Snake Lake

While there are many Snake Lakes in the West, the one we were heading to was in the High Sierras in Northern California about 22 miles South/Southwest of the small mountain town of Quincy as the crow flies. Since we could not fly we would be driving about 45 miles to get there. The first 25 miles were on pavement followed by another 8 miles of dirt road before we aired down and shifted in to four-low for the remainder of the weekend and we did not shift out of four-low until we returned to this point two days later.

Let me get some disclaimers out of the way. First of all, don't go alone, tell someone where you are going. When you plan on returning, be prepared for bad weather, breakdowns, getting stuck and whatever you do, you do on your own free will and it sure isn't my fault for what may befall you in any way, shape or form! Got it? Good, Lets go exploring!

Quincy is about a 100 miles out of Red Bluff and is large enough to get what you may have forgotten and is your last chance to fill up with some petroleum based products. While there is fuel and some small stores in Blairsden and Graeagle we will be turning off a few miles before there so Quincy is your best bet. It was a few miles before Quincy that Samantha reminded me that we forget the marshmallows, which, is not something to forget when camping with children! You will be spending most, if not all, of your time in lovely Plumas County. it is/was rich in gold and has a long and interesting history.

From Quincy head out of town by following highway 70/89 east towards Portola for approximately 23 miles to Mohawk highway and turn right. Follow this to the Mohawk junction with Graeagle-Johnsville Rd and turn right again. The road from 70/89 to Mohawk is not very well marked and has a slightly different name on the sign post than my map, so be prepared for a sudden stop. Don't worry if you miss it, you can just turn right at Blairsden where 89 splits from 70 and follow 89 about a mile south to Graeagle-Johnsville Rd and make another right to Mohawk. From Mohawk continue heading west on Graeagle-Johnsville Rd until you reach the mining museum and park headquarters on your left, just this side of Johnsville.

Johnsville is a neat spot to check out, it has been 14 years since I have checked it out last and while you may be eager to get up in the hills I suggest spending a little time driving around and seeing the sights. Then head over to the museum and check it out while you are still fresh and clean instead of on the way out when all that is on your mind is getting home and having a hot shower. The museum is a perfect spot to hit last since it is on the corner of Graeagle-Johnsville Rd and Johnsville-McCrea Rd which is what you will be heading up. Also if you leave Red Bluff late, like after work, there are some nice fee camp areas about a mile west of the museum along side Jamison creek. If you wanted to you could use this for a base but it would mean driving over eight miles of dirt roads both ways every day, plus you would be camping in a campground, UGH!

After checking out Johnsville, head west on Johnsville-McCrea Rd. for five miles until you arrive at a T with the road you are on going straight and a turn to the left that is signed as A-Tree 2 miles. Turn left and about a hundred yards is what looks like a good campground if you arrive late and don't want to camp with all the cars and RVs back at Johnsville.

For now though, follow the road up to the A-Tree, with some awesome views off to your right, to where the fun will begin. The A-Tree has fallen sometime in the past ten years and if it wasn't for the sign on one of the remaining legs you would not know it was ever there. You also cross the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail) for the first time here. Now you are faced with a 3 way junction with the left branch going who knows were since I only have vague memories of going down it for a little ways 14 years ago, but I do remember the path directly in front of us now.

While it has been a number of years I do remember it as being a fairly easy 4WD road with one or two slightly harder spots before reaching the bottom of the canyon where there are some old mining ruins, a very cool waterfall and some nice creek side camping spots with very few people. I planned on checking it out later but for now we turned left and headed downhill on the other road towards our destination.

Depending on your map this road may not be shown, or may be shown as ending after a number of miles but it does go all the way through and you could head out to Highway 49 and points beyond on it. A Plumas National Forest Map is the way to go, my Delorme Topo USA Software shows the road ending near Spencer Lakes and then another unconnected segment near Hawley Lake, my Northern California TOPO Atlas just shows this road ending near Spencer lakes. So regardless of what the maps say we are off, down the hill, across the saddle where we aired down to 15 psi and shifted into four-low before heading up the other side. While this is not a hardcore four-wheel route the lower tire pressure really smoothed out the trail and helped prevent flats on the rocks. The reason for going into four low was not that you needed 4wd as much as able to crawl over some of the rougher sections. If I had a 4.0L with lower gearing I would probably just shift back and forth between 2wd and 4wd as needed, but even in four low there was only a few times I had a chance to use third gear and I used fourth only once so four low it was and I let it stay there for the rest of the weekend.

