Overnighter on Yana Trail with RebeccaD

I’ve been looking for someone to do the Yana Trail with me as an overnighter for a while now. Enter Rebecca, a Backpacker friend who I met 14 years ago at a Backpacker gathering at Carrizo Plain, and conversed with many times over the years, but never hiked with 🙂 This area is gorgeous and it’s an unique opportunity to backpack along the Sacramento River. I’ve dayhiked other trails in the area and knew I was going to 😍 it. It’s not a great year for flowers but there’s still plenty to find 🌸 Tidy tips, Johnny tuck, goldfields, lupine, blue dips, clematis, nemophila, ithuriels spear, popcorn flower, fringepod, buck brush, biscuit root, wild cucumber, miners lettuce, saxifrage, etc. We also saw lots of butterflies and birds, fish jump in the river, and heard coyotes howl at night. The stars were incredible with just a sliver of moon ahead. We camped in a spot with views of Lassen in one direction and the Trinity Alps in the other, with Shasta peeking out a couple times along the trail as well. There is also a developed campsite at Massacre Flat but it was colder, damper and buggier which is why we opted for a higher campsite, with the benefit of views. But it was nice to watch wildlife by the river. It was a little windy on the hike out and I rescued a 🦋 who looked a little battered and tired and put it in a sheltered spot. We also found a cool rock shelter. In all we did about 12 miles.