Folsom Lake, November 2025

Rattlesnake Bar sits far up the North Fork of Folsom Lake, near Newcastle. I’ve been there many times over the past 30 years with the Big Guy. We would usually park near the boat ramp and walk the trail to Avery’s Pond and Mormon Ravine; but we also explored the southern shores of the park, around the former site of the Rattlesnake Bar Bridge. That’s where I spent a couple of hours early in November. It was good to get outdoors to this scenic area but also painful, recalling the familiar sight of the Big Guy walking the shoreline, fishing off the points, while I wandered farther up the hillsides, closer to the trees.