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The Daily Bucket. A good early spring ride up into the mountains; Meadow Valley, CA. [1]
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Date: 2025-03-27
My next stop, about four miles into the trek, was a wide spot off the Bucks Lake-Oroville Road/Forest Road 119, (actually not part of Highway 162 proper; but rather constitutes an eastward extension from Hwy 162’s eastern terminus down at Lake Oroville) which is my route to Meadow Valley. This road was actually here as a stage coach/freight wagon toll road many, many years before the wagon road (and prior to that the railroad) was punched through the Feather River Canyon that is now state route Highway 70. The Bucks Lake-Oroville Road a.k.a. Quincy-Oroville Road was, at the time, part of the Beckwourth Trail and the only way to get from this area in the northern California Sierra Nevada mountains down into the Sacramento Valley.
That little civil engineering triviality and morsel of California history out of the way, here’s the spot I stopped to take a quick thaw, even though morning sunlight was not yet reaching over the trees behind me.
Spanish Creek, Plumas County, CA
All of that massive triangular rock face was blasted out for the realignment of the Bucks Lake Road back in the mid-seventies, resulting in a total change of course for Spanish Creek. There is a trail from this vantage point down to the creek where at the base of the rapids you can perhaps see where a nice swimming hole forms for popular summer use.
Looking upstream, the head of the rapids. During the summer these rapids are effectually very pleasant ripples, a very nice spot to get down to and get away from the summer heat.
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Another two miles along and I got to Meadow Valley, turning first into Spanish Ranch, a site with a lot of its own pioneering history. At one time there was a very productive saw mill here but all that can be seen these days are the remnants of the old drying kilns, which I photographed some time back on another ride.
The remnants of the lumber drying kilns. Photographed October 2024.
A Emigrant Trails West interpretive sign. Not a great deal of info (they’re more to entice you to purchase the guidebook) but built to last, eh? In all fairness, Emigrant Trails West is an entirely legitimate and non-profit historical outfit.
Founded in 1970, Trails West, Inc. is a non-profit organization of emigrant trail enthusiasts who research, locate and mark emigrant trails, and then publish guides to interpret them. Join us in preserving the memory of the people who endured danger and hardship along these routes to establish a new life in the far west. Anyone with an interest in emigrant trails can join our organization.
There was fog in Spanish Ranch, but I knew it would quickly burn off and I had more miles to cover and spots to check for photo opportunities. So I took some snaps and e-motor-pedaled on.
The old sawmill drying kilns are just off to the right, out of frame. When the fog lifts there is about a mile of open view up the meadow area of Spanish Ranch from this vantage point.
Annnnd, the fog is indeed lifting. Spanish Peak (boundary of the Bucks Lake Wilderness) just showing through.
The Spotted Towhee is very populous and gregarious and vociferous here in my area just now. My first wildlife photo of the day.
One particular spot I had in mind was a “dead end” leg of Forest Service road, but at one time was the regular dirt road up to Silver Lake; [Back Country Trail Trimming]. There is a big gravel pit operation back here, but there is also the spot where the old road crosses Spanish Creek, way back in the day a concreted river rock wet ford but now all washed out. I though it might be a good spot for birds. On the way, though, a few species did show themselves.
Tree Swallow
California Quail
Dark-eyed Junco
On the old Forest Service road, coming up on a large melt water puddle left by recent snow cover. I went around to the left.
Just enough room off to the left for me to carefully skirt the water. There’s no need for me to unnecessarily filth up my e-bike and put a lot of dirt and grit into the mechanism, although being able to negotiate terrain just like this is a main part of the reason I bought the model of e-bike that I did.
End of this leg of my trip, where Spanish Creek is flowing across the old road. This spot used to be a well-established concreted vehicle crossing. I can remember coming past this spot as a kid, back in the early ‘60s, on our way up to Silver Lake for summer camping trips. You might be able to get over this now with a high-clearance 4wd car/truck, but I wouldn’t advise it. The road on up ahead, last time I went through, way back around 2008 or so when I had my Jeep, was barely passable. In fact, if I had not had a small chain saw with me to deal with small trees across the road I would have had to turn back.
It’s not all that easy to tell but this water, which the old concrete ford surmounted, is at least two feet deep right now at this spot.
So, I spent about a half hour meandering around this end, and scarcely saw any birds at all although they were singing well enough, albeit out of sight. The gravel pit operations were easy enough to be seen, so what the hey.
On the one hand, environmental degradation and habitat loss. On the other, well, when you need your own yard landscaped and roadways and highways repaired where do you think your rock-type material comes from? I’ll not get too political about it but just grudgingly accept it as a necessary impact, and cross my fingers that effective mediation protocols are in place and are being rightly followed. From the looks of Spanish Creek all downstream of this operation I have to say that things seem to be for the most part o.k. in that regard. Just my opinion.
Ah, leaving that dubious scenery behind I rode on back out to Spanish Ranch where the fog was now completely abated and Spanish Peak stood forth gloriously snow-mantled in the sunshine. Time now, about 9:20 a.m.
Evening Grosbeak make an appearance. Male at left, others are female.
Six female Evening Grosbeak in this photo. There was only the one male (in the first photo, above) that I was able to notice. There seemed to be several dozen flying in and out altogether. These birds are so beautiful to watch.
My continued route was to go up into the mountains themselves a bit, up Schneider Creek Road and past the U.C. Berkeley Forestry Camp, with a roundabout approach to an area of small ponds on Little Schneider Creek. This is a good place to put in a map of my trip from the day, which I created using Google Earth and a photo editing program. You will want to open this image in a full window (right click on the image, select “Open Image in New Tab”) to see it best.
Quincy is at upper right in image, Meadow Valley and Spanish Ranch to upper left, and the ponds at Little Schneider Creek to left of center. Note: 28.6 miles clocked for the whole trip. Whew! And yeah, even though I didn’t ever work my pedals that hard, just spending four hours out on the trip was sufficient to bring on bad leg cramps, up in the thighs, later on. Come to think of it, this is about the same as if I’d spent four steady hours on a treadmill at moderate walking pace. So, small surprise that I had some cramps. That’s actually a lot of leg exercise. It’s a small price to pay for the joy and satisfaction of the ability to get out and get around, from which I was greatly curtailed before I got the e-bike.
Arriving at the ponds at about 10:30 a.m. I startled up some Mallard ducks and another species of duck which I couldn’t identify, which took flight before I was even able to realize they were there. The Canada Goose were obliging, however.
One of about a dozen small ponds at this location. If you want to see where these ponds are for yourself on Google Earth, type (or copy and paste) the coordinates 39 55’ 26.07” N, 121 02’ 48.00” W into the Google Earth search bar.
And a different pair took flight which I just managed to catch a snap.
I walked around the ponds for a good twenty minutes but was not able to see any more birds or wildlife with the exception of this Brown-headed Cowbird [update: female Brewer’s Blackbird]. Ah, well, as always it’s just great and wonderful to be out in the woods in the first place on such a marvelously beautiful morning. And really, can one ask for more? This is also where I spotted and photographed the California Tortoiseshell butterfly, as in this diary’s title photo. Neat! First butterfly for 2025, although not the first seen, just the first photographed.
A final stop just down from the ponds at Meadow Camp campground, but there was little to no bird activity that I could see. However,
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