Tag Archives: Auburn

Lassen Volcanic National Park

Cold. Wet. Rainy. Foggy. Cloudy. Cold.

Drove up Wednesday. Tried fishing some of the very small creeks around our campsite. No luck. Built a roaring fire to fend off the wet cold. Bundled up and spent the night shivering in our tent. 30 degrees. Ice on the ground in the morning.

No fishing? Colder than a well digger’s ass? Too foggy and cloudy to see any of the spectacular views Lassen is known for? We’re out.

Yum, breakin' the law

Drove over to my favorite fishin’ spots near Lake Almanor. Kept 8 trout and drove to all the way down highway 89 to Truckee.

Highway 89. This is one of the most beautiful highways I’ve ever driven. It starts way up by Mount Shasta and winds through the southern Cascades and northern Sierra Nevada, through Lassen Volcanic National Park and Lake Almanor and Quincy and Truckee and Lake Tahoe and finally ends up near Lake Topaz on 395 near the California-Nevada border. You get the the wide range of California alpine scenery–the volcanic rock formations of the Cascades, the high Sierra white granite, various rivers and creeks, pine trees and oaks and aspens, craggy eastern Sierra barren rocks, and so on. The area between Lake Almanor and Truckee on highway 89 is particularly nice and filled with plenty of places to camp and fish. This is an area that I’d like to explore a lot more in the future.

Ahhh, Truckee… a nice, warm, dry cabin awaits us. We cranked up the heat and built a fire in the hearth, ate grilled trout with lemon, and went to bed early. Slept easily and peacefully in our warm and comfortable bed.

This morning we drove home, stopping by Grass Valley just because, and Auburn to look at houses and dream about living there.

Here’s a few pics of Lassen. Just a few.

Fish on

So last year was the first year of my life where I didn’t go fishing at least once. I didn’t even buy my fishing license. Sigh.

Determined to not let this happen again, Yum and I set out yesterday to catch some fish.

Me 'n my Yum

First we drove up highway 80 to Auburn, where we turned onto highway 49 and drove over to Coloma. We parked at the Sutter’s Mill area and took lots of pictures. I mean, we fished a lot. No luck. Not even a bite. So we left.

We drove down to the confluence of the American River near Auburn and fished near the bridges. I caught two huge trout, one of them was 15 inches (we ate both tonight).

Yum didn’t catch any fish, but smiled and laughed and had a blast. It makes me happy to see my Yum in her Teva sandals and cargo pants, taking pictures of pine trees and smiling from ear to ear.

Today we went fishing again, this time to Silver Fork. We drove up highway 50 and took Silver Fork road, just past Kyburz. We parked and camped at the Haytown Posse’s old Memorial Day weekend camping spots along the river. Nobody was up there today. Maybe it’s because the US Forest Service went in and blocked off all the OHV areas–nobody can get off the main road, not unless you have a dirt bike. But I digress.

Me fly fishing in Silver Fork

I did some fly fishing and managed to catch a little 6 incher, which I threw back. Yum was skunked again, but like yesterday didn’t care. She smiled and laughed and took pictures. She got her line snagged in the river more than once and just shrugged it off. All that mattered to her was that we were in the mountains together. That’s all that mattered to me, too.

I sure do like living on the road to fun. Last year this wouldn’t have happened. This year we’re 60-90 minutes away from cold Sierra mountain streams and fishing and pine trees and mountains and fun.

And it just wouldn’t be a teebiss-approved adventure without photos, so here they are!