Monte Vista trailhead: Folsom Lake SRA

Monday, November 7th

There are lots and lots of trails in the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area. I don't know that most of them are named.

But this one is.

Well. Most of it is. I'm creating a loop out of a private road and a two named trails.

Park in a dirt area along Salmon Falls Road, outside of El Dorado Hills, California.

Find the parking area by looking for this sign.

38.747778 x -121.059771

You can dive right into the woods from the parking area and take the loop clockwise,

Sign at upper parking lot trailhead. You might recognize New York Creek from a previous post.

 or you can do what I did today and head down a paved private road

to the (permanently?) closed Old Salmon Falls area (lower trailhead), take the Brown's Ravine Trail, eventually hook up with the Monte Vista trail to where you parked your car.

From the parking area near the river, you wend your way along a hillside, going up up up, watching the South Fork American River get smaller and smaller until you can have a birds eye view of how high or low the water is.

Today it is sort of middling low. Super low and those white buoys in the distance reveal an old bridge.  And there is considerable more mud visible around the edges of the river.

I had the trail completely to myself. Not a horse or hiker to be seen. I did see some boats on the river, fishing?

Eventually, the two trails meet up.

 This is where you do a wide U turn and head away from the lake on the Monte Vista Trail back to the official trailhead.

Picnic area near upper trailhead

South Fork American River winding towards Folsom Lake

Old road bed

Pines!

Trail through pines!

 

Mystery weed.

Mystery weed close up. Parts are still green.

Trailwork, anyone?

For today's hike I decided to wear the pack I use for backpacking (Molly Mac Pack). I brought a first aid kit, a light, a wool cap, a rain coat and pants, and my camera.

I tried carrying my water bottle on a shoulder strap. It was great, although it did wiggle around some as I walked, leading to a bit of "swish slosh swish slosh swish slosh".

I wore my wide-brimmed Tilley hat, a midweight wool shirt (Ibex) and an old pair of lightweight zipleg nylon hiking pants (Columbia).

I used the shoes I use all the time for hiking and backpacking, a pair of Inov8 Roclite trailshoes. 295 I think. I have new insoles which are quite nice so far (Orthaheel Active).

Today's walk was just over 2 miles. A nice break on a weekday afternoon.

Topo maps would be a scrap of Pilot Hill and another scrap of Clarksville.