2023 Rambler Hikes Page 2

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Sycamore Wildlife Area          Ahwahnee Hills          Lewis Creek

Sycamore Wildlife Area

After two attempts (one with the Ramblers and one without), we finally got to hike at the Sycamore Wildlife Area by Pine Flat Reservoir on April 17. This location consists of three former campgrounds which have been closed for decades. The reason was reportedly hantavirus found in rodents there, but that is obviously long gone, since hiking in the properties is encouraged. So I ask, every time I go there, why not re-open the campgrounds?

Our party consisted of Wes Thiessen, Ardyss Webster, Bruce and Susan Vasquez, and me (Dick Estel). It was a first time experience for Bruce and Susan, and a much anticipated return to a favorite spot for the rest of us.

The old camp roads are still there, complete with parking spurs, making for pleasant and easy walking. The pavement is mostly intact, with cracks everywhere and some of it crumbling away at the edges. The paving is nearly gone in much of the third location. There are always flowers, many of them growing up through the cracks in the asphalt, and this year was no exception.

We usually walk through two of the facilities, and this time we started with the first one. Despite copious rain, the wildflowers are a little bit fewer in number than we had hoped. But the variety is as good as ever. Flowers that bloom early are still in evidence, and we saw a few species that had not yet appeared during our earlier outings. The new grass throughout the foothills was as bright green as ever, and a little creek that had not flowed during the last few years had become a classic "babbling brook."

About half way around the campground loop, we spotted a very large bull standing about 15 feet from the road, virtually motionless. Everyone else turned back, even though the two men were once country boys. Having hiked, camped and lived around range cattle all my life, I continued on, giving the beast a wary glance now and then. From experience, I know that cattle will usually do one of three things: Ignore you completely, watch you as you pass by, or drift away (and sometimes run) as you get close.

When I started to pass Mr. Bull, he briefly turned his head to the left a few inches, then as I walked by, he turned to the right. Otherwise he remained still. Both of us understood the old rule, "Don't bother me and I won't bother you." When we finished our hike and drove up the road, we saw that he had laid down where he had been standing. We hiked some more and had lunch, and he was still in the same spot when we drove past on the way home at least two hours later.

We did not keep a count of the flower species we saw, but they included filaree, fiddleneck, popcorn flowers, bird's eye gilia, yellow-throated gilia, dove lupine, tall ground lupines, buck brush, blue dicks, and fiesta flowers.

Along Trimmer Springs Road, the bush lupines were still having a banner year, and we also observed foothill gilia, Chinese houses, farewell-to-spring, elderberry, and an unidentified flowering tree.

When we finished our walk around the first campground, we drove the short distance to number three. This was officially a picnic ground only, but I camped there back in the day without any problems. This is also the location where there is an eagle's nest, and where we have seen bald eagles several times.

We started our walk in silence, to avoid disturbing the birds, although we acknowledged that they surely knew we were there as soon as we opened the car doors. It's probably about 300 to 400 yards to where we could see the nest tree, and the eagle was perched on a branch above the nest. He (or she) put up with us observing for 30 to 40 seconds, then flew off, and was not seen again.

Looking at a close-up photo of the nest, we could see that there was grass growing in it. Heavy rain, organic material, and wind-blown seeds often result in plants growing in unexpected places. We could only wonder if this situation had made the nest unusable. There were certainly no visible birds in the nest.

This facility is situated on a ridge that is actually the divide between Sycamore Creek and the main channel of the Kings River and lake. Where the camp road loops back around a hill, the ridge narrows, and there is an overgrown path out to the end, where the land drops off steeply down to the lake. We walked this trail, enjoying views of the lake on both sides of us, and taking note of the various flowers along the way.

As we have done on most of our visits to this place, we drove up the road a few more miles to where Big Creek runs into the lake. We usually go a few hundred yards up the dirt road that parallels the creek to a nice flat spot where we can set up our chairs. Not surprisingly, this road was closed and we could see a slide that covered half the road just a few feet from the paved route.

We drove across the bridge and parked by the road. Just below the road was a nice flat spot with views of the creek and everything else around, and we carefully walked down the rough track and established our lunch site there.

This spot is about 30 or 40 feet above the creek, with a trail leading down, so Wes and Bruce made their way down to where they had a nice look at the bridge and the creek above it.

On the way home we made a stop where the road descends from the level of the lake's high water line to the river level below the dam. Along part of this route, where the descent starts, we are looking down into the valley of Hughes Creek and it's along this section that we usually see one of the more interesting spring wildflowers, Chinese houses.

