Fleming Meadow - Oct. '25 

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The visual contrast of blackened trees, with vibrant new plants at ground level, on this walk, was arresting.  It's been exactly four years since the terribly destructive Caldor fire.  

Many of the taller conifers survived, and being 'blackened' below, with healthy-looking needles above, was a common look.  

As for the walk, this loop trail has a good mixture of uphill & downhill sections, and we had occasional views of terrain suddenly dropping off, to the SE, at the far end of the trail, but more on that later.

note - on a pc or laptop you can zoom into any part of a photo, but alas, not on a smartphone. 

	starting out				part of the cleanup
		big leaf maple		roads or single track
	late October light		Whiteleaf manzanita
				rabbit brush

note 1 - everywhere there is evidence of restoration work that's been done over the last few years. Post-fire, the trail must have been blocked by logged trees, as restoration began. We walked past many pine trunks which were cut to allow trail usage.

After sitting on logs & having a nice lunch chat, we finished the rest of the trail in about an hour.  

	lunch spot		young pines, a good sign		monument to  devastation
				Max & Maryam >
			Camp creek watershed
		view from car park

We did the loop trail anti-clockwise, as the Brits say. The walk was 5.1 miles with 750 ft. of gain, sometimes steep. Being flat-landers, this is always a good three-hour workout for the group, and we usually only stop for lunch.     

Much of the woods is still here, and at 4,000 ft. you are in the mountains. Seeing so much thriving undergrowth was encouraging.  

This hike is also closer to home, so all of us were back early.   

Today's walkers were: Barb, Jean, Cynthia, Donna, Maryam & Max and me. I apologize for not getting a group photo.

Thanks to everyone who attended ! 

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Epilogue - about the terrain - back at home, the AllTrails (AT) topo map for Fleming Meadow shows the table-like land where the loop trail is, rapidly drops 1,400 ft. to Camp Creek.

Just downstream, this modest creek receives discharge flow from two dams on Sly Park (or Jenkinson) Lake, and 15 miles downhill at Somerset becomes the North Fork of the Cosumnes River.  

The AT map also shows there are two good spur trails into the drop.  One, on the north loop, begins not far from the car park, and follows path 8A downhill for 1.3 miles, losing 492 ft. and tho' steep, goes to the creek. 

The other spur trail is on the south loop, a little further from the cars, and follows Ferrari Road 2.2 miles with 492 ft. of loss, to an overlook spot located 660 ft. above Camp Creek.   

Either of these two would be a good variation on the loop walk, and, if it's late winter to early spring, with maximum runoff & creek flow, well, all the better ! 

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