Читать книгу Trinity Alps & Vicinity: Including Whiskeytown, Russian Wilderness, and Castle Crags Areas. A Hiking and Backpacking Guide онлайн

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Description

The Stuart Fork Valley offers a cross-section of much of the natural history of the Alps. Below Oak Flat the river has cut through jumbled sedimentary and metasedimentary rock strata and glacial till. Several thousand years ago, receding glaciers left extensive terminal moraines above Oak Flat, damming a large lake that eventually filled in and dried out to become present-day Morris Meadow. At the head of the valley, Emerald, Sapphire, and Mirror Lakes shimmer in their solid rock basins much as the glaciers left them.

The first mile of the Stuart Fork Trail follows the continuation of the road across private land, as signs direct you to respect the rights of the property owners by remaining on the road. Veer right at a well-signed fork immediately beyond the gate (the left-hand road leads to a mining camp near the river) and continue to the end of the road at the wilderness boundary, just past a cabin at Cherry Flat.

From the boundary, the well-defined singletrack trail goes about 200 yards to a crossing of Sunday Creek, the first readily accessible water source. Above the creek you climb away from the river into dense forest of primarily Douglas-fir, with occasional incense cedars, ponderosa pines, and sugar pines. Drop down to a flat beside the Stuart Fork, climb moderately up the side of the canyon, down to another flat with excellent campsites, and then up and down again to a crossing of Little Deep Creek, close to its confluence with the river. Pass another excellent campsite, climb over a mound of glacial till (the first on the way up the valley), and come to a steel girder bridge spanning Deep Creek.