San
Joaquin Gorge Hike
Regular
readers of these reports know that I am a big fan of the San
Joaquin Gorge, a Bureau of Land Management area formerly known as Squaw
Leap. I hiked there four times last spring, alone and with various
friends and relatives, and have now done two hikes this year (the
first one is discussed here).
On
March 24, I was joined by my friend Janell Sidney and her finance
Ken Brown. They came over around
9 a.m.
and we stopped to see my 3-month old great grandson on our way, then headed up
State Highway 168 through Prather and Auberry to the road that goes
down into the San Joaquin River canyon to the trailhead. It was a
fantastic day, sunny with temperatures in the 70s. We had decided to
take the upper trail, officially the San Joaquin River Trail, that
heads south from the parking lot, then turns west, running parallel
to the river.
The
trail that goes down to the river is also nice, but it is almost
100% downhill, meaning 100% uphill coming back. I prefer a walk
that includes a mix of up and down, and the San Joaquin trail fits
this description perfectly.
We went around a mile or so, a little farther than where Janell and
I went last
year, ending up on the hillside a little above the new power
house. After going through open, meadow-like terrain with some easy
ups and downs, the last part we hiked was carved into the upper
canyon side, with some steep drop-offs on the downhill side. Along
the way I carefully climbed up the slope about 50 feet to get a good
photo of some owl
clover.
When we
decided we had gone far enough, we walked out onto a small knoll
to rest and eat our snack, then started back.
We had passed a large water tank (bigger than the million-gallon
tank I'm familiar with in Mariposa), so we followed some cow trails
down a ridge and walked around it. At the edge of the flat area
where the tank sits we could see the power house and the river
beyond.
From
the tank we followed a dirt road which led out to the paved road
that goes from the trailhead parking lot to the power house, and
walked the last few hundred yards back to the car.
We saw quite a few wild flowers, especially compared to my earlier
hike, including a nice display of bush
lupines, some redbud, and
the usual annuals – fiddleneck, poppies, popcorn flowers, blue
dicks, owl clover and several others.
When we
first arrived, there was a group of college students in the lot,
asking people to complete a survey about the area, mostly relating
to signage. One question asked how many times we had visited the
area...with a little quick calculation, I figured I had been there
at least 25 times, starting probably in the late 1980s. Janell has
been there with me at least four times, but it was Ken's first
visit, and he was duly impressed with the beauty of the area.
San
Joaquin Gorge Photos
.A
Drive Up Big Creek The
weather was very nice as April got under way, and I realized I
should do some more hiking/camping in the foothills before it gets
too warm. Actually I had planned to revive our annual Frog
Camp with grandson Mikie, but he had a schedule conflict. Accordingly
I began thinking of places to go, including the possibility of a
solo Frog Camp. Then it came to me - Big Creek Road. Blue Canyon.
Concrete Flats! Minnesota Flats! (click
here for an explanation of these names). After
waiting out a windy Monday and a lazy Tuesday, I started out on the
morning of April 10, heading south from Clovis on Clovis Avenue,
then east on Belmont Avenue. This street eventually turns into
Trimmer Springs Road, which follows the north shore of Pine Flat
Lake. Just before the road climbs up over Secata
Ridge, I turned north on the Big Creek Road, which follows Big
Creek for a few miles, then climbs up into the pine belt, and
eventually joins State Highway 168 a few miles below Shaver
Lake. In
addition to the camping areas where we have stayed, there are a
number of good places to stop and look at stuff along this road. I
stopped at several of them, including a few that I had not visited
before. The first stop is a structure that is hard to describe, but that I call "water
works." There are several along the Big Creek Road and
along the paved Trimmer road just before the turn-off. They are all
located in creek drainages, and all have concrete basins or small
dams built into the drainage. When my grandson Johnny and I were
there in 2000, we saw bullfrogs in the reeds that have grown up in
the bottom of one of the basins. They also have steps leading up the
steep hill beside them, and various valves and what appear to be
water gates. I have been told that they were used to measure water
runoff before the construction of Pine Flat Dam. The most elaborate
one is the first one along the dirt road, just a few hundred yards
from the pavement. I stopped here and looked at the creek and the
flowers, but did not climb the steps this time. I had done so a
number of times in the past, and it looked as if the poison oak had
overgrown the trail to a considerable extent. There
are also a couple of places where concrete structures have been
built next to and partly across Big Creek itself, and I stopped at
both of them. During this part of the drive the road was lined on
both sides by a thick carpet of California
poppies and lupines, just
as if someone had landscaped the road. About
two miles up the road there is a large canyon coming in from the
west, and as I drove across the bridge, I noticed that there was
water in the small tributary creek. I had never stopped here before,
so I backed up to a good parking spot, and made my way down the road
bank to the creek. This proved to be a fortuitous decision. As
I walked up a narrow path along the creek, I saw and heard something
jump into the water from a sloping rock on the opposite side. I
immediately suspected it was a turtle, and then I saw him as he
quickly swam to the bottom, and burrowed under the mud. Shortly
after that a smaller turtle jumped in, and I was able to get a
fairly decent photo. Despite all the creek explorations I have done
in my adult life, I have not seen turtles in the wild since I was a
kid. Continuing
up the road I arrived at Concrete Flats, the place where we camped
on most of our trips to this area. On the right (east) side of the
road, next to the creek, there are several campfire rings, and a
small amount of open space. There are really no level areas here,
and the roadway into the area would not be suitable for RVs. On the
left, up a short driveway, there is a flat spot with some old
concrete foundations which inspired the name we gave to the location
when we first camped here. The road is very uneven, with huge ruts
from rain runoff, but I used to drive up there with my Datsun pickup
and we camped
there many times. I did not attempt the road with my Ford F150,
although when I walked up, I felt I could have made it OK. I never
considered taking my trailer or motor home up there; most of our
stays in this area were before I owned a trailer. This
was originally a very attractive spot, with a fire ring, and trees
and grass and flowers all around, but when we went there about ten
years ago it had been turned into a garbage dump, and it is no
better now. From the flat spot, I walked down the northern slope and
through an area where I have cut firewood in the past. I hauled wood
out in a Radio Flyer wagon to which I had attached makeshift
sideboards, but it is so overgrown now that it was hard just to walk
through. Poison oak is the major "crop" here. Although the
elevation is fairly low, there are ponderosa pines and cedars along
the creek, the seeds having been carried down by high water. My
next stop was just up the road about a quarter mile. At this point
the main road curves around to the east and crosses Big Creek.
