[kitya]

On rainy Monday me and Cookie decided to go for a really long drive all the way to the Driveway Butte trailhead, furthest east we ever went. Along the west side of hwy 20 all trailheads seem to still be seriously closed, with every turn out road barricaded by various closed signs. Sadly for me the Thronton lakes road is blocked off at the hwy 20 intersection, I really hoped to go check it out. Newhalem looks like a town that expects a tank invasion any minute now. Every turn off from hwy, every visitor parking spot, including the little road used to park for Sourdough Mountain trail is not only signed as closed, but actually blocked off by concrete slabs. Same for every campground and every side road near Diablo lake. But once on the east side the restrictions are relaxed and trailheads (but not campgrounds) are officially open. This being a memorial day weekend and the start of summer, I didn't really expect solitude and found trailhead in the morning to already have 3 cars, including one exactly like mine. Well, considering that i was hiking at least every weekend so far this year and this is the first hike I ever seen anyone else on a hike, I think I had a pretty good run and definitely expected for the start of summer. Also this is still pretty large open area with plenty of opportunities to keep away from people and enjoy solitude, even if a few hikers are already on the trail and I'm certainly happy other people also enjoy nature, I'm not at all complaining.

Lower trail passes through lots of flowers, though balsamroots are already a bit past prime.

Wildlife provided best entertainment though. A lot of chipmunks were having fun everywhere.

Also I found out the mystery of the disappearing balsamroot flowers.

Sadly ground squirrels were celebrating some national ground squirrel hide-and-seek day and I constantly seen them darting around under flowers, but they never stopped long enough to pose for a picture, which is very unusual for ground squirrels. There was only one who kindly stopped to pose for a little bit from a crack in an old tree.

There is a really good and well maintained trail all the way to Driveway Butte summit. There is also an unsigned, but also well maintained, turn off for Caloway Mountain. I checked out both, but only seen other hikers going to Driveway. The views to Hart's pass are really great.

From Driveway I walked through open country and burned forest up to the first bump on the Delancy ridge. For some reason it is all snow on the Delancy side, unfortunately with a lot of hidden holes and downed trees. The views from Delancy ridge were really great. I first thought to follow the ridge at least to Delancy Point, but down climb is somewhat steep climb and with wind and rain Cookie got scared of it, so we turned back. The best part on Delancy was meeting the sooty grouse.

On our way back we also checked out Early Winters creek trail for some good river views.

[fourteen410]

I was just wondering about Driveway Butte the other day. Good to see a report from there. I drove through Newhalem on Sunday - saw the barriers into town, but didn't see too many barriers at pullouts or trailheads except campgrounds and the environmental learning center by Diablo Dam.