Trip Date: June 3, 2019
Find this Spot
I know I saw the listing on Realtor.com, Zillow, or on one of the many individual/independent realtor listings I was searching and passed over it during the couple months of searching I had done. In my mind, it was $89,000 and although I remembered it being a big piece of land, it didn’t really catch my eye. It was, however, one of about 12 properties I printed out and brought with me when I first came up to Madeline Plain and Moon Valley Ranch area to look around with Bob. I prioritized the list and we set out to see as many as we could with a scale heavily weighted to remoteness and view. That scale quickly changed.
We found the first property; barely getting there over only a mile or so of incredibly rough, terrible, ridiculous road. We immediately knew, this Moon Valley Ranch area, an old undeveloped development from the 1970’s, did not offer the access we needed. This new realization of the road conditions resulted in the next 8 or so properties being eliminated in an easy instantaneous decision. We tried to find a property East of 395 that was high on a hillside, but we were blocked by fences. We tried to get back to one of the most remote yet one of the most intriguing properties out Clarks Valley Road toward Evans Place, but we barely got off Clark’s Valley road and knew it would be impassable much of the year, and stupid rough at best. We tried to get around the back side of Moon Lake to another property, but again, access was not what we needed it to be.
We needed to regroup, so we headed to Blue Lake campground for the night. This was a place I knew well from working in the Modoc and the South Warner’s for the Forest Service in about 1980 and then again in 1990, my first and last seasons with the Forest Service. My mom and dad visited me up here at Patterson Guard Station and we camped at Blue Lake. I have some great pictures of them from that trip, and one in particular of a butterfly on dad’s head. It holds great memories.
Bob and I had a great night and the place to ourselves to come up with a new plan and a renewed constitution. We visited with a Forest Service gal that came in to clean bathrooms in the morning and I later learned from Marty that she dated back to my time there. We were basically driving home the next day when we took Brockman Road off 395 to Westside road to head towards 139 into Susanville. Basically at the corner of Brockman and West Side is where we saw a real estate sign nearly covered over with brush advertising the 20 acre pot farm I fell in love with. I really wanted this property, listed at only $8k, and the sellers’ cousin would literally throw in another contiguous 20 acres for next to nothing.
This property had a road the entire length of the property, a cleared building site, and sat on a nice rise some 50-100 feet above the Madeline Plain, offering sweet views East and South. Both Brockman and West Side roads were blocked from the building site by the rise and the few Junipers on it, giving it plenty of quiet privacy. It had 2 cedar fenced areas, the old pot farms, that were each about 100’ square with an estimated $3,000 in lumber. I was in love; and the price!!! I called Lori when I got back and expressed my interest.
Through the real estate agent, I spoke with the Lassen County Building/Planning staff a number of times, Lassen county transportation, NST, a surveying company in Susanville, and Steve’s Pump and Well. I called Alturas Power, the BLM, USFS, Nature Conservancy, a wildlife group, the Rental Guys, Susanville Rents and dozens of other folks about containers, equipment, surveys, permits, water, weather, tiny homes, etc. I spoke to the Madeline Fire District Chief for a long time about planting, trees, climate, vegetation, access, and the area in general. I even spoke with the rancher that I heard from the seller of the original 20 acre lot in Moon Valley that Bob and I found was locking gates on public roads and blocking access. Not everything I heard was great, but I didn’t hear anything troubling or particularly disturbing. I was motivated.
I came up with Steve and Bill to show them the property, get their take, and see it all again through clearer eyes. I wanted specifically to approximate the South boundary, and get a better sense of the volume and value of the Cedar lumber in the fencing. The property had a great spot for a water tank on a rise above the building site. The cleared site was plenty big for a container house or a cabin and garage/barn/shop combo. The elevation above the plain, the view, the privacy, the quiet, the improvements, the lumber, and the permit work that the prior owner had begun, all added up to more value than they were asking for the land. Finally, I was ready to do it.
I called my brother Mike to tell him about it and that I wanted to do it. He may have been feeling his oats from just having fulfilled a lifelong dream of buying a boat, and suggested he wanted to take a shot at fulfilling this lifelong dream of owning property too. He said he was ready to go into buying land together, so we combined funds and started to look bigger. It didn’t take much convincing.