Once up this hill you will pop out on a ridge that you will be following for the next several miles until you are past Spencer Lakes. The drive on this ridge is just awesome; the top is about one to two hundred yards across to where both sides fall off sharply with lakes on both sides. The ridge tops out at a little over 7300 feet with Spencer Lakes on the west side at 6300 feet and Wades Lake on the east side at about 6500 feet, like I said some terrific views! Just before you start to drop down off of this ridge you will cross the PCT again, it continues along the ridge line southwards past Snake lake and to points beyond. While you drop down towards the valley below on the western side of the ridge you will come across the remnants of an old mine. Stop and check it out, the upper portion that you are at now was dug out of and into a giant chunk of quartz and you may find a cool piece to take home as a souvenir. Further down and lower on the trail you will come across some old equipment and an old mineshaft.

At this lower point the trail Y’s and if you continue straight it will take you to the upper lake of the Spencer Lakes and end there or you may continue on to Snake Lake with a sharp left turn. After a few miles you will come to an unsigned T with the west branch taking you over the ridge to your left and down to the other side where this is a large meadow with a cabin (?) on the far side. The road will skirt the meadow before heading back over the ridge to Hawley Lake and, currently, to the Contra Costa Youth Camp. I did not see a road going to the other side of the meadow and to the cabin so there is probably another way in from there. For now though we will go straight (south) at the T and after another mile or so you will reach Hawley Lake and what used to be the Boy Scouts of America campground. Continue on past Hawley Lake since it is all private property, of course you could drive the loop I just mentioned by dropping down to your right and driving through the campground to the road on the other side.

At this point it is only a few miles and a ½ hour or so to the turnoff Snake Lake. So continue southward dropping down some loose hills, crossing a few small creeks with all but a couple of them dry this time of year. Once you reach the valley floor it is only a few more minutes to the turnoff. At some point they made a slightly shorter route of crossing the creek draining Snake Lake so stay to the right at the first fork and to the right again at the second fork which is about another 100 feet or less further on and you will be on the trail for Snake Lake. This used to be signed years ago, but I did not see anything this year.

If you are not in four-low you will want to go ahead and do so because you will need to be for the climb up to the lake. This is one section you need four-low, the trail winds through some large Douglas Fir trees with many rock steps and large boulders to navigate. You can really see how determintal people with four-wheel drive and no off road driving skills can be to a trail. The first time I went up this trail many years ago you could almost make it in two-wheel drive and now it is all chewed and you need four-wheel drive because of all the holes people dug by spinning their tires. If you pick your lines with a little thought you will make it just fine. Just before you arrive at the lake there will be a road to your right that that cross the creek and climbs a little knoll about 200 feet west of the lake with a camping spot. The road continues on and would be worth exploring to see how far you could make it.

This year though we continued on to the east side of the lake and found a nice camping spot to spend the weekend. The road makes a quick left here and heads up the ridge and I believe over the top and down the other side to Gold Lake. When we where here in ’89 we walked up the road and up to the ridge top where the PCT runs to be greeted with 500’ cliff with 6 or 8 lakes down in the valley below. It was a lot of work climbing that hill since it climbs close to 800’ in just under a ½ mile! Looking at the road then it would have been a very challenging road with out lockers and lower gearing.

This year I drove the TJ up maybe a third of the way before turning around at an obstacle. This was by far the most challenging section found during the weekend. There are many large rocks and foot high steps with loose gravel every where else. We came up to a rock wall about 10 feet tall that we attempted once before backing up and turning around. Lower gearing is the key at this spot, my TJ with the 2.5L, stock gearing and 31’s was not able to idle up it like you need to.

