All Roads Open!! Bluff Creek day trip Sunday 6-10-2017

This small day trip by Robert Leiterman and I was just an attempt to scout the Bluff Creek area

On Sunday 6-10-2017 Robert came by my house around noon and picked me up. Our mission was to scout the roads around Bluff Creek for openings and to service the two trail cams we had at the two lakes. We drove up Bald Hills rd and at the top of the hill we saw a large bear. We made it out of the Bald hills and fueled up at Piersons grocery in Weitchpec around 13:30. We continued to Cedar Camp rd and proceeded to drive the 20ish miles to the lakes. After a 45 minutes of driving we arrived at the Lakes.

 
We were interested to discover a few 4x4s parked at the camping area, after briefly chatting with the three guys we learned they were researching western pond turtles. They were researchers Jamie Bettaso, Don Kerry (?spelling), and Chris West of the Yurok tribe's wildlife's office.






They were employed by different agencies and we learned we have many mutual friends, including James "Bobo" Fay of Finding Bigfoot fame. They showed us a nearby turtle that had dug in to nest by the rd. I was amazed to learn that the turtles have been nesting right in the campsite! We hung out for a while and let them get back to their work. We parted ways and finished servicing the cameras at the bear wallow. 

12N13 gate is open

We decided we would drive Cedar Camp rd north to the GO rd. It was very rocky and covered with hazards. We eventually reached the green gate and were very surprised to see that it was wide open. We decided to investigate further and try our luck to see if the film site rd was accessible. The rd was rough but we bade it to the berm in one piece and proceeded to drive home via the GO rd. 

Snow on 12N13 just past the gate.

The GO rd seems to have sustained some damage and a bit of subsidence in areas but it totally drive-able. We headed home via Bald Hills rd and made it home around 9pm, Robert camped out in my yard and left for Willow Creek Monday morning to meet up with the out of town Bigfoot researchers to prepare for the return trip the next day on Tuesday.

New reinforcement on the 12N13 gate