Lake Davis Trail Daze, another SBTS success story

Lake Davis Trail (Phase 2) June 11-16

We spent the week preparing for our volunteer workday out at Lake Davis, located 8 miles north of the town of Portola. Lake Davis sits at approximately 6,000’ elevation and is located where the Sierra Nevada, Cascade and Great Basin all come together for one big geographical party.

On Monday I met with the Beckwourth District archaeologist, Eric Brademann, to look at historic and pre-historic sites along the route and to be sure the trail did not impact the protected areas. What I learned from Eric was that thousands of years ago native people made tools and hunted big game animals in this area, and between the years of 1915 and 1955 a company known as the Clover Valley Lumber Company (incorporated in Reno, NV) logged, transported, milled and marketed timber in the area. Portions of the proposed route follows what is left of these historic narrow gauge railways.

What I already knew about lake Davis was that for the past 20 years it has been a trophy trout fishery, attracting anglers from all over Northern California and Nevada, and that Lake Davis is host to some of the nicest campgrounds in the Plumas Forest, with one of the campgrounds, Honker Cove, offering hot showers.

This was my first chance to see the proposed trail alignment, other than on a map or Google Earth and it is much different than what we had previously built in Phase 1, with a majority of the route being new singletrack and near the lakeshore. Phase 1 was located primarily on abandoned dirt roads and away from the lakeshore. During our walk I was blown away at the surrounding beauty of this place and excited to get started building the trail.

On Saturday we had 33 volunteers (3 Trail Kids: Kenzy, Alex and Gregory) come out to lend a hand with the construction, with some travelling from as far away as Southern California. Together we completed nearly a half-mile of new trail, connecting Lightning Tree campground with Lightning Tree boat ramp. Once the work was finished, we ended the day with a refreshing swim at the dock, cold beer from Under Cover Ale Works and great food from Longboards Restaurant.

Thanks to everyone that showed up and made this Trail Daze event a great success!

Work will proceed on the Lake Davis Trail on a volunteer basis, as there is currently no funding for the project. The SBTS trail crew is committed to volunteer their time and keep driving the mini excavator towards the finish line. Stay tuned for future volunteer work days out at Lake Davis and ways you can help complete this wonderful trail around the lake. click for more photos from the workday and click here for a map showing what was completed