Stebbins Cold Canyon - December 2023

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The trail at Stebbins Cold Canyon begins near the Lake Berryessa Dam, located about ten miles from the small country town of Winters, Ca. In early December, eight of us walked on the Homestead trail as it passes up through the canyon, the goal being to reach Annie's Trail junction, before returning.

At the trailhead a sign stated 'trail closed', due to erosion, but the path was not blocked, and, no consequences were cited should we choose to ignore the warning, which we did.  

Out on the walk, none of us encountered any erosion, but we did see maybe 5 or 6 small areas, well off the trail and marked by multi-colored flags. I noticed a sinkhole look at a few of them, maybe a drainage issue? But there was zero risk for a hiker and the "trail closed" warning was safe to ignore. 

Another sign said to watch out for rattlesnakes & mountain lions ! 

The group walked up the canyon for awhile. Once we crossed the creek, the trail ascended to an old homestead, maybe where old man Stebbins lived ? It consisted of three short rock walls, unimpressive & we took an impromptu standing break there, surrounded by a nice woods with some fall colors.

Then we had a steady uphill grade for about an hour, with the two steepest parts (closer to the junction) requiring more than two appendages.  

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again (with some exceptions). 

	December light at 10 am; the trail is to the left		local terrain		walkers
		in the canyon		the creek was barely there		start of a gradual climb
	the hills above us
		reddish spots in the landscape might be  Toyon berries		plant near the lunch break

Jean, Maryam, Donna, and Kathy made it to the junction with Annie's Trail, where they sat & had lunch, except that Maryam returned down the trail to find Max, who had the sandwiches.

Rick, Dave, and I were having lunch, maybe 10 minutes' walk downhill from the junction, when Maryam came by, and we said we had seen Max downhill from us, about 15 minutes ago.        

	Dave on the return walk (note some fire damaged trees)		the group back together
				season's greetings ! (Toyon berries)
	fall in the hills		Redbud leaves

The round trip walk was about 4.5 miles and the Annie's Trail junction group gained 1,000 ft.    

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Postscript - On the drive back to Davis, six of us went into Winters for a 3 pm visit to the well-known Putah Creek Cafe. We had a beer & split a corn pie entree and a small roasted veg/feta pizza, which was out in less than 10 minutes !

The place was wonderfully uncrowded, on a Tuesday afternoon.