While the stay at camp was relaxing for the most part with warm temperatures and a surprising lack of bugs it does remind of my first visit here years ago. It was with my brother and his wife and we were camped on the western shore. After a long day in the vehicle we had enjoyed some cold watermelon after dinner, throwing the rinds into the surrounding brush. We turned in about an hour after sunset around 10 pm. Due to the terrain my tent was probably thirty feet away from theirs and I was a sleep almost as soon as my head had touched the pillow. I was very tired since we had left Sacramento early that morning and had spent over an hour getting unstuck around five in the afternoon. I was sound asleep only to be awakened some time later by brother yelling at me from his tent. In that half sleep state that you are in when someone awakens you from a deep sleep I mumble something to them and they ask me if I had heard that noise? Since I had been sound asleep I said ‘NO!’ and not to worry and to go sleep which I promptly did much to their concern! Heck, I was tired and spent too many nights in the forest to be scared very easily. I was only asleep for what seemed like a minute when they wake me again with their shouting, I remember Paul saying something like “I got a bow here and if you come any closer I am going to shoot you!” and between him threatening what was out there he was yelling at me to get up and didn’t I hear that noise?!? Well, this time I was pissed because I wanted to get some sleep, so I lay there for a minute and then I heard it too. So I shine the flashlight and the ‘Night Stalker” is revealed! A Doe eating the watermelon rinds we had tossed out earlier!! Finally I could get some sleep, but boy did I tease Paul the next day!

Anyways back to the current trip, after spending two nights at Snake Lake we headed out around 10 am Tuesday towards home with a couple of detours along the way. First one is the loop around Hawley Lake, which I had never done. The other detour was the straight-ahead road as you drive up to the ‘A – Tree’ from Johnsville.

We turned down it and it quickly narrows and there are many spots were it is jeep width (barely!) only. All the storms and lack of traffic have made it a lot narrower than I recall it being. About 2/3rd of the way down there is a 2wd truck with the hood up off the trail. It is pretty clear what happened the only questions are why are they here in that kind of vehicle and how long ago was it! As we approached it I could see the driver front tire was flat and the passenger front tire was about a foot off the ground up against the tree it had ridden up in it’s wild and probably slightly frightening ride off the road. I turn off the jeep and tell the kids to stay in the jeep until I have a chance to check it out. If you read very much get the book “Into The Wild” by Jon Krauker and you will know what I am thinking, if there are any bodies I do not want the kids to see them! It appears it has been there since at least last year so no bodies, boy am I glad! Looking at it they were probably heading up the road, and it makes a 90 degree corner there, lost momentum and since it is very loose rocks and dirt there, they were unable to stop and slid straight back between the two trees and luckily hit the third one straight back, while it caused a lot of damage it kept them from going further down the hillside.

After checking it out we continued on down the trail and soon we were able to glimpse the waterfall and some of the old mining ruins in the valley floor. The waterfall is hard to explain since it is a series of falls and several of them are were the water is just running down the faces of these large, rounded, granite slabs. They are very impressive if you have the time to hike the short distance over to them. We continued on the road until we were brought up short by a washed out creek crossing, bummer. Some one had made an alternate route down and around for Quads but it wasn’t wide enough between the two dead trees that it went through for the TJ so we were forced to turn around and go back up.

After reaching the top we shifted out of four-low and headed home with a quick stop in Quincy to air up the tires and get fuel before continuing on. After leaving Quincy I noticed a bad shake in the front end around 45 mph. After a quick inspection I see nothing loose so we head out but is starts to get really bad at a certain speed where I have to slow down to about 35 to get to stop, good for us there was very little traffic. I pull over again and take a closer look and see that my tie rod was bent, after spending 30 minutes bending it almost straight we take off with no more problems and hit Red Bluff around 7pm.

Another fun and relaxing trip to the Sierra’s with more side trips noted for next time! From Red Bluff to Quincy is a bit over 100 miles, from Quincy to the “A-Tree” and the start of the fun is about 35 miles. If you need a place to go check it out, there is a lot to see and do in the area plus it will get you out of the valleys 100+ degree heat.

See Description above :)