With a bigger budget and whole new type of property in mind, I had called several real estate agents in the area hoping to get someone to show me a few properties I had found on line and printed out. It was around Thanksgiving and I wasn’t getting anyone to call me back, but come on; business is business. I knew with Winter and the Holidays, the timing may not have been ideal to begin a remote property search, but I had loved my 20 acre pot farm so much and felt like it would have been a really good piece for me. I was so close to having it and I didn’t want that momentum to wear off. Even though I didn’t hear from any realtors before I left, I was determined to get this thing started so I just headed up.
Just North of Reno on 395, I finally got a call back from a real estate agent in Susanville. She was giving me attitude about advanced notice and being busy, so I laid into her a bit, telling her I had left a message the day before, and I was already up here, so she could help or not. She called back in a few minutes giving me over to her assistant. On the fly, we made a plan to meet at a house on Eagle Lake that looked appealing.
I met Jean and her husband and daughter at the lake house as planned. The house was old and a super basic modular home, but with a nice great room off the kitchen, 3/2, a great back deck, a garage, separate shop/garage/apartment, and a couple acres on the lake, for $139k, I thought it was worth a serious look.
They showed me 2 other places if I recall, and I headed back to Sacramento, eager to report to Mike that I thought the modular house on Eagle Lake was worth considering.
When he and I came up to look at the house in December, we weren’t convinced we were ready to spend that kind of money. Jean showed us another place on another cove of the lake, and we called on a third place we stumbled on in the next cove, but we headed back to town unconvinced we had found “the one”. Without other real contenders to look at, the next day I showed Mike the 20 acres I really liked. He wasn’t impressed at all, so I pulled out the other listings I had printed out and brought with me, saw the 160 acre property, noticed how close it was to where we were, and that they were only asking $45k, not $89k as I had thought. The property was only about 10 miles South of my 20 acres, and Westside road literally went to it, so we checked it out before heading home, and that was all she took.
The cemetery was a bit odd at first, but the size, sage, Junipers, top of the hill, the view, the privacy, the quiet, the rock formations, the birdies; everything else was incredible. Mike was getting a real good vibe from it, and so was I. We walked up from the cemetery through the sage and past all the Junipers, up to the top of the hill. When we first saw the spectacular vertical rock formations, I was blown away. Mike followed through a little pass in the formations on the East side, and we got on top of a solid rock flat; the flat pieces clinking like glass below our feet. When we got out to the cocktail lounge, another 30’ x 30’ flat of hundreds of flat lava pieces in front of a vertical lava wall about 3’ tall on the point of the property looking Southeast to the Warner’s, Eagle Peak, McDonald Peak, Observation and Spanish Springs Peaks and a couple hundred feet above Madeleine Plain with a 360 degree view, we knew this was a very special place and it had just about everything in a piece of land we were looking for (plus a cemetery!).
Mike and I talked quite a bit about it on the way home and a few times after that, and eventually convinced ourselves we needed to make a move on it. Unfortunately, I didn’t have any other real estate person to call, so we went back to Jean. I won’t say it didn’t work out or that I regret this decision, but Jean was not experienced or knowledgeable, and so the process was anything but smooth and easy. I had to do a lot of my own research and talked to many people to find out things we needed to know/should know before actually buying the property.
The selling agent was great, and the Lassen County Surveyor turned out to be a great help and fantastic guy; absolutely would not have bought it without his help. Most of our questions were answered somewhat satisfactorily during our research; many of the things we learned about the property, neighbors, and area were positive. We just didn’t get thrown a real problem or serious obstacle throughout the process of investigating, researching, and learning as much as we could. Eventually we got up the courage to make an offer some time before Christmas and we got through the process shortly after New Year’s. What a sweet New Year’s present.
I am combining a few of our first camping trips because I haven’t written any of them up and here it is mid-August with several trips to the property behind us, mostly forgotten details, and trips merging into a post-impressionist water color. The mind is a terrible thing to waste.
Mike and I bought this property in early January, and as the daytime temperatures in winter are often in the teens or below, we were anxiously awaiting some better temps before our first trip. We did come up in February, but we stayed in town. I believe the daytime highs were in the 30’s, but in the sun, with no breeze, it was quite tolerable. The overnight lows were in the low teens, and all above ground moisture was frozen.
