Rock Creek, Plumas National Forrest

this past weekend we ended up fleeing the dreariness and fog of the city. we scoped out a few places in my swimming hole bible and decided on a little place called rock creek in the plumas national forrest.

it was about a three hour drive and we were leaving around 3 or so on sat afternoon. pat, justin and steve were in my car. zaq and aldana would be following shortly. the directions seemed easy enough, just follow the 80 to the 50 to the 99 to the 70 and then some sketchy directions about scrambling up waterfalls and rock slabs and old fire roads, etc. naturally, we lose contact with aldana and zaq. the last directions we gave them were to find us along the 70.

when we had gotten into it started to rain heavily on us as we drove a three mile stretch about five times. the rain was heavy but luckily it didn't last long. we couldn't find our treasure of a swimming hole so we decided to stop at another creek and play in the water under the bridge. we'd left the truck on the side of the road with the hazards on hoping zaq and aldana would show up shortly. they never did.

it was getting dark and we still hadn't found a place to sleep. after some debate we decided to drive all the way back towards town to find some cell service. we eventually found zaq and aldana in the middle of a breathalyzer test.

again, some debate went on about weather we should drive back to the creek and try to sleep somewhere out there or to go to this camp site. we chose the camp site. little did we know that it would be the camp site from hell. it had all the signs, we were just too desperate to read them.

just for your benefit, here are the signs of impending doom at a camp ground.

1-more cement than rocks, dirt or trees.

2-more handicapped camp sites than regular.

3-more rv reserved camp sites than regular.

4-several cops shining flash lights in faces in several diff. camp sites.

5-angry people telling you all the things that you can't do and unwilling to help when you ask for a little bit of assistance.

6-more rv's then tents.

7-lots, and lots of board shorts, wrap around sun glasses, backwards hats, roxy gear, etc. basically the worst of the wake board crowd.

8-more speed boats than i'd care to count.

9-each speed boat had more speakers than could possibly ever be necessary on a speed boat.

anyway, we decided to sleep there and get up early and go find our swimming hole. so we got up and got the hell out of there and drove about a half hour back along the 70. we stopped at a couple places we though might be it but realized that they didn't match the description and moved on. finally we decided to just head to where we'd been the night before. it wasn't until later that afternoon that we realized that that was the swimming hole we'd been hunting for all along.

it was beautiful. as we hiked up the trial we saw one naked man. he was the color of a penny, bronzed to the max. we passed him up and found a nice little spot. aldana and jack, her dog, decided to camp out here while us boys scrambled our way as far up the canyon as we could go.

zaq scaling a wall at the end of the canyon.

aldana and i posing.

this was the top swimming hole that we got to. it wasn't until later that we realized that this was the bottom of three awesome swimming holes. we'll have to go back and find the other two.

this was our path.

on our way up we stopped in oroville. a crap town, yes, but it has the best fried, excuse me, broasted chicken i've ever had.

these are gas pumps.

neat.

this is the cow on top of the restaurant with the broasted chicken.

that night, aldana and zaq decided to go back to the camp site to find some things they'd lost. apparently one on the hellish people who frequent such places gave them a hard time about being on their property and not paying. they explained that we'd camped their before and that they were looking for something they'd lost to which she responded with 'i'm calling the cops.' so they said to hell with it and bounced. too late, the cops were at the gate waiting for them. they'd had a few drinks on the water but were far from drunk (i'm not supporting drinking and driving in any way here) and unfortunately breathalizing is standard fare in plumas. the cops decided to confiscate all their belongings, take them both in, hold them for a short period and then release them with nothing. stranded in the middle of no where. luckily aldana remembered a credit card number and was able to use it to get a hotel.

the boys and i had gotten a call from aldana saying that they might be taking zaq in for a dui and we might need to come pick her up but never got a location and the cops must have confiscated her phone before she could call us back. so the boys and i spent a good part of that night on the road looking for them. we ended up in marysville at the police station and eventually at the prison asking if they'd been picked up. in the end, we spent about three hours calling every police station, chp, holding center etc. and waiting. we waited until we couldn't wait any longer and drove home.

it was a crap way to end an amazing day. zaq and aldana are back in the city, safe and out of that hell hole.