New Melones Lake in the Drought of 2015

My travel on September 23, 2015, seemed to also be focused on visiting drought-stricken reservoirs, although not so intentionally. On the holy day of atonement for Jewish people called Yom Kippur, my family has carried on a tradition of spending the day out in the solitude of nature rather than with other people, food, and stressful distractions, because it is a day of fasting and quiet reflection. It also, for me, leads to a more spiritual connection with God through nature. However, choosing a location that is less than a day's drive, beautiful, not crowded, not strenuous to get to, and that has a nice place to sit in the shade most of the day with some hiking opportunities can be a challenge. I also seem to gravitate towards a place with water when I take the initiative on deciding where to go.

That year, I chose New Melones Lake because I had seen it from the air during a flight over the delta and other parts of central California. My colleagues on that flight wanted to see New Melones from the air to get a good picture of how low the water in the reservoir actually was. The scenery was pretty spectacular because of the way New Melones spreads and fingers out amongst and between the rolling green and brown hills. I though if it was this pretty from the air, it would be a cool place to go to on land. New Melones Lake is on the Stanislaus River in the central "gold country" foothills of the Sierra Nevada range in the counties of Calaveras and Tuolumne. It is about a three-hour drive south of the Sacramento area, off of State Highway 49, between the towns of Angels Camp and Sonora. It is not only scenic, but a lake enjoyed by many for recreation and water sports such as boating, fishing, water skiing, and camping. It is also very large, with 100 miles of shoreline and an area of about 12,500 acres. We found our ideal spot in the Tuttletown Recreation Area, with shady oaks, picnic tables, and trails that wound down towards the lake.

Oak woodland at the Tuttletown Recreation Area

After many hours of peaceful and lazy reflection on the past year with thoughts of how I may do better in the year to come, we decided to drive around and explore a bit. We drove out to the southern tip of the Glory Hole Recreation Area. What was utterly shocking was how far out we walked into what is usually deeply underwater. While theming on how this historic drought was affecting the state of California, I'd be remiss to mention how walking into the middle of a giant reservoir is likely a once-in-a-lifetime experience. The scenery was also uniquely fascinating--steep, striated slopes of the basin, now shades of green and brown soils, jetting high above the water line and telling the story of where different water levels over time reached the shorelines. Similar to how it felt at Folsom Lake a week before, it was an eery kind of fascination.

Towards late afternoon and getting very hungry, it was time to wind our way back out to Highway 49 and head north to break our fast in the town of Angels Camp. I think we chose the Angels Creek Cafe to fill our empty tummies, then headed back towards the greater Sacramento area. The skies were filled with a spectacular red sunset. The beauty of the sunset was unfortunately enhanced by the smoke from the wildfires that were raging in north central California, likely accelerated by the drought. It was another delicate balance between feeling the somberness of a state of disaster while at the same time enjoying the scenically unique sights that otherwise would not be experienced. It is one of those emotionally ambivalent dilemmas often encountered in life.

Adventures on the Pioneer Express Trail

On January 14, 2007, a random ride through the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada range led my brother, husband, and me to a segment of the Pioneer Express Trail at the Folsom Lake State Recreation Area in Placer County.  The Pioneer Express Trail starts in the City of Auburn and follows  the American River south to Folsom Lake. It follows the western shore of Folsom Lake until it meets up with the Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail at Beal's Point just before Folsom Dam, pretty much covering the north to south span of the Folsom Lake SRA. We then hatched the idea of hiking long-mileage trails a segment at a time with a dream of hiking American River trails from the foothill town of Cool to Discovery Park in Sacramento.

A few months later, on March 24, 2007, we set our ambition way too high. We decided to not only take the 14-mile Pioneer Express trail from beginning to end, but to actually hike the 24 or so miles along the American River and Folsom Lake from Auburn to Negro Bar in the city of Folsom in one day. It was a lesson in being unrealistic, very bad planning, and making bad decisions--the kind of decisions where the phrase "what were we thinking" frequently comes to mind. Lesson 1 - know the terrain. We mistakenly thought the trail would be mostly flat; however, there were a lot of uphill-downhill runs (after all, it is in the foothills). We also mistakenly thought we had some level of supreme fitness, when indeed we were not physically equipped to take on such a trek. Our sense of timing was way off. We actually started late morning, not having a clue how many hours we would need to get to the parked car on the Folsom end of the hike. Lesson 2 - long hikes need good boots. I had on a pair of army boots that were not the right fit and they destroyed my feet. Lastly, and most comically, learn to read the legends on trail maps. We failed to pack an adequate supply of food because the "g" on the map for "gravel pit" was mistaken for "grocery". Envisioning some sort of mythical food vendor on a beach, I failed to realize that this section of trail is very remote and there are no services to be found, even on the roads that parallel the park. So three of us wound up subsisting all day on a strenuous hike on one Clif bar.

It wasn't all horrible, especially in the beginning. The scenery is astounding--starting with beautiful riparian ecosystems and river views, sand bars, small beaches, and eventually moving into rolling hills with oak woodland and grasslands that open up the view of the reservoir as the river widens. I only made it about 10 miles in before my feet were so blistery sore, I had to take off the army boots and hike in my socks. When my bleeding sores started to mix with mud, dirt, and horse manure, I called it quits. I suggested my husband and I hike out of the recreation area to the road and try to find a phone. My brother remained foolishly over ambitious and thought he would make it to the car in Folsom so he could come get us. By this time, it was already starting to get dark. Once we reached a rather ritzy neighborhood off Auburn-Folsom Road, we noticed helicopter police with a spotlight hovering about. I started to get nervous about a criminal on the loose. In reality, some resident saw and heard us talking and thought I was a little boy being kidnapped by my husband, so they called the police. The helicopter cop was after us. Eventually, a patrol car found us. I told the police my brother was caught in the dark on the trail, to please go rescue him. He had made it as far as the populated part of Granite Bay; so luckily, he was found. We were driven to our starting point in Auburn where we left the first car and eventually made it home so I could try to clean and nurse the wounded feet and get something to eat.

On September 20, 2015, my brother and I decided to revisit the trail and take that final stretch from Granite Bay to Negro Bar. This time, we were much more sensible about the distance, the level of difficulty, the need to actually pack a picnic lunch, and wearing the right clothes and shoes. It was a mid-morning to midday hike that included a bit of meandering off the trail and needlessly expending energy I didn't have lung power for on a steeply sloped detour. The scenery was strikingly different and alarmingly depressing. It was in the midst of the hottest, driest season of this area's frightening drought of 2015. Water levels in Folsom Lake were so low, people discovered the ruins of a historic gold rush town that had been inundated.

Folsom Lake during the drought of September 2015

Boat launches and life guard stands sat in lakes of sand, and shades of brown, tan, and mossy greens extended across the dry lakebed over large distances before actual water could be seen. White sands with concentric lines appeared on the slopes where the lake had previously reached the shore. It was fascinating from an aesthetic perspective but also eerily sobering, reminding us of how fragile we are in a changing environment. Folsom Lake supplies much of the greater Sacramento area water supply. The implications for people and nature alike were daunting. Even though we have since recovered from that drought, water conservation in the western USA is still extremely important. It was all I could think of while I was on that trail. This time, we met our destination. We picked up the Jedediah Smith Memorial Trail, walked along Folsom Dam, and eventually made it to Negro Bar. Although the day will likely never come for us to hike from Cool to Discovery Park, we still enjoy the memories of our adventures on the Pioneer Express Trail.

Negro Bar on the American River, Folsom, CA