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The Daily Bucket. Out the old Howell's Logging Road, Plumas National Forest [1]

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Date: 2025-05-27

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From my house I travel northeast across American Valley for a couple of miles, then continue up the mountain in the same direction for another couple of miles until I come to “Four Corners”, at which point I swivel ninety degrees and take off northwest. From this point it’s another fifteen miles on the odometer until I come back down off the mountain and back to Highway 70, about ten miles fairly north of Quincy. Old Howell’s Logging Road winds across the face of the mountain but maintains a nearly consistent contour at around 4,400’ — 4,800’ a.s.l. It’s a rough road, rocky and rutted for the majority of its length, but actually somewhat well-traveled. By mountain bicyclists, that is, who are coming down trails that cross the road at numerous places. I met some of them on my trip.

You can see the trail just behind and to the left of the bikers. The logging road is at the bottom and left in the photo.

But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself. Let’s go back to the beginning of the logging road and the boundary of the state game refuge.

Here you can see what outdoor enthusiasts have thought of government signs in the past years. Sigh.

Knowing that I’m not likely to see many birds (although I heard them constantly as I went along, mostly Steller’s Jay and Spotted Towhee and what I believe was the House Wren) I watched for anything else nature-wise that might make an interesting subject. Here’s some purple wildflowers, maybe Meadow Penstemon, but that’s a reference-book guess on my part. I didn’t take a very good photo of it.

Motor-pedaling on just a bit, I stopped for this photo to show the mix of damage, survival, and recovery to the forest from the Dixie Fire of 2021.

I shortly came across a vantage point where I could look back down into American Valley. And no kidding, I can almost see my house from here. But not quite, exactly. It’s just hidden by those white buildings at lower middle left, tucked under the foot of the mountain behind.

As I mentioned, I wasn’t expecting to find many birds out and my expectations were granted. The first exception:

What I believe is a House Wren

This is one of about a half-dozen stream crossings I encountered as I traversed Howell’s Logging Road. At each one I stopped and checked for birds, but again, heard but not seen. At least I would not have lacked for drinking water if I had become stranded, even though of course I was carrying a full bottle of water with me.

This photo gives some sense to “how far back in there” I was. I was also thinking, shee-yit, I really hope I don’t get a flat tire. Now that’s gonna be a long walk home. At this point my trip odometer was showing that I was about ten miles from town.

Then, nearly an hour after getting on the old logging road, there at the brush at the very edge of the road was this White-tailed Jackrabbit. This is my first-ever photo of this species. For whatever else I might come across the trip is now totally worth the time. New species! For non-birds I can now count deer, bear, coyote, fox, otter, skunk, raccoon, beaver, gopher, squirrel (various species), and rabbit.

There was a second Jackrabbit that appeared but I didn’t catch its photo.

After the rabbit and another couple of miles I spotted a seep coming out of the mountain, which numerous butterflies and other flitter-flutterers were lapping up. Even though the first two images show what seems to be very different coloration and pattern, they are the same species, the Variable Checkerspot.

I didn’t even know I got the metallic green fly until I got home and looked closer at my photos. Bonus!

At about the hour-and-a-half mark and thirteen miles into the ride, I very unexpectedly came across Beargrass in full bloom. I just really like this stuff. I’m not sure there are prettier mountain flowers, and they’re only out for a few weeks during the late spring/early summer time.

I say “unexpected” because I thought Beargrass only grew in very moist and shaded areas. This spot was quite open to sunlight and relatively dry, but on the downhill side of the road there was a sort of a dell or hollow that seemed, before the Dixie Fire blasted through at any rate, to be just the right condition.

Uphill of the road

Downhill of the road

All good rides must come to an end, of course, and after the Beargrass I wheeled along for almost another hour, going slow and stopping often, but eventually came back to “civilization”. Highway 89 and Indian Creek in the photo below, as I’m descending a steep series of switchbacks to get back to paved road and my final leg of the ride.

Now, it’s my mantra that “you never know what you might see” but I’ve got to say that the last thing I would have thought to encounter on a dirt mountain road is a boat all by itself. But there ya go: mass litter by some cretin who just doesn’t really give a sh*t about the outdoors, even though you have to assume the person who dumped this was someone who enjoyed getting out on the lakes.

Just near-freakin’ unbelievable.

Ooh. Ooh. I did say I saw a couple of birds. Well, here’s the second and the last. Brewer’s Blackbird.

Just before meeting the highway the road goes alongside the Burlington Northern Santa Fe (BNSF) railroad line. A train had stopped for crew change. My final photo op of the day, and what the heck it’s a train and I do love, for all its entirely un-naturalness, trains.

By the next day my sunburned forearms quit smarting. But I’m keeping the aloe vera lotion applied.

Total mileage for the trip:

31.8

Tired butt.

Now it’s your turn. What’s been up in your world, nature-wise and environmentally else? Please let us know in the comments and include your location and any photos that you’d like.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/5/27/2324225/-The-Daily-Bucket-Out-the-old-Howell-s-Logging-Road-Plumas-National-Forest?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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