




|
Dick's Adventures of
2022 - Part 1 |
|
Photos
Related Links
More
Travel Reports |
|
Adventures
of 2016 Adventures
of 2017 Adventures
of 2018 Adventures
of 2019
Adventures
of 2020 Adventures
of 2021 2022 Part 2
|
|
Lewis
Eaton Trail
Tesoro Viejo Preview
Two San Joaquin River Hikes
Back to Sumner Peck
Green Cabin Flat |
|
Lewis
Eaton Trail After
a long dry spell, the final days of 2021 brought rain in the Valley
and snow in the Sierra Nevada, a series of storms off and on over
the final two weeks of the year. This
greatly interfered with my morning walks, and from the start of
winter to New Year's Eve I managed only two very short walks around
the neighborhood. In 2022, with a short neighborhood walk and a
longer outing on the Clovis Trail System already in the books, I was
ready for a real hike on January 5. I chose a nearby location with
an easy, mostly level trail, but at least it was 2.14 miles in
length. My
destination was the Lewis
S. Eaton Trail, which runs parallel to the San Joaquin River
north of the Fresno-Clovis metro area. It goes from Woodward Park
east to the Hallowell
Center for River Studies, but you can access the trail at several points. My normal starting point is a parking lot at
Friant Road and Copper Avenue. The trail goes along the top of the
river bluffs for a short distance, then winds down to what I would call the highest flood
plain. There
is a series of ponds between the trail and the river, left from
gravel mining in the past. When I hiked with the Ramblers in
November, these ponds were almost all dry. Now they are filling
up, although the most scenic one, next to the river center, is still
empty. I
did not take many photos this time, but you can see plenty here
and here.
One thing I did photograph was a place where the rains had washed
out a lot of dirt from the bank. Over the years informal trails have
developed in the bank that rises above the trail. People ride their
bikes up and down them, and in some cases run up and down. Water
naturally washes down these places, and at least two of them had a
major washout this year.
|
|
 |
 |
A new
delta of soil at the base of the river bluff |
Extensive
wash-out half way up the bluff |
|
The
weather was fairly good - sunshine and haze. The usual view from the
trail of the snow-capped mountains was obscured, but I enjoyed views
of the bluffs across the river. When I reached the dry pond next to
the River Center, my back was bothering me, so I did not go all the
way around to the center, but sat on a bench and enjoyed being out
in nature before starting back.
--Dick
Estel, January 2022
More
photos |
|
Tesoro Viejo Preview
For
the next Ramblers hike, Wes and I have been discussing several
nearby, low-elevation locations. Tesoro Viejo is an upscale housing
development (prices from "as low as $300,000") that
has sprouted in former ranch land in Madera County, about six miles
north of the Fresno-Madera County line, on the east side of Highway
41. Part of the requirement for approval of the project was to
provide many miles of public hiking and biking trails. Wes has biked
extensively in the area, but was concerned about how some of the
Ramblers would handle a couple of steep spots. He suggested a test
walk for the two of us, probably assuming that if the oldest Rambler
could handle the trail, the rest could. |
|
 |
 |
As in the old bluegrass song, a mansion on the
hill |
Wes and Dick at the trail entrance |
|
Wes
picked me up at 1 p.m. on January 12 and we drove out Highway 41 to
the entrance of the development, and on some dirt roads to the
trailhead. It was a very pleasant day - we left our jackets in the
car and were comfortable in t-shirts. Although the highway and the
entrance roads are in the flat valley floor, the trails quickly take
you into a land of rolling hills, little green valleys, and unique
rock formations. |
|
 |
 |
The scenery reminded Wes of the green hills of
Ireland |
River rock fused in sediment left by receding
waters in ancient times |
|
The
hilly parts of the trail seemed quite gentle, and the one steep spot
offered good footing. I declared that our members could navigate
this route with no major problems. As we went farther east, we had a
panoramic view of the high Sierra, covered in welcome snow from the
big storms of December. To the southeast was the San Joaquin River
bottom, in the area between Friant Dam and Woodward Park.
In
addition to enjoying the green grass and scenic views, I was glad to
see that benches had been placed beside the trail in several
locations, providing much more comfort than the rock or fallen log I
usually have to rely on for my many rests. |
|
 |
 |
With the snowy Sierra beyond, the flat area in
the middle of the
picture is the mouth of Little Dry Creek just before it flows into
the river |
Dick enjoyed a rest on each of several benches
along the trail |
|
Near
the end of our hike, Wes saw a coyote in the field near us. We also
spotted several hawks in the trees in a small drainage, and ground
squirrels were active all around us.
