Olmstead Loop Trail, Auburn Recreation Area, Auburn, CA

Date	Distance	Time	Elevation Gain	Average Moving Time	Year to Date Miles
2/20/2019	6.2 miles	3 hours	671'		27

Map: Sacramento, Exploring Valley, Foothills, and Mountains in the Sacramentio Region
Parking: See book, fee for parking
Directions: Hike #28 in guide book

We have never been to this park when visiting my brother. It turns out its a huge park, and the loop we did was just a small part of it. It was a great place to hike, and next time we go back to visit, we'll probably visit this park again. I do wish we had a detailed map of the whole park though. The trail was mostly well marked, but sometimes side trails were confusing. Periodically there'd be a sign to let you know you are going the right way. We ended up needing to refer to our map on Gaia a couple of times to figure out some intersections. The map in the book just wasn't detailed enough. This hike was very muddy. We read that there were 2 stream crossings, and they could be challenging in high water in the winter. We decided to take our chances. The first one went fine - I waded through it, and Glen mostly rock hopped across. The second one was a very wide crossing - maybe 20' wide. We didn't have any water shoes with us, and Glen didn't want to wade. We decided to turn around, and find an alternate route back to the parking area - another reason why a real map would have been useful. Our trail guide only showed some of the trails, so wasn't helpful for finding an alternate route. We took the Knickerbocker Creek trail back On the way back, we saw a group of around 20 fire fighters on the trail. I assume they were doing some type of forest fire training exercise.

The trail starts across the street from the parking area

Lots of mud today

Stuck