Last week we hiked up Onion Creek, a remote creek in Placer county that often has interesting wildlife and flowers along it's very high canyon banks. This year it was very dry, few flowers and we saw no wildlife. This creek hike is of a double interest to me. Many years ago I was skiing with a friend at Sugar Bowl ski area, just over the mountain from Onion creek, during a very large snow storm. I last saw my friend get off the ski lift and ski east into the blinding blizzard. He never returned to the bottom of the lift. We searched for a week during the storm and again the next summer. He was never found. I think he may have skied down into Onion creek and become lost. I hike this creek each summer in hopes I would find a ski, a ski boot or some sign of my friend.