We
saw only three other people on the trail. Two women had hiked up
from the river bottom and would be completing a loop that must have
been at least five miles. When we came out to the trailhead, we
talked with a cyclist whom we recruited to take our photo. He was
unfamiliar with the area, and had some questions that Wes was able
to answer. Like the ladies, he would also be covering quite a few
miles, down into the river bottom and across to Friant Road.
Our
own outing was somewhat less ambitious - we walked a little over a
mile and a quarter round trip, but we certainly had a great time and
got a nice dose of fresh air and sunshine.
--Dick
Estel, January 2022
More
Photos |
|
Two San Joaquin River Hikes
Sumner Peck
Ranch Finegold North |
|
On
January 19, In
our endless quest to find the perfect winter hiking spot, Wes and I
drove from my house out Willow Avenue to Friant Road, then a short
distance east to the Sumner
Peck Ranch. This and the adjacent Ball Ranch have recently
become part of the San Joaquin River
Conservancy, making hundreds of acres of river bottom land and
miles of trails accessible to the public.
At
the parking area is the building that served as a fruit and produce
stand, now used by a winery for tasting. The orchards remain and the
site is currently offering "pick it yourself" citrus for a
dollar a pound.
We
walked toward the river, then parallel to the waterway downstream.
Along the way are blueberry vines, currently dormant, and some other
fruit trees. By the river are the usual riparian trees and plants,
including a number of large valley oaks. A short distance into our
walk we came to a bridge, and crossed over. The trail here goes in
both directions, and we turned left, heading west or downstream
through the open flood plain, with occasional oaks and
sycamores. Just past the crossing was the biggest valley oak I
have ever seen. Information on these trees' longevity is conflicting
but this tree could easily be 500 years old.
|
|
|
|
The trail, next to a vineyard
|
The San Joaquin River
|
|
|
|
Ancient Valley Oak on the north side of the river
|
The tree's massive base
|
|
From
the trail on this side, we could look up and see the area we had
reached last week on the Tesoro Viejo
Trail. A steep path leads down
to the river bottom from the bluffs above, and we chatted with a
couple who had started up there and were doing a long walk with their
two dogs.
|
|
|
|
The nearest transmission tower is where we
ended our walk at Tesoro Viejo a week earlier
|
The trail and the river
|
|
We
soon turned back, re-crossed the bridge, and returned to the parking
lot. Out total hike was 1.75 miles. At the ranch headquarters we made
a quick visit to a prison-related museum, reflecting the name of the
winery, Solitary Cellars.
|
|
|
|
Dick contemplates plants that grow on the surface of the water
|
Dick and Wes on the bridge
|
|
A
few days later, on January 22, daughter Teri and I hiked at a
different stretch of the river, the part of it that is Millerton Lake.
Sky Harbor Road leaves Millerton Road next to the Table Mountain
Casino and goes along the hills above the lake to the Finegold
Picnic Grounds and the San Joaquin River trail head. This is steep
trail, so when I want a short, easy hike that is in the hills, I often
choose what I call Finegold North, which winds around a sort of
peninsula between the main lake and a little inlet, the opposite
direction from the main trail.
We
had watched the young grandsons play basketball in the morning, then
got Subway sandwiches which we ate at my house. It was after noon
before we left home, but we still had time to complete the hike and
get back to town long before dark. The weather was delightful, and
best of all, we saw a nice selection of foothill wildflowers, just
getting started.
The
most common flowers were California poppies, followed by those two old
standbys, fiddlenecks and popcorn flowers. There were smaller numbers,
sometimes only one blossom, of blue dicks, birdseye gillia, and
filaree. There is not a lot of brush on this trail, but one small
clump of chaparral was just starting to bloom.
|
|
|
|
The most common foothill flower, fiddlenecks
|
Another widespread species, popcorn flowers
|
|
|
|
A few poppies were scattered across the hillside
above the trail
|
This mushroom lifted some soil as it popped out of the
ground
|
|
Overall
these two low elevation hikes were just what the doctor ordered to get
us into the mood, and hopefully into shape, for a series of hikes in
what promises to be a flower-filled spring in central California.
--Dick
Estel January 2022
More
Photos
|
|
Back to Sumner Peck
First
a little background: When Wes and I visited this
location on
January 19, we were impressed with a huge valley oak by the trail,
where a bridge crosses the San Joaquin River. I speculated that it
could be 500 years old, but internet research was ambiguous. One
source said the maximum age of these trees was about 300 years, while another site
described a tree thought to have been standing 1,000 years.