We were not disappointed, getting some good photos of a large stand of this intricate flower, growing as they often do on the road bank. We also found some variety of clover and the common madea, which lives up to its name by appearing in large numbers in a number of places along Trimmer Springs Road.

One final special event awaited us - during our drive home, we saw young bobcat run across the road and down the bank. This is at least the second, and maybe the third bobcat we've seen during Rambler hikes.

Although our group was small, our enjoyment of the magnificence of the Sierra foothills was immense, and we all hoped we could make another visit to this area before the summer heat sets in, the grass turns brown, and the flowers go to seed.

--Dick Estel, April 2023

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With spring weather drawing to a close, the Ramblers went once again to the Ahwahnee Hills Regional Park, a little above the 2,000 foot elevation level. It's a little higher than our usual spring hike locations, and the wildflowers bloom a little later. Our timing was close to perfect, with fluffy clouds in the sky and just enough breeze to make a light jacket comfortable.

It was the fourth visit for the Ramblers, although I have hiked there several other times with family. The Ramblers' last visit was in March of 2022, and the difference caused by this year's heavy rains was stark - the pond had been nearly dry that time, and the grass was drying out. In 2023, everything was brilliant green, the pond was full to the brim, and the little creek had a good, strong flow. Below one of the bridges the sand glittered with specs of mica, sometimes called Fool's Gold.

We were a small but select group. Sue Wirt and I drove up from the valley, while Susan and Andy Crandall of Mariposa met us at the park. They join us whenever our destination is in their general direction, and they have hiked with us on three of our four hikes at Ahwahnee.

The wildflowers were not particularly thick, but there were some nice patches of what we believe were monkey flower, and some popcorn flowers, lupines, and even a few poppies. One interesting discovery was a few bachelor buttons. We suspect they had been planted when the area was a TB sanitarium, and had gone wild.

The most common "plants" were the beautiful valley oaks which dominate the eastern side of the park and tower above the thick green grass near the creek.

After our hike, we finished the day enjoying lunch at the Hitchin' Post, a nice restaurant about a quarter of a mile from the park entrance. I believe it's not only Ahwahnee's best, but Ahwahnee's only dining location.

Although it was nice and cool that day, the forecast and the normal progression of spring to summer tells us we need to start looking for higher elevations for our next hike.

--Dick Estel, May 2023

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When hiking, even if you can't go where you planned, you can still go somewhere. This was the fate of the Ramblers on May 24 with our planned outing on the Lewis Creek Trail. This trail goes from Cedar Valley, about a mile from Highway 41 above Oakhurst, to Sugar Pine, about a mile from Highway 41 farther up the road. However, most people go in at a trailhead right off the highway about seven miles past Oakhurst. A few hundred yards down the trail you can take the right fork, which goes down to a viewing platform below Corlieu Falls and beyond to Cedar Valley, or left to a bridge across Lewis Creek, then upstream along the creek to Red Rock Falls and Sugar Pine.

OK, now convert everything I just said to past tense, and you will know about our hike. We were a lucky group of seven - Jackie, Don, Wes, Bruce, Susan, Dick and Ardyss. We planned to hike upstream, but the bridge had washed out and the creek is much too strong for sensible people to try to cross on a log or rocks. (Read about the strange history of this bridge here, here and here.)

No problem, we'll just go downstream and see the magnificent display of Corlieu Falls. This part of the trail becomes very steep, but we were sort of undaunted - until we arrived at a place where there was a washout in the trail ten feet across and shoulder deep. Wes, Bruce and Susan decided to brave the gap, either climbing down into it, or going above it, both options too difficult for Jackie, Ardyss and me. Don does not actually hike, but went on the first part of our exploration to the missing bridge, then relaxed at the parking lot. 

When they made their way down to the falls, our intrepid explorers discovered that falling trees had destroyed the viewing platform. They got some nice photos anyway, and went down to where the trail levels out. They also found that the trail was in even worse condition near the bottom.

Meanwhile Jackie, Ardyss and I made our way slowly back up, stopping to photograph some of the nice mountain wildflowers that decorated the trail. The record rain this winter has been good for the flowers and grass, but soil has washed out around rocks in the trail, making it difficult most of the way and dangerous in a few spot.

Despite the problems, we enjoyed the day. The weather was comfortable, we enjoyed the advantages of forest bathing, and finished the day with a great Mexican lunch at El Cid in Oakhurst. Join us in person or virtually for our next hike, which we promise will be on much flatter ground.

--Dick Estel, May 2023

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