Dunsmuir Railroad Days – get here now

Dunsmuir Railroad Days

Come join the activities at Dunsmuir Railroad Days this weekend, June 11th and 12th, and celebrate the warmer temperatures. This annual event embraces Dunsmuir’s railroad history and culture and offers a  great family-friendly event. It’s also a beautiful time to visit as the dogwood trees finish blooming and blossoms of many colors decorate this town in the Upper Sacramento River Canyon.

Below is the schedule for Saturday and Sunday. You can learn more by visiting the website.

SATURDAY, JUNE 11
7 a.m.  Dunsmuir Ave. & Pine St. $20 Registration for River Run. 2-mile and 5-mile races.
8 a.m. Start of River Run.

8 a.m. – 11 a.m.  Dunsmuir Rotary Club Pancake Breakfast in Dining Car in Railyard
10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Vintage trains on display at the Union Pacific Railyard.
Entry fee: $1.00

10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Speeder rides.

9 a.m. – 5 p.m. Model train displays at the Cedar Flats RR Club.

10 – 11 a.m. Little Engineer Contest at Children’s Park
10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Kids’ activities at Children’s Park

10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Railroad Museum next to Amtrak Depot open

10 a.m. – 9 p.m. Live entertainment at the Upper Pine St. Performing Arts Pavilion.
10 a.m. – 9 p.m. Food, craft, train & nonprofit booths next to UP Railyard and on Upper Pine

10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Local authors in front of Pizza Factory

10 a.m. Free walking tour of historic downtown. Meet at Sacramento Ave. and Pine St.

11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Lunch served on Dining Car in UP Railyard.

Noon – 1 p.m. Parade on Dunsmuir Ave. and Sacramento Ave.

1:30 p.m. Free tour of Hedge Creek Falls & Botanical Gardens. Meet at Sac Ave. & Pine St. for shuttle.

2 p.m. Awards Ceremony for parade winners at Upper Pine St. Performing Arts Pavilion

3:30 p.m. Talk on geology at Castle Crags State Park. Meet at Sac Ave & Pine St. for shuttle.

5:30 p.m. Dinner On The Dining Car.
Advance reservations required.

SUNDAY, JUNE 12
9 a.m. – 3 p.m. Model train displays at the Amtrak Depot and the Cedar Flats RR Club
10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Vintage trains on display at the Union Pacific Railyard
10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Speeder rides.

10 a.m. – 3 p.m. Kids’ activities at the Childrens’ Park

10 a.m. – 4 p.m. Railroad Museum next to Amtrak Depot open

10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Live entertainment at the Upper Pine St. Performing Arts Pavilion

10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Food, craft, train & nonprofit booths next to UP Railyard and on Upper Pine

1 p.m. Diaper Derby at Children’s Park

4:45 p.m. Grand prize drawing for button purchasers  at Upper Pine Street Performing Arts Pavilion.

Trout fishing opener April 30th

Upper Sacramento River

Trout season opened on Northern California rivers today. Check out the early season picks, courtesy of Shasta Trout, if you’re planning on heading up to fish in Siskiyou County. The folks at Shasta Trout said this is the time to come pick your best Rainbow trout of the season. Read on to here what they said:

“Preseason Guide Picks, Previewing the trout fly fishing season in Northern California
The general trout season opens this Saturday, April 30th.  The McCloud, Fall River and Hat Creek will open after closing for the winter while we’ve been fishing the remainder of our rivers year round. Here are our picks for the opener and  a brief description of what is fishing best…”

Ted Fay Fly Shop has also been blogging on conditions on the Upper Sac and Rick Cox at McCloud Fly Fishing Adventures is ready for fishing on the McCloud River.

To learn more about fishing the Upper Sacramento River, check out the Dunsmuir Chamber of Commerce fishing page. You’ll be able to learn about your lodging and dining options as well. If you’re thinking of fishing the McCloud River, the McCloud Chamber can help you explore lodging and dining.

Spring delimma: skiing or river rafting?

We are Liquid – this video explores the transition from winter to spring, which is so appropriate right now. The Mt. Shasta Ski Park will be open for its last weekend of the season – April 22nd through April 24th – just as spring whitewater rafting is getting into gear on the Upper Sacramento River and wilder rivers to the west – the Cal Salmon and Scott Rivers. Check in with local rafting companies, Turtle River Rafting and River Dancers to see what spring water adventures await.

Turtle River Rafting will be hosting its annual Cal Salmon River Festival on Memorial Day Weekend May 27 to May 30. Each day they’ll be rafting a different section of the river. In the evening . . . campfire, stories, and music.

If you’ve been on the water and loved it and are looking for more, check out River Dancers Guide School – April 30th – May 2nd – to learn how to get behind the oars.

