A Step Back in Time

Gene's told me this story a few times. When he was a young teenager, his family delivered him to Berry Creek and Lake Madrone for a summer of fun. He fished, swam in the lake and enjoyed the cool pines. One morning, standing on the back porch of the local grocery, he watched a man drop salmon eggs into the water one by one. Each time a big fish swallowed the salmon egg, but when the man dropped his hook with a salmon egg, the fish ignored it. The man finally dropped the about five eggs and the hook with an egg at the same time. Bam! The fish took the bait and the man reeled in breakfast. When he cut open the fish to clean it, he found the sacrified fish eggs and put them back in his bait bottle.

Gene's always wanted to return to Madrone Lake, and 64 years later, he made it. We drove past Lake Oroville, a large reservoir which didn't exist back in the 40's. Lake Madrone was still there and so was the grocery store. Lily pads and flowers hug the shore near the road and the water cascades gently over a spillway into Berry Creek. Gene was thrilled! A summer of beautiful memories came flooding back.


Gene in front of what was once a grocery store at Lake Madrone. It's now a private residence and is "for sale".


The old grocery story still sits on the lake. Gene caught a fish from the very same porch over 64 years ago!


Snow capped peaks of the Sierras surround beautiful little lakes and pine forests.


We drove to Mill Point near the fire lookout tower for a view of the valley below.