The property was spectacular to see in February; big patches of snow a few inches deep, but only about 35% coverage. The roads were snow-free, but muddy; not deep rut and spraying mud muddy, but wet and slick. We had a great time wandering about, checking out the cemetery and the top rock formations. We had received a recommendation for a road builder from the well guys in Janesville, so we made arrangements to meet Mike and his sidekick Wren in March.
First overnighter with Mike and Bob and Steve
The weather had not changed much from February to March. We stopped in town to give Don a big bottle of good Whiskey in appreciation for his help. We visited Peter Lassen’s grave and a cool smoked meat shop South of town. When we got out to the property, we noticed there was only a little more snow on the ground. South Grasshopper road was snow free, but our triangle road and the property line road were both covered in several inches of good snow. The temperatures were still in the 40’s during the day and teens at night, but we still camped on the property for the first time. We got up the hill a few hundred yards following a path of crushed brush to a nice fat Juniper overlooking Dry Valley to our West. It was a fine camp spot.
We set up our tents, had a nice fire and a decent dinner. The stars were great, but we were early to bed after a huge day. The morning was calm; quiet as could be. We had a great little fire and coffee for breakfast. Mike and Wren came right on time and we really got a good feel for them. We walked to the top of the hill together and saw our first deer on the property. We had quite a few laughs and agreed on a price of $6,000 to cut the road in to the top, assuming 3 days and 2 pieces of equipment. Mike warned us about getting out early in the morning while the snow was still solid, along with many other really helpful bits of information, particularly about cows and cow opinions on matters of relevance.
Bob and Steve arrived just as they were leaving. Mike and Wren were happy to walk out to their truck, not wanting us to risk driving out on the soft, slushy snow. Bob got up to the camp with no problem and they got set up in short order. We had a great dinner and fire after the afternoon breeze died down. Sleep came very early for me, as did the morning. Even though Mike had minimal gear, and crappy stuff at that, including a useless sleeping pad, he was a huge trooper, not complaining or too thrashed from not only camping for the first time in years, but in freezing cold temps. Again, it was calm and spectacular. We did some measuring and finding corners, wandering around the top, and hanging in the sun, sitting under the wind at the “lounge”. We left some briquettes, poles, wood, and a grill on the property for the first time.
Road goes in with Mike and Mike
The winter lasted a while longer than we had hoped being so anxious to really get out on the property and stay a while, and that time finally came in June when Mike returned to put the road in. It was super exciting to return to our camp spot just above the cemetery, knowing, hoping, our future camp would be up top after we got this road in. Mike came up the triangle road in a big rig with full length trailer and 2 pieces of equipment; a small excavator and a Bobcat. The angle of the intersections with the triangle road, the border road, and our road up the hill alongside the cemetery is very sharp so there was no way the big rig was going to even come close to making the turn. Mike plowed his way off-road up through the sage brush and made quite a mess before finally getting stuck.
He offloaded the equipment, made a huge swath through the sage, widening the road by three or four times, and began blasting up the hill. The first third or so of the distance is really soft, fine soil, almost powder, so he literally was just plowing sage brush and moving a little soil. The upper half though, we knew was a massive rock field the entire width of the hill. We had searched and searched for a better route to the top, laying out three or four flag lines before finally realizing none was better than the other, so a straight shot was probably best.
After the first day, Mike was at least half way up the hill and what was behind him was a plenty good 2-wheel drive road as we had requested. We invited him to join us for a beverage in the shade after his long day of work. We had a great visit and a lot of laughs in the hour or so he stayed. We were getting some very good vibes and feeling good about this major event working out.
The morning of the second day, we headed to Likely to see what was there and I showed Mike where I used to get my mail. Mike dropped me off on South Grasshopper road so I could search for the mid-Western BLM Monument that is supposed to be out in the pasture. While I was out there wandering around hunting for the marker, a white truck pulled up alongside the fence. I knew I should head over to introduce myself.
It turned out to be our closest neighbor, Dale. He eased a bit after introductions and some small talk. He drove me up to the cemetery after quite a bit of conversation. I thanked him for the lift and waved goodbye, happy to have met our first neighbor. As I got up the hill to Mike and told him of the meeting, here comes the white truck up our new road to our camp, our first visitor. He was offering us the use of his house/shower, a typical “cowboy way” thing to do. We offered him a beer and that was that.
