both Mallard and Merganser couples on the river but they were very shy. I suppose they get shot at around here in-season.

Would one call this mullet grass?

The mining and the damage done. Can't compare to the results of clearcutting.

Clearcutting at the California\Oregon Border

Nearing my street, Mt Lassen in the distance. Is that a truck for sale?

This would be perfect but I don't have $11,000 at the moment so pass.

All in all a good river scouting trip. Now I know the initial setup I'll need. Nice to have somewhere I can walk to. Until next time. Peace