Climbing Kings Canyon

As promised last time, we'll explore the Kings Canyon Road. Driving to the end of the paved Kings Canyon Road you'll find a small parking area.

Take note of the Borda Plaque and the gate next to it just a little southeast of the parking area. From the parking area you'll climb the dirt road headed southwest.

A word of warning, this road is still used by motor vehicles and so you should stay off to the side of the road.

If you want, you can walk up the entire 9.1 miles until Kings Canyon Road meets Highway 50 near Spooner Summit. The total gain is about 1,800 feet, but the worst of it is the first two miles. You'll need to set up a car shuttle leaving one in the parking lot at the summit, unless you are really, really ambitious and want to do the total 18 miles.

Sierra Club does it that way once or twice a year, usually in the spring. You can keep an eye out on its Web site for dates.

Looking at it today, it's difficult to imagine it as it was almost 150 years ago. I have an old photo of the road, near where the hotel stood, with loaded wagons pulled by mules and oxen.

As you climb up, stop occasionally, close your eyes and listen hard, maybe you can hear the jingle of a harness, the shouts of the muleteers, the bray of mules.

Just think about it, if you wanted to get to Lake Tahoe or California this is the way you went. Almost all freight, clothing, pots, pans, food stuffs and lumber came to Carson City by way of this road.

If you wanted to visit family in California or spend a vacation at the Lake, this was how you went.

And traffic jams were common. In last week's article I referenced the story that Sue Ballew wrote for the Nevada Appeal last year. If you didn't look at it before, I recommend that you check it out, www.nevadaappeal.com/article/20081109/NEWS/811099993/-1/rss011.

Anyway we were not all that energetic last week and just climbed up to the first really sharp bend to the right, reaching the first nice little stand of pine trees.

Along the way you'll hear and occasionally see a small stream on the right side of the road. To the left you can see Carson City nestled in trees. Once you reach this spot, you'll find an open gate and another dirt track heading east to the back of C Hill.

At this point we headed east along this dirt track bordering on the south side of the meadow. There used to be a trail off of here that cut across the meadow heading north but I couldn't find it.

We finally bushwhacked it and crossed the meadow to reach the gate next to the Borda Plaque and the car park.

If you decide on this route, be forewarned to watch out for snakes. You will cross a stream bed, pretty much dry right now, and expect to pick a lot of stickers later. But maybe you'll be lucky and find that trail that I missed.

If you are interested in joining some of our walks, feel free to contact me.

• Donna Inversin is walk leader for Muscle-Powered (www.musclepow

ered.org) and co-chairwoman for special events for We Can. She can be reached at 775-315-6763.