Dale is a fantastic conversationalist, and his dogs are great. It turns out he coached baseball at CSU Chico and he and his family has roamed these parts for 100 years. He had Dusty Baker stories, and baseball tales, hunting tales, Indian tales, and stories of the Old West. When we mentioned we wanted to listen to the Warriors playoff game, he said we could watch it on his TV. Just a great old cowboy kind o’ guy. Once he headed off, Mike got the game on his forever Sirius Radio boom box, and we had a great evening, dinner, cocktails, and postgame. What a day.
When Mike came back for day #2, he got up to where we had identified the only really massive boulder, probably 4’x 4’, what we could see anyway. By the time he was done Mike had unearthed a half dozen of those sized boulders, hundreds of rocks half that size, and hundreds more basketball sized and smaller. His route was straight, but not a super straight line such that you could stand in one spot and see the whole length. It meandered just enough to not be able to see the road for very long before it bent slightly one way or the other. It headed straight up to where we wanted it to come out, but had just enough variation to it to really soften the impact. Our ancient Juniper stump, that reminded me of the scene in Patton where George C. Scott is standing on the tree stump to direct the tank column in the Italian mud, that was once a real central spot all the various flagged road routes diverged from the lower rock-free portion of the road, was now just a stump among the rocks along the roadside.
The property had more flower color than I could possibly have hoped for. The triangle road on the way in had nothing but color in the center between the tracks. Large bushes of yellow flowers covered the hillsides – Rabbit brush, Bitter brush, Deer brush or some such bush. Lupine of blue, yellow, and white was clumped in the shade under most of the Juniper. The open rocky spaces were covered in tiny, delicate wildflowers, some in small circles like flowering fairy circles.
We had a tiny crescent moon, awesome sunsets, and incredible cloud displays. The shadows spreading across Madeleine Plains below as the sun dropped were magical. The changing angle of the sun always highlighting a different geography, perspective, perception. The sliver of a moon allowed for tremendous stargazing and satellite spotting; the entertainment value was outstanding.
Mike was done in less than 2 days. He could have done a better job up top, on kind of our turn-around/parking lot area, but he said he threw a track and I think that signaled enough for him. The road itself was fantastic; as smooth as we expected, and plenty wide, so we were super happy with his work. Mike did an awesome job and only charged us for the 2 days, even though he dug out and moved much more rock than we could have imagined. We drove to the top a couple times before we left just to do it and then walked it for good measure. We were stoked at the difference it made, it completely changed the feel of the property, even though we were a little shocked at the damage and scarring it made to our previously pristine property. We drove home with a tremendous sense of accomplishment and positive vibes for future projects.
Feeling like we were money ahead, I went on a shopping spree for fencing, posts, a generator, cinder blocks, piers, tree stakes, peeler poles, roofing, lumber, sink, toilet seat, and all kinds of materials we could use on the property. I felt like we were really making some progress and feeling good about being able to do what we wanted on the top now that we had access. The road was a real game changer as we both felt that the top offered the spot for everything we wanted to do and have. It was definitely breezier up there, but even that was much appreciated on warm afternoons.
First trip straight to the top with Bob
Towards the end of June, I came back to the property, driving for the first time straight up to the top with Bob. The weather was awesome. I chain sawed the lower branches on the North side of a couple big Junipers about 50’ south of the parking lot to make tent spots. Bob and I set our tents up on the soft deep duff under the trees and slept very well. It was really rough on our joints moving about up top where we wanted to have the kitchen and getting up to the cocktail lounge.
Before I knew it, Bob had made a sweet path from the parking lot to the kitchen area. It was incredible how quickly he did that and how much easier it made moving about. He also stacked rocks into a cairn to mark the trail out to his tent site and out to a further Juniper where he hung his solar shower. These were really the first “improvements” made up top, and really motivated me to get into it and make it work. However, our main objective was to put up a fence across the road down by the cemetery.
First thing next morning, we headed down to the cemetery and started digging. It was wonderful. I literally did not hit a single rock, nothing. I got down a healthy 3’ and sunk a railroad tie into the hole. Bob got a layer of smallish 3-4” stones about 2’ down, but all in all, the digging was heavenly. We dumped Bob’s rocks into the bottom of the hole and then the dirt and those things packed the railroad ties extremely tight. We strung the field fence and strung 3 Juniper branches in the fencing and we were stoked. My goodness, this was really working out.
