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illabelle
06-04-2018, 22:53
Years ago I read a book Ishi, Last of His Tribe. It's the true story of the last Yahi Indian, whose people were nearly exterminated. The handful of survivors gradually perished, and in 1911 he finally wandered alone to the town in the valley, fully expecting to die. The local sheriff put him in jail until he could figure out what to do with him. They found an anthropologist who took care of him until his death from tuberculosis in 1915. It's a fascinating story. I named my daughter Isha, inspired in part by his story.

Today while perusing a WB thread about the TT Notch, I went to the TT website and began to read reviews on the Stratospire. First review I saw said, Just got back from 3 nights in the Ishi Wilderness... What!!! There's an Ishi Wilderness? It's near Mt Lassen in northern California, near Oroville, and not terribly far from the PCT. Any of my fellow White Blazers ever been there?? What can you tell me about it? Someday if we ever do a piece of the PCT, is the Ishi Wilderness accessible and is it worth a visit?

Found this disappointing review on a Summit Post page (https://www.summitpost.org/ishi-wilderness/comments/290043), but it's nine years old:


Ishi trails NOT maintainedWe have been hiking Ishi for the past 4 years, it has some super
rock formations and canyons. But we have noticed that the trails
have not been maintained and are slowly disappearing. This year we dropped a car off at mill creek and drove down to deer creek
with the intent to take the maintained trails (as indicated in red on the map we bought from the forest service). As per the map we went in at deer creek hiked to the Deep hole tie trail
from there climbed 1,200 ft out of the canyon where we hit the Moak trail, we followed the Moak along the ridge to a trail called 2E07 which was suppose to take us to the Lassen trail.
Well as per the forest service map and our several GPS units we
reached the area where the supposed 2E07 trail was to split from the Moak! Guess what the Moak trail disappeared into 4 to 6 ft high buck brush and the 2E07 trail was No where to be found. By this time it was 3:30 in the after noon so we set up camp on the ridge and searched the brush for 3 hours there is no
sign of any trail. We spent the night and decided to turn around and go back out the 7 miles we came in. We got to the car and headed back towards mill creek. We stopped at the Moak trail head and found the sign board with nothing on it, we walked the trail approx. 50 ft. where it disappeared into the buck brush.(Humm maintained trail) We continued to the Lassen trail head and looked at the sign board which has the same map we bought from the forest service and that 2E07 trail was shown
as a proposed trail. So the forest service is selling a map that shows maintained trails in (Red) and there map on the lassen sign board says proposed!! Also trees that have fallen on both the deer creek and mill creek trails are still there after 3 years so we had to break trail around this.

Feral Bill
06-04-2018, 22:57
Budget cuts and fire fighting costs have wreaked havoc with train maintenance money all over.

illabelle
06-05-2018, 20:35
Budget cuts and fire fighting costs have wreaked havoc with train maintenance money all over.
Very true, unfortunately. Too much wilderness, not enough hikers maybe? ;)

illabelle
06-05-2018, 20:35
So it appears that nobody knows much about the Ishi Wilderness....?

Dogwood
06-06-2018, 00:18
I only hiked in the wilderness once on a trail running along a creek. It was done as a day hike when on a a so called "zero day" in Mt Shasta on a PCT NOBO. Don't remember anything more about it other than it was about a 10-12 mile RT with some gorgeous swimming holes that I took advantage of on blistering back to back 94* days. Took a second "zero day" the next day to summit Mt Shasta. I hate the term zero day as it implies zilch happened or no miles were hiked or life stopped. I've seen that book featured somewhere in Mt Shasta CA. Also saw it on a shelf at some CA trail angels house or hostel.


Some really cool Native American Indian cultures in CA and OR. Along the northern CA coast I've gone to Tulowa, Yurok, Mattole, and Miwok sites all while on LD hikes. I had to look those names up or I wouldn't have remembered them all.


Nsherry, laid up, was jonesing to hear what people do on their thru-hikes. That's just one example. If I wasn't always so on the run and not as electronic tech handicapped I have 1000's of pics I should share.

illabelle
06-06-2018, 07:29
I thought maybe if anyone had been there, it would be you, Dogwood. It seems like you've been everywhere. :)
Thanks for the report. It would be nice to go there someday.

Miner
06-06-2018, 18:48
Sorry, I've only hiked the Caribou Wilderness and it's neighbor Lassen Volcanic NP as well as the PCT in that area. Lots of pine forests and small lakes. Saw a few otters in the area. Trails all could use some maintenance in Caribou Wilderness so I suspect Ishi would be worse not connecting to the NP trails.

illabelle
06-06-2018, 21:12
Sorry, I've only hiked the Caribou Wilderness and it's neighbor Lassen Volcanic NP as well as the PCT in that area. Lots of pine forests and small lakes. Saw a few otters in the area. Trails all could use some maintenance in Caribou Wilderness so I suspect Ishi would be worse not connecting to the NP trails.

Maybe it's alright for some places to get neglected. Few people, nature takes over and runs things her own way. Animals make trails where they want them to be.