October 20, 2007
Today’s
the day that there’s actually a GUIDED leaf-peeper outing! Meet
at 9 a.m. at Morning Thunder Café in
Quincy to join local educator and
naturalist Joe Willis who will lead
the free tour, organized by Trails
for Plumas County. Joe’s decided
that he’ll lead the group onto
Quincy-La Porte Road (about one
half mile east of Quincy) to
the Forest Service road that goes up
toward Claremont Mountain along
Thompson Creek. Karen Kleven was up
in this spot and took this photo (at
left). Joe just “scouted” the
trip and reported:
The
colors were amazing as we climbed
500 to 1,000 feet above the paved
road (which is 4.5 miles up). Lots
of
California Black Oak, Big-leaf
maple, dogwood, Oregon ash,
thimbleberry,
in many shades of yellow, orange and
red, contrasting beautifully with
the surrounding evergreens as well
as alder that is still green and
many broadleaf evergreens such
as
manzanita, Ceanothus,
and
chinquapin. We'll spend a couple of
hours up the Thompson Creek road,
then proceed to the Middle Fork of
the Feather River. If we leave (no
pun intended) the area by
mid-afternoon, I'll recommend to our
out-of-town visitors to walk around
the courthouse and surrounding
neighborhood where the colors are
still spectacular.
Lots of photos from Quincy area
leaf-peepers, including the Plumas
County Courthouse by
Linda Blum
(upper right), the maple and leaves
close-up shots from
Joe Willis,
and the aerial photo (below) of
Quincy from Radio Hill by Mike Nellor.
Over
in
Graeagle,
the foliage is looking awesome, and
the cottonwoods are peaking along
the Middle Fork Feather River and
around town.
Sue McCourt sent this shot of the foliage in
front of the Graeagle Outpost at the
Graeagle Mill Pond.
Have a great weekend of leaf-peeping
and don’t forget to
send us your reports and photos!
October
19, 2007
This morning’s light was THE BEST
for taking photos – staff member
Suzi Brakken
got these shots at the
Plumas County Courthouse
in Quincy and outside the Visitors
Center office. Too bad we have to be
inside today!
Those of you who are lucky enough to
get outside up here today may have a
bit of rain by afternoon. It might
be a good driving day. But plan a
long weekend because the
weather is looking good for the
weekend! And next week!
Leaf peepers don’t seem to mind a
little rain, and there’s an added
bonus:
rainbows!
We’ve had some pretty enthusiastic
leaf peepers this week who found
plenty of good weather to enjoy the
leaves - off and on showers but
nothing to dampen their spirits.
Meet
Martin Oberg, a veteran leaf peeper
from Fernley,
Nevada who's been coming our way for
at least three or four years. We
asked him how Plumas County compared
to other fall foliage spots like
Hope Valley. Martin: “I like it
better (in Plumas County) because
there are more places to view. This
year is as good as any year. “
He’s
part of the Reno Photo Club and one
of the assignments was to get a
photo with reflections in it.
Before sunrise he headed for
Thompson Lake near Bucks Lake to get the
aspen reflection in the
lake. “The aspen are little past
peak but still nice,” Actually
he liked the drive out to Chandler
Road and the road through Meadow
Valley
the best. Chandler had red and
yellow oak while some of the meadows
in Meadow Valley were dotted with
bright yellow cottonwood.
October 18, 2007
CHECK
OUT INDIAN VALLEY! Head
up Hwy. 89 from Hwy. 70, through Greenville, Taylorsville,
and Crescent Mills (if you're
heading northbound, otherwise head
southbound from Hwy. 36). Not only
is the fall color spectacular and
the scenery extraordinary, but this
is a place
free of stoplights, traffic and
franchises!
We're talking working ranches, and a
strong sense of community. And great
quiet roadways for
driving and biking.
Resident
Bink Huddleston and owner
of Hideway Resort
told us "this is one of the most
beautiful falls ever!" The
100-year-old oaks around his
property are blazing gold, and
nearby downtown Greenville is
"pretty dynamite." He also reports
the road to Round Valley Lake is
showing gold, reds, and ambers,
while the Feather River Canyon
is
"killer."
Lillian at the Indian Valley
Chamber says it’s absolutely
beautiful there. She thinks that
this weekend & next weekend will be
peak there, and with the
mountaintops showing dustings of
snow up high (about 5000-6000 ft)
right now it’s gorgeous.