That night, the breeze calmed early so we had our first fire up against the rock formation. After a few pops, and crackles, and explosions, we had to admit that the rock was superheating and blowing out at us. We had experienced this before, so we knew this was not going to work. We dug out a hole as best we could in the rock and set the bottom of a Weber BBQ, and thus we had our sunken fire pit.
The next day, we established the Northeast corner as best we could. From there, we measured the North boundary out to South Grasshopper and put a wooden stake in the ground. I was done going out in the pasture by then. I had no luck the 3 or 4 times I had tried to find the mid-western BLM monument. I wasn’t sure how far out into the pasture our property line should be because I wasn’t confident in any of the North bearings I had shot from the SW corner North or from Termo-Grasshopper South. Nothing was really lining up. I was satisfied to have some idea of the Northern boundary along Termo-Grasshopper road and where the boundary crossed South Grasshopper. Plenty good for now.
Bob left the next day and I stayed another night; my first solo night on the property. It was most rewarding. The sky is such a mind blower up there. Sun, clouds, shadows, angles. The sunsets are great and the moon has really been a treat, even though the moon is not my favorite things. The stars are often spectacular, again, depending on the moon. The morning I worked on the trails up top, and tried to sort of materials in order of use. I began to add to the natural rock wall against the fire pit to try to create a sort of fire corral, reducing the breeze from the West and catching any sparks blown East. I cut the rest of the lower branches out of the ring of Junipers to create 4 more tent sites and a sweet shade spot on the East side of a Juniper near the kitchen. This would become a favorite afternoon/after work/early cocktail gathering spot. I also visited the boys down below. We are all getting along quite well.
July 15 with Mike, trailer, and rental truck
Mike and I made a huge push on July 15. I had accumulated quite a bit of materials and decided we should rent a truck, in addition to the trailer we bought, and try to take it all, or as much as possible in one massive trip. I had the trailer loaded for a few days, having planned, and plotted, and diagrammed the load several times. I am sure she was near/at capacity, but she made it. K and I had rented the Penske truck from Home Depot down Sunrise and loaded it on my birthday. However, in arranging it up against the house, we noticed it was not moving well. I checked the maximum load of 4500 pounds. After we pulled the truck back out, and weighed samples of what we loaded it with, we estimated we had 7900 pounds in her. She was mighty bloated. For fuck’s sake, now we had to unload, redistribute the weight, and reload. Nothing better to do on a blazing hot Sunday birthday afternoon. Sweet!
We unpacked her and redistributed the load, choosing carefully what we wanted to take and what we had to leave behind. It was very disappointing to see how much we spent on the truck and yet see how much we still were leaving behind. Nonetheless, Mike came bright and early Monday morning, and we headed up. We barely got to the 99/70 split when Mike flashed his lights at me from behind in the rental truck. Pulling over as soon as possible, we saw that some of the straps had loosened. Ratcheting them down a bit and tying up the loose ends so they didn’t look like loose straps, we were on our way in no time. Disaster averted; thus far. I have to admit, I did not have a huge amount of confidence in the trailer after the shit I went through with Eric the prick, and then the meth headed wiring guy. The lights did work, and I put new/used tires on, so I had some faith, but not much.
Mike called me just outside of Marysville, with another caution. The right tail light was hanging by the wires, having come completely off the trailer. Easing off the driving surface, we were flabbergasted to see that the nuts and washers were still lying on the trailer having fallen off the bolt, but getting caught in a nook. With tiny tools in hand, we reattached the light and tightened down the other one. Off again, this time for sure. We had a great lunch in Chester and then got up to the top of Hart Hill without further incident. It was great to get so much material and tools up there and make another huge stride to creating our space. We used the same 2 tent spots Bob and I had used up top. It was really exciting to see the gate up and roll right up to the top with Mike and show him the trails, and the ideas I had.
