Nice

It is pronounced niece. No, we are not on the French Riviera. Yes, there is a Nice in California as well.

On the way we paid a visit to the Historic Benbow Inn in Garberville. Opened in 1926, it turns out it was designed by the architect Albert Farr. Farr was also the architect who designed the Wolf House for Jack and Charmian London – we have another vortex brewing here. The only real four star full service hotel in northern California at the time, it attracted Hollywood elite such as Spencer Tracy, Clark Gable, Basil Rathbone and a long list of others. Other dignitaries such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and Lord Halifax have graced these halls.

Some geocaching near the Inn brought us to the redwood grove home of Julia Morgan. While a private residence and not open to the public we were able to stroll around the perimeter of this beautiful estate along the banks of the West Fork of the Eel River. Morgan was the world famous architect who designed the castle for William Randolph Hearst in the early 1900’s.

Nice is on the shores of Clear Lake, a huge lake with a surface area of some 70 square miles. Some scientists believe it to be the oldest lake in the US, due largely to a geologic fluke. The lake sits on a huge block of stone that slowly tilts downward at the same rate that sediment builds, keeping the lake at roughly the same depth over time. Scientists have dated core samples of lake sediment at nearly a half million years old.

Our main purpose for heading here was to check out Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument. Created by proclamation of President Obama in July 2015 it is one of the newest National Monuments in the system. As with most of the newer National Monuments, the some 330,000 acres of Berryessa Snow Mountain are managed jointly by the BLM and the Forest Service.

We have been to other newer Monuments and know that infrastructure is limited and sometimes boundary signage scarce. But here there was nothing to let you know you were in a designated National Monument. It must be too new for that to have occurred. Luckily the land had long been under the management of the BLM and the Forest Service so the traditional trails, some parking near trailheads and other very light infrastructure already existed. We set out to hike several trails in the Cache Creek Wilderness section of the Monument.

We set out on the Judge Davis Trail intending to connect with the Cache Creek Ridge Trail. The Judge Davis Trail takes you straight up the hill at a brisk elevation gain until you reach Cache Creek Ridge. That trail runs along the ridge with stunning views surrounding. The 360 degree panoramas from the ridge as you hiked made this a truly enjoyable investment.

We then set out for the Redbud Trail. The Woman’s best friend Teresa had told her about a massive wild fire that had scorched some of the Cache Creek Wilderness in August of 2012. It turns out that much of the Redbud Trail wandered through the burn area.

We actually saw signage at the trailhead that labeled it as the Redbird Trail, although all Forest Service references we can find are to the Redbud Trail. We wondered if it maybe the name Redbird Trail was more accurate after this little guy serenaded us.

 

The area has healed some but the charred trees still stand as skeletons. We could swear that we could still smell the smoke as if it were maybe still smoldering – creepy. But we were also rewarded with massive groves of wildflowers apparently using the nutrients left by the fire to feed their growth frenzy. It was an interesting contrast.

We clocked off a modest 6-7 miles in the Monument today, even found a couple geocaches, and thoroughly enjoyed spectacular weather. I can’t figure out how this works, but the Woman assured me that even though 6-7 miles was modest, since it was mostly uphill that made it more tiring and strenuous. Well we started at the parking lot, walked 3 or so miles out, turned around and walked back, all on the same trail. My math tells me that the uphill portion of our hike was exactly half, same as the downhill portion. I asked the Woman to help me understand how that math works, how it could actually have been mostly uphill. All I got in response was some mumbling. Guess I will have to Google it to figure it out.

Talk to you soon!