“Everywhere you look is just
bursting with color, along highway &
in the valley.”
|
 Jered
from Redding was traveling
through Indian Valley yesterday:
"En
route to visit family yesterday
in Graeagle, I came across this
awesome sight from the highway
in Indian Valley. I was glad I
had a camera and a spot to
quickly pull off. Just another
reason I have gotten to love the
drive to and through Plumas
County from Redding." |
Doris and Bruce Livingston, longtime
residents of Dixie Canyon, had a
broken camera but they were so
determined to send us some photos of
Dixie Canyon maples that they used
a 35 millimeter camera putting photos on
a CD so that they could email them to
us. By the way, Dixie Canyon
is
off of Highway 89, two miles north of
the Greenville Y on Hwy. 70. It's
a great place for mountain biking and is
a backroad to Round Valley Lake.
Richard McCutcheon from Taylorsville
took this photo of cottonwoods and other
foliage at Indian Creek.
Where to stay in
Indian Valley?
Three unique choices from bed and
breakfast at Yorkshire House in
downtown Greenville, to the
historic Sierra Lodge, and
outside of town is the Hideaway
Resort Motel near Round Valley
Lake. The Yorkshire House has four
bright spacious suites with private
baths with names like the Bronte Suite,
James Herriot Suite and others. With
15 newly remodeled rooms featuring
lovely quilts giving a vintage look the
Sierra Lodge is a place you should try
out. All three places have a
lodging special for the fall
season.
Going north from
Indian Valley: Looking
to explore Lassen Park this week?
The road through the park is open going
southwest as far as the Sulphur Works
but closed through the rest of the park
because of snow. The ranger at the
Park said that the best fall colors (aspen,
cottonwood) are in Warner
Valley which can be reached by going
to Chester and turning onto the road towards
Drakesbad Guest Ranch.
October 17, 2007
Walking and Riding the Fall Trails
Horseback
is one way to take in the colorful
oaks throughout the Quincy area. This young woman who’s
participating in the Equine Studies
department at Feather River College was
exercising her horses yesterday on the
community trail near the
college. The trail winds up behind the
college offering a fairly steep climb to
the left which offers a vista of
Quincy or a more gradual loop to the
right. Just park your car at the
Visitors Bureau and take off on foot or
horseback, but sorry no bikes on the
community trail. Ask us for more
specific directions. As Karen
Kleven was walking down the trail
yesterday she heard something coming
around the bend through the yellow oaks
and was greeted by a friendly horseback
rider who was more than happy to have
her photo taken. The manzanita in the
foreground won’t be turning color
because it’s an evergreen.
Jay Read of Chilcoot labeled this
photo, “Riding a horse thru the Oak
Trees in fall color above Chilcoot with
a view of Sierra Valley”.
Leaf-Peeper Outing October 20th
Trails for Plumas County, an association
that supports trails for hikers,
equestrians, mountain bikers and other
trail user-groups, is offering a
leaf-peeper outing on Saturday, October
20, at 9 a.m. Meet at Morning Thunder
Café in Quincy. Joe Willis, a local
educator and naturalist, will be leading
the outing. (We’ve included a few of his
recent photos of Indian Rhubarb
and dogwood from the Indian
Creek area, )
He will be looking at the mysteries of
chlorophyll and photosynthesis and the
chemicals responsible for our beautiful
fall colors - tannin, carotene,
xanthophylls and anthocyanins. Fall is
also an incredible time to find all
sorts of insect galls, leaf miners, nuts
and seeds of interest. This will be a
day of exploration and taking a closer
look at our environment and enjoying the
wonderful season.
Current possible areas to explore are
the Quincy-La Porte Road, Bucks Lake
Road, Mt. Hough Road, or other points
within 20 miles of downtown Quincy
(destination will be determined based on
earlier scouting trips). Car-pooling is
encouraged. For more information, call
283-1746.
October 16, 2007
So,
there's some drizzle on the leaves
today, but it's still a beautiful
peak! Today Quincy is welcoming a
busload of fall foliage visitors from
Davis, who will be also touring the
Plumas County Museum and having
lunch. It's the first of SEVEN bus
tours that will be coming through
the county in the next eleven days.