The sage was still very green and many wildflowers were still blooming. I found some really incredible Penstemon up top that was really gratifying. We were blown away at how much water was still out in the pasture. It was still drawing in the Cranes, Geese, Ducks, Grebes and Terns. We really noticed these large sharp angled winged birds that came out at dusk and hunted all night until dawn. They chirped like bats and then this incredibly unique whirring sound as they dived and then pulled up or sharply changed direction. They were such a trip and a joy to watch and hear. They were very good companions. We believe they are Night Hawks.
We had incredible sunsets, clouds, and a full moon. The weather again warm during the day, but not hot (for us Sacramentans anyway). In the hottest part of the afternoon, the breeze would kick up and bring much relief. The breeze would stay fairly significant until after sunset, when it would give way to perfectly calm and still nights. Could not have asked for better conditions.
Planning to leave the next day, Mike and I decided to leave our tents up in place, leave the kitchen basically intact, and leave as much water and tools as we could. It was pretty exciting to think we would just come back here and so much stuff we needed would already be here. I was exhausted from loading and driving and unloading and thinking and planning, but I was more excited to come back and keep things moving in a positive direction. This was so cool, and even better to be sharing it all with my brother. Great times.
Kristen’s first visit
Bob had let me know he could do a big work trip in mid-August so I invited all my friends and much family to come help us out. I was excited at the possibility of having a bunch of people up there tripping on the property and helping with the shitter and the kitchen deck. I was also anxious to get Kristen up there to see how she liked it. I also didn’t want the work party to be the first time she was up there, so I convinced her to come with me on just a hauling trip at the end of July.
We loaded up some bulky stuff in the Tundra and came up out of the heat and stank of the valley to some really sweet weather up top. Same ol’ story; warm in the sun during the day; sweet in the shade, awesome breeze during the heat of the day dying down at night. Spectacularly cool night temps leading to calm cool silent mornings. I was really falling for this place.
It was great coming back to the tent being set up and ready for fresh sheets and pillow cases. We didn’t eat much, just grazed on prepared stuff K brought. No fire for the warm temps and high winds/breeze, but slept very well. K and I set up the bone yard and set out the peeler cores, tree stakes, and T posts. This place was beginning to look habited, which was not necessarily a good thing, but we really were trying to minimize impact, or at least eliminate unnecessary impact.
Mike was not as impressed as I was with my fire ring addition, so I took it apart and tried to shape it into more of a smooth curve rather than a sharp bend. I enlarged it as well to make sure we could get 4 or 5 chairs inside the wall near the fire. We worked on the trails and put up some signs on the fence to make it more intimidating and serious. It was a short but very sweet visit. Seeing how much stuff we still had at home, I decided to hook up the trailer and bring it back home, knowing it would be needed to carry at least one more big load up the hill.
Not wanting to disappoint, just above Chico, we noticed that we had lost our trailer lights, and by that I mean the entire chunk of metal where the light had formerly been attached on the trailer had fallen off. Now that is what I call quality welding! I cannot imagine how dangerous it must have been tumbling down the highway at 60 MPH. WTF? I also saw the tires were essentially bald, my new/used tires perhaps getting some 600 miles of life. Warranty you ask? I think not. Without lights, tire tread, or registration, we made it home unmolested, un-arrested, undeterred.
Despite all the talk of cows, fencing, gates, cameras, signs, meth heads, rogues, hunters, red necks, Jeffersonians, and generally bad actors, we had yet to experience anything but great times and awesome vibes. We have to do what we need to do. We will have to do more when we actually leave valuables behind; when we have the trailer and the cabin and the tee-pee perhaps. But for now, all is copasetic. Although we only saw deer on the first trip in June and Antelope on the next, we haven’t seen any big animals since. We have seen a few squirrels and 2 snakes, and the place continues to produce each trip.
Now to gear up for the big work party and put all these materials in place. The road was a huge impact. I can hardly wait to see/feel how a couple of structures change the scene. And, to have a nice shitter to go to will be a game changer. As will the kitchen deck; a 12 x 16 area of flat, level surface to cook on, keep ice chests within easy access and in constant shade without moving them all the time, nice counter for prep, cabinets for storage, and the super cool glass doors from the corner store in Winters. The roof will help with shade; maybe some wind protection, rain/snow water collection, and certainly shelter from inclement weather when we get to that point. It will be fun to see how it continues to progress.
Find this SpotHart Hill Trips Photo Gallery