Then
I realized I had in my possession a more reliable source of
information, Oaks
of California, a book I had purchased in Mariposa about
ten years ago (out of print now, it's listed on Amazon from $35 to
$350). It
describes growth pattern, habitat, appearance and other details for nearly two dozen
California oak species, and gives the maximum age for valley oaks as
about 500 years. My new favorite oak is growing on the rich alluvial
soil of the river bottom, so it could well be a fast-growing youngster
of only 300 years or so.
Back
home I thought more about the tree's impressive size, and decided I
needed to return and measure its circumference. Fortunately I have a
very long steel tape measure that belonged to my great grandfather. It
has a tab with two sharp prongs that can be used to hold it against a
board, or slipped into the deep fissures in the bark of an oak tree,
allowing the solo explorer to lock down the end, and walk around the
tree to obtain its measurement. The data will be revealed below.
A
tree of this stature must have a name, and I decree that it will
henceforth be known as the Wheeler Oak, in honor of a dear friend and
work colleague who passed away recently. A wise and delightful person,
she was a mere 90 years old, and was well known and loved by the
Ramblers (a name she came up with) as well as all who knew her. She was also a fan of these
reports, further proof of her intelligence. RIP Regina.
|
|
So:
On January 28 I had a very light breakfast, and drove the twelve and a
half miles to Sumner
Peck Ranch, part of the San Joaquin River
Conservancy. Except for a couple of short sections where the
trail goes up or down a few feet between various flood plain levels,
the trail is flat and mostly on dirt roads. I missed one turnoff, and
found myself cut off from where I needed to be by an endless chain
link fence, so I had to backtrack, helping to make my total hike an
ambitious 2.28 miles.
The
first part of the trail from the parking area goes through wine
grapes, and most of my unintended side trip was past blueberry vines
(both are dormant at this season). Beyond the blueberries is a grove
of citrus trees, where a number of people were taking advantage of the
"you pick" policy of the current ranch operator, Solitary
Cellars.
|
|
|
|
Entrance to Sumner Peck Ranch
|
Rocky soil under these wine grapes reminds us that
we are in the river bottom
|
|
|
|
Dormant blueberry bushes
|
Pickers in the "pick your own" citrus
orchard
|
|
Even
before I reached the bridge, I could see my target, the Wheeler Oak,
rising above the lesser vegetation on the north side of the river. I
took photos form a number of different angles, capturing as best I
could the tree's impressive size.
|
|
|
|
The Wheeler Oak
|
Many limbs are larger than the main trunks of
adjacent trees
|
|
Finally
I left the trail and waded through thick knee-high grass and under the
tree's spreading branches. Leaving my pack and camera on some big
fallen branches, I made my way to the tree's base, with just my tape
measure and one hiking pole. I had no trouble hooking the tab at the
end of the tape into the bark, and began my circumnavigation of the
giant valley oak. I was delighted, and not particularly surprised to
see the final figure: 24 feet, 3 inches, meaning the tree's diameter
is just short of eight feet. I confirmed this by the non-scientific
method of laying my hiking poles even with the edges of the base and
measuring the distance between them. I also made a "pure
guesswork" estimate that the venerable old giant is about 50 feet
tall. As you can see from the photos, the horizontal spread of the
branches is close to twice that amount.
|
|
|
|
A closer view of the lower half of the tree
|
Dick next to one his favorite trees
|
|
When
I finished taking photos and measurements, I looked around at other
trees that line the river. There was one valley oak that looked pretty
big, and I could not help but wonder if there were bigger giants
in the vicinity. I decided NOT to spend the rest of my day measuring
trees, and just enjoyed the view, including some large sycamores,
before returning to the parking lot.
|
|
|
|
Oaks and sycamores along the river
|
A medium size valley oak between trail and orchard
|
|
In
my Oaks book, there is information about a huge valley oak
that
stood near Chico in northern California. It measured nine feet in
diameter, but in May 1977 "its great aged branches were finally
overcome by wind and gravity." I'm going to go out on a (big
strong oak} limb and predict that the Wheeler Oak will stand for many
more decades.
--Dick
Estel, February 2022
More
Photos
|
|
Green Cabin Flat
For
various reasons, I have not not done much camping in the last couple of
years. My only New Year's resolution is to do more camping this year,
and I got an early start with a one-night outing January 31 and February
1. My destination was the Green
Cabin Flat Campground, which does not have a cabin of any color,
but does have a restroom. It's located about two and a half
miles up the dirt road that goes along the south side of the Kings River,
above Pine
Flat Reservoir. I have driven past the
place several dozen times, but never camped there before. I
left home at 9:45 a.m. and spent two and a half hours on the 60 mile
drive - partly because most if the trip is on a narrow, two-lane
winding road, and partly because I stopped to enjoy the scenery
several times. The temperature was in the low to mid-fifties, but got
up around 60. It was supposed to be cloudy all day with clearing the
next day, but in fact the clouds went away by 8 p.m. and I enjoyed a
bright starry night.