The Graeagle and Eastern Plumas area
is really sporting some brilliant color, including this stand of aspens
found off-road
east of south of Hwy. 70. The willows and Black Cottonwood
along the
Middle Fork Feather River
are just about at peak.
|
The shot below
was taken last Sunday by Suzi
Brakken of Graeagle
on the Mohawk Bridge. Later she
headed with son Sam Lawson along
the Poplar Creek Road (past
Longboards Restaurant) to
Jamison Creek. Sam decided
it was warm enough to take a
dip!
 |
 |
|
Middle Fork of
the Feather River |
Jamison Creek |
Jim Hardwick
of Vacaville took this stunning
shot (below) of Indian Rhubarb at
Deer Creek (on Hwy 32 west of
Chester) about a week ago, but it's
still beautiful now. We just came
across his photo while browsing the
internet
a few days ago. You can view a
larger version of this one and more
photos from Jim's trip on
picasaweb.google.com.
WORRIED ABOUT
THE WEATHER? Well, we don't expect
the stormy weather to knock off all the
leaves, and botanist Jim Belsher-Howe
reminds us that the process is not that
simple. In addition to changing the
color of pigment, leaves form special
cells with weak calls, called the
abscission layer. It's only when this
layer matures that wind and rain can
cause them to tear and fall from the
branch. Meaning: they're strong enough
to hang on until they're ready! Given
that the whole process has just started,
we're pretty darn certain there will be
plenty of leaf-peeping yet to come!
WHAT TO DO WHEN
IT GETS DARK? Look to the skies!
Quincy amateur astronomer Dennis Cokor will be leading a free STAR TOUR
from 7-9 pm on Wednesday (Oct. 17) at
the Feather River College football field
parking lot (subject to weather).
That's just west of downtown Quincy.
Dennis has a telescope and invites
visitors to join him for a look at the
Aquarius Sky Patch. Be sure to dress
warmly!
October
15, 2007
It's
PEAK WEEK! The last of the species
to turn are the oaks,
cottonwoods, and willows, and
they are at about 95 percent throughout
the majority of Plumas County. But if
you can't make it this week, don't fret!
The peak generally lasts a couple of
weeks, and there are still trees that
are in mid-stage and areas that aren't
yet at peak. The aspen are
perfect right now (photo to the left.)
So, it's a unique peek, so to speak! 
BEST ADVICE FOR LEAF-PEEPERS? Go
off-road. Take a dirt road, anywhere,
and it will lead to some surprises.
Don't worry too much where it leads, and
there's usually a place to turn around.
If it's not forest service road, it will
usually have a gate or a sign. But
there's miles and miles of forest
service roads. Just don't get lost.
Suzi Brakken of Graeagle
went
off-road near Camp Layman Resort
yesterday and took these shots of
oaks on Mount Jackson, and
also came across some jaw-dropping
aspen.
GOLF RATES LOWERED!!! Head
professional Brandon Bowling of
Plumas Pines Golf Resort says that
it costs just $55 with cart to play a
round at the Graeagle area course, all
day, every day until they close. If
you're looking to leaf-peep on the golf
course, he recommends Holes 2, 7, 8 and
9, for cottonwood and willow. "And
there's a burning bush that
literally looks like it's on fire on
Number 11," Brandon said.
Brandon took the Hwy 89 route from
Truckee to Graeagle yesterday and here's
what he had to report: "It looked like
some preschoolers had taken a paintbrush
and flung it across a canvas. It's a
collage of all kinds of incredible
colors."
Ingrid Kollmann and Clare Convery of
Brownsville, CA, were leaf-peeping over the weekend and
were stunned by the famous celebrity
maple tree on La Porte Road (to the
right). It was their absolute favorite
of everything they had seen. "One
whole side of the tree was just lit up
in gold and the other side had lots of
pinkish orange. The tree is huge with
lots of color, just beautiful!"
Ingrid said. "It's definitely a must
see, and there were lots of
photographers around taking pictures to
prove it," she added.
Take a drive up to
Chester and you will
see Black cottonwood trees all along
main street that are just gorgeous,
according to Donyale Logan who
works at the Chester-Lake Almanor
Chamber of Commerce. "They are
turning from that crisp yellow to that
pretty slightly red color right now, she
said." Donyale also noted that there
are lots of trees to be seen along the
west shore of Lake Almanor where she
lives.
John Hollis, a digital
photographer, independent travel writer
and train buff from Marysville came up
to shoot fall colors AND trains. He's
planning to put some of his shots of the
county's wonderful railroad bridges into
a calendar he is creating. Said John:
"The sky is so blue and the colors on
the trees just pop out as you drive
around the county."
According to the forecast, the sky might
be getting a bit cloudy for a few days.
But remember, fall colors also look
great in misty conditions!