Another road goes uphill in a northwesterly direction, and an old
driveway leads back to the south, parallel to and slightly above the
section of the main road between this junction and Concrete Flats.
Back this now impassible driveway is the site of the former Montgomery Brothers cabin, so I parked at the junction and walked
in. An
explanation: One time when we were camped at Concrete Flats, a man
came riding up on a quad, got off, and asked us to be sure to be
careful with fire, because he lived "right next door." I
started asking some questions and learned that he was Jim
Montgomery, who lived with his brother Loren in a cabin nearby,
where they had a mining claim. After I explained my own love for the
area, he mentioned that although "we live far from
civilization, we are sociable...come by and have a beer some
time." I
regret that I never took him up on his invitation, but I learned
some more about the Montgomery's when they were interviewed by the
late Woody Laughnan, who wrote about interesting places and people
for The Fresno Bee for a number of years. In preparation for this report, I tried
without success to find
that article on line. The
men have been gone from their claim for at least ten years, and the
forest service has removed their ramshackle cabin; the only thing
remaining at the small flat area where they lived is a concrete
foundation. However, I did take away one bit of knowledge from our
conversation long ago. I mentioned to Jim that a ranger had told me
that the foundations at Concrete Flats were from an old slaughterhouse. Jim
scoffed at this and said, no, there was a tungsten mine there. After
walking back out from what I will now call Montgomery Flats, I got
in the pickup and started on down the road, and immediately noticed
a ranger vehicle behind me with red lights and then siren going.
They said that they had stopped me because I drove out from a road
that is closed. I explained that I had merely parked at the junction
and walked in, so they did a complete license, registration and
insurance check, and sent me on my way. While one of the men was
running the information, I chatted with the other, who was not aware
of the Montgomery Brothers. I wisely decided not to ask them why
they didn't put up a sign or barricades at the closed road. I
have stopped and explored the area where the road crosses Big Creek
a number of times, so I didn't stop this time. I continued for a few
miles as the road
started to climb until I came to Minnesota Flats. This is an area
where I camped twice, and both times a very strong wind came up and
blew all night. It rocked the Datsun and made the flames of the fire
almost parallel to the ground. It is mainly a big
meadow, with
rising land on three sides, and a gradual drop-off down toward the
creek valley. I think the terrain creates a funnel effect,
causing the normal nighttime downhill flow of air to speed up
greatly. I
walked down the meadow to the place where we had camped to see if
there was any trace of where we built a campfire, but nature has
reclaimed the area completely. After taking a few pictures here, I
started for home, but decided to take a different route. At Trimmer
Springs by the lake I turned north on Maxon Road, a narrow paved
lane with no center line. I met only two vehicles along this road.
The first stretch climbed steeply and runs up and down through green
fields and oak
woodlands, then climbs another ridge through brushy,
rocky hills. Eventually
Maxon comes to a junction - if you turn right, it goes to the
village of Tollhouse,
and eventually joins Highway 168 a few miles below Shaver Lake.
However, I turned left on the Watts
Valley Road, which goes down through the last of the foothills,
eventually reaching the nearly treeless but bright green ranch land
at the edge of the San Joaquin Valley. After a few miles this road
turns sharply west and becomes Ashlan Avenue, a main street that
runs all the way through Fresno. In
addition to the turtles, I saw
ducks, doves, fish, gray squirrels, ground squirrels, buzzards, and quail; and
the rangers said they had seen a snake on their patrol through the
area. By the
way, this Big Creek should not be confused with the Big Creek in the
San Joaquin drainage that is both a town
and a creek. There are many creeks with that name. Both of these are
in Fresno County, as are Big Dry Creek and Big Sandy Creek. --Dick
Estel, April 2013 |