|
|
|
|
Entrance to the camp
|
It's not neat, but it's home
|
|
This
is not really a good place for hiking, since the choices are to walk
up the road or down the road. Even so, I wandered all around the very
large flat area beside the Kings River, observing the green
tree-covered hillsides on both sides of the river, and discovering
that there are a few very small bush lupine blossoms started. I also
saw a lot of poppies and fiddlenecks on the drive up. The river is
running pretty big, no doubt carrying some early snow melt after
record precipitation in December and the driest January on record.
|
|
|
|
A small grove of sycamores in the campground
|
Mostly blue oaks on the hills south of the
camp
|
|
|
|
The first bush lupine blossoms of 2022
|
Blue oaks and sycamores dot the hills on the north
side of the river
|
|
Although
the camp area is large, it has only three or four official campsites.
I wanted the one farthest east, but the fire ring was overflowing with
trash, so I took the next one, under a nice big valley oak and only
a few steps from the upper bank of the river bed.
|
|
|
|
A big valley oak spreads over my campsite
|
With an early snow melt, the river is running
fairly high
|
|
One
reason I went back to truck camping was so that I could go to those
more secluded spots that are not accessible with a motor home. On this
Monday and Tuesday, there was more than enough seclusion - I saw only
one vehicle the entire time, driving out on the other side of the
river.
I
had picked up two bundles of firewood at a grocery store the day
before, and I was ready for a fire by the time it got dark. I had
wisely stopped near the upper end of the lake where the road goes over a ridge and loaded up
a fair amount of dead manzanita. It was primarily for kindling, but
there were a few bigger pieces to supplement the less than ideal pine
wood from the store.
When
I transitioned back to pickup camping after mostly going with the
travel trailer or motor home for nearly 20 years, I slept in the back
of my pickup the first few times. I have to get up several times each
night, and it's a lot of trouble to get in and out of the truck, so I
got a sturdy folding cot and a thick mattress pad, and have been
sleeping outside on that. However, I have camped in the Upper
Kings a number of times, and there is almost always a heavy dew, so I
decided to sleep in the truck for this one-night adventure. It was
well that I did, since everything outside was wet by 2 a.m. The low
temperature was 25, so all those wet surfaces were covered in ice by
morning.
Even
after the sun came up, it did not shine on my camp, being low in the
southern sky. I took my chair and a TV tray out to the far end of the
camp, where it was sunny (but far from warm) and had my tea there. By
the time I was ready to eat, there was still no sunshine on my camp. I
did not want to carry cereal and toast from my camp out to that spot, probably 200 yards. I got everything ready at camp and
drove the truck out and enjoyed my breakfast in the sun.
Later
that morning I was standing at the edge of the river bank near camp
when a large bird flew out of the trees not far above my head and
disappeared in the distance. He was dark, with a white tail. I asked
myself, "Was that an eagle? Do eagles have white tails?" I
realized later that I have always focused on the white head of eagles
I've seen. Back home, I looked at several eagle photos and they all
had white tails, so I decided that I had indeed seen one of these
magnificent birds.
In
addition, ravens loudly announced their presence both days, and ground
squirrels were busy excavating larger burrows all around the flat.
An
Internet search brings up several pages with information about this
camp, but there is some misleading stuff out there. One site says
"This area is kind of secluded and requires travel time to visit giant sequoia trees."
In fact, one would need to drive back out all the way past the lake,
turn south on Piedra Road, drive to Highway 180, then travel about 50
miles to Kings Canyon National Park to see sequoias. It also says the camp is "located
at Dunlap." The district ranger station is indeed at that
location, but again, if you went to Dunlap, you would have to reverse
that long drive required of redwood seekers to get to this camp.
Fortunately,
I was not looking for redwoods, and I have visited the general area
many times in fall, winter and spring, so I knew what to expect and
what I could or could not do. Don't go in summer - the elevation is
only 1,000 feet, so temperatures can easily reach 100 and above.
I
did my usual leisurely load-up and got started for home late in the
morning. But as I drove out of the campground, I turned left and went
up the road a half mile to where the road turns south away from the
river. A gate here had been locked the last few years, but it is now
open. The road goes across to Highway 180, but a sign warns that
driving it is not recommended unless you have four-wheel drive.
I
accomplished my goals for this trip - to spend a night somewhere
besides my house without paying $150 for the privilege, and scouting
out the potential wildflower bloom.
--Dick
Estel, February 2022
More
Photos
|
|
|





|