Along the Carson Route, California Trail - October 2019

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A Birthday Present

"Will you go on a hike with me on my birthday?" the Lady asked.

How could I say no? I'm not stupid. And living with the Lady is like having thoroughbred race horse, I have to keep her exercised.

It was the Lady's birthday, this Wednesday in late October. Our power was due to be turned off with a coming red flag warning wind event. Could we do a high country ridge hike before the wind got too bad?

Our start was the Allen Camp Trailhead on the west end of Silver Lake off of highway 88 - Carson Pass over the Sierra Nevada.

We have hiked and explored many sections of the Carson Route of the California Overland Trail of Gold Rush fame.

We especially seek out the more remote backcountry sections where not much has changed since the wagons, livestock, and emigrants passed through starting 171 years ago. Today we'd visit the site of the Plasse Trading Post, just west of West Pass - the highest point on the California Trail.

It was a cold fall day. The wind bit into our faces. Dry leaves crunched under our boots as we climbed out of the American River watershed, over a small rocky pass, and into the Mokelumne River watershed.

We soon passed the remains of the old barn at Allen Camp, a private inholding on a beautiful meadow along the Bear River.

Allen Camp is where we intersected with the Carson Route of the California Trail - the most heavily used of the routes over the crest of the Sierra Nevada Mountains by Gold Rush emigrants. After passing several high mountain meadows, we climbed up out onto Hungalelti Ridge.

We hiked a short ways west along the ridge to find the site of the old trading post.

A guide to the sign posts placed along the California Trail can be found here - Carson Trail Guide

We consulted our USGS topographic map and found two interesting nearby sites to try and find.

We noted the grave to the southwest.

I have not found any information on who is buried here or the age of the grave.

Next we hiked east up the ridge in search of the cemetery noted on the map.

The location of the "Cem" symbol on the map was a small granite outcropping, an unlikely place to dig a grave.

Just to the north was a small meadow up against the granite outcropping. We found a small mound of stones. Was this the primitive graveyard? It was the only possibility we found during our search.

Again, I have found no information about this site. For today, it was a interesting marked spot on a map to find. Who is buried here and what are their stories?

It is a peaceful, beautiful place for a final rest.

This was our first hike into this area, although we had both been here in the winter on skis. The stories are from back in the search and rescue days in the early 1990's. We both were flown out to Hungalelti Ridge twice in a CH-47 helicopter to search the area for two missing snowmobilers. Their bodies were eventually found after the snowmelt, a sad story. A year or two later, on another search, I skied into Allen Camp from highway 88 to see if a missing snowmobiler had taken refuge in the buildings there. That person was found alive and rescued by another team that day. One of the happy stories.

The cold wind reminded us of those winter days. We turned around, put our backs to the wind, and headed in the direction the thousands upon thousands traveled in hopes of finding their dreams in California.

Bear River was dry in the meadow at Allen Camp.

We could imagine now busy this place would have been during the height of the overland rush - the smells, the noises, the wood smoke from fires, the overused pasturage, thousands of people. This place will always be haunted by all the stories from the past - even by a few of our own.

We left the old emigrant trail and returned over the small pass with its view down to Silver Lake.

It was a pleasant quiet hike on the Lady's birthday. No one else was out this cold weekday. It felt like Fall quickly advancing into Winter as we returned to the trailhead.

Both myself and the thoroughbred were properly exercised. The Lady hadn't aged a bit. This birthday was celebrated as another year of adventure, not a countdown of years.

I must leave you with this - who rests in those graves and what are their stories?