Faithful to the End

A few spotters are faithful to the end. They return to places that common belief would say were Past Peak. Philip Reedy is among the faithful.

Yesterday, Reedy traveled north beyond Redding to join Scott Embrey for a day of fishing and photography on the Upper Sacramento River. Had he asked, I woulda discouraged optimism, thinking it was unlikely he’d find much fall color. 

As it was, Phil found “mountainsides… full of oak trees in full yellow, orange and red splendor,” with nice color along the river.

At Simms Flat, “a lot of trees had lost their leaves,” though “there were still many that looked great.” At Conant, it was a mix of “bare trees and some still bright with color.”

In the Box Canyon, Reedy and Embrey strode upon a beautiful blanket of yellow and orange leaves, though winter’s approach was evident. A fair bit of snow still lay on the ground from the previous storm and Mt Shasta was again capped majestically in white.

However faithful Phil was in anticipating he’d be photographing fall color, he admitted he got there at the very end. Phil estimates the mountainside oaks will remain dressed in copper, citrus and clementine for perhaps another week, but not much longer.

Nevertheless, if you’re heading to Redding for the Thanksgiving week, pretty glimpses of fall color will be possible along the Upper Sacramento River, a short distance beyond Castella, Conant and Dunsmuir … if you keep the faith, like Phil did.