Fall fishing: The Upper Sacramento River

Photo from Ted Fay Fly Shop

I just learned that the Shasta Cascade Wonderland Association provides a North State fishing report every week. When I checked it out I found that the Ted Fay Fly Shop is providing updates for the Upper Sacramento River, the McCloud Reservoir and the McCloud River. The photos from the Upper Sacramento River are spectacular, it sounds like the fall fishing is pretty good, and you can book a guided trip with Ted Fay Fly shop if you’re new to fishing or want to refine your fly fishing skills – so a blog post was born.

While I have never been fly fishing, I can tell you this – the Upper Sacramento River is a place of wild beauty, and you should take advantage of any reason (excuse) you can find to spend time on her shores or in her waters. The Upper Sacramento starts below the Box Canyon Dam at Lake Siskiyou just outside of Mt. Shasta and continues down to Lake Shasta. You can read about the seasonal fishing characteristics on the Ted Fay Fly Shop website, and the Caddis hatch that happens in October.

You can learn more about fishing opportunities in Siskiyou County and find a list of guide services on the Visit Siskiyou website. You can also use the website as a resource to find lodging and dining options and read about other recreational activities in the area.

With The General Trout Season Opener Around the Corner, How’s The Fishing in Siskiyou County?

With many of Siskiyou County’s best fishing rivers due to open on Saturday, we thought we’d offer up the forecasts of a pair of local fly fishermen.

First, local outfitter Craig Nielsen of Shasta Trout offers up his latest fishing report, which – if you read between the lines – offers a lot of information about how his clients have been clobbering fish on the Upper Sacramento, Lower Sacramento, and Pit River.

His take? The Upper Sacramento is high but fishing well (you have to pick your spots – much of the river’s unfishable). The Pit River is fishing beautifully, but is crowded. And things are looking good for the McCloud and Fall River openers, though access may be an issue on the McCloud.

Meanwhile, local fly fishing blog The Trout Underground offers his typically quirky take on the area’s rivers and fishing prospects here, though we’ve excerpted one small portion for you:

This year – due to an above-normal snowpack in California’s mountains and rainy/snowy spring weather, a lot of rivers will likely be high.

(Note I said “high” and not “unfishably high.” The last time I pronounced the Upper Sac “blown out and unfishable,” someone wrote to say they’d had their best day ever on the river.)

What follows is a loose assemblage of rumors, half-truths, guide promotion and outright lies.

At no time should any of my readers actually believe anything they read in this forecast (I’m a fly fisherman after all), nor change their carefully laid plans based on this information.

(Void where prohibited by law.)

Click here to read his lengthy forecast on river flows, access, what’s hot, and what isn’t.

Enjoy the 2010 trout season!

Fly Fishing the Upper Sacramento

The Upper Sac is very high from snowmelt and runoff, but it is flowing clear and is fishable. Dedicated upper Sac anglers can find a few fish to take by concentrating on the deeper, slower moving pockets and pools, but it may be more work than it’s worth until runoff subsides later this spring.

The key to success when fishing high spring water on the upper sac is using plenty of weight to get your flies down, and concentrating on the deeper pools and slower-moving pockets. The fish will try to get away from the heavy currents, and can sometimes be concentrated in certain calmer waters.

Upper Sac River Rafting & Kayaking

Experience the incredible beauty of the Upper Sacramento river Canyon in full spring bloom. Watch fresh flows of creeks and streams that feed water to the thirsty state of California. Challenging without being demanding. Exciting for novices and experienced rafters alike.

The Upper Sacramento River – Snowless in Winter (That Will Change Soon)

The Upper Sacramento River has been high, though it’s coming back down – just in time for a series of storms.

Stay tuned for reports on its fishability over the coming weeks (the BWOs were still hatching as of last week).

Fly Fishing Guide Lands 27″ Upper Sacramento Brown Trout (Yes, There Are Big Fish Here)

While fly fishing the Upper Sacramento River in winter can be a humbling experience, local fly fishing guide Wayne proved it’s sometimes worth it.

On Tuesday, he landed a 27″ Brown trout on the upper half of the river, and managed to snap a couple photos of what some would consider the Brown Trout of a Lifetime.

He was fishing a #2 black woolly bugger (a streamer type fly) just as the river was starting to come up (due to rain and snow melt). With the rising waters stirring up the fish, that’s not a bad time to fish a big streamer and see what’s biting.

In this case, what was biting was plenty big enough.

tasty breakfast at Cornerstone

We had a wonderful breakfast this morning at Cornerstone in Dunsmuir. This is a must-stop place for breakfast or lunch when you’re in Dunsmuir. Spring is bursting down in the Sacramento River canyon: wild sweet peas are blooming, the canyon is dappled in shape and things are taking off at the Dunsmuir Botanical Gardens. It’s also that time of year when the fishing guides are taking anglers out on the Upper Sac to ply the waters. If you’re planning a trip to Dunsmuir, you’ll find info about area businesses on the Visit Siskiyou website and more about fishing at Visit Siskiyou’s fishing page.