January
Campout
Once again
my schedule had several consecutive free days, meaning it was time
for the first camping trip of 2014. Normally winter camping is
foothill camping, and indeed my destination was in that area. But
with the very dry winter we've been having, I briefly considered
heading for higher elevations. The latest hydrological survey put
the Sierra snow pack at less than 15% of normal, with little if any
precipitation in sight.
Besides the
dim outlook for water deliveries for agricultural needs in the
coming year, this also means that foothill areas that are normally
covered with new green grass and a few wildflowers at this time of
year are mostly brown. Even so, the California hills have some kind
of scenic interest at any season and in all kinds of conditions, and
I enjoy walking through sections of open oak woodland, with widely
spaced blue oaks, or along canyons and ravines thick with live oak
and shrubs.
I got
started from home a little after 10 a.m. on January 28 and headed
east on Auberry Road, through the town of Auberry, then a brief
section of Power House Road, and down Smalley Road to the San
Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area. This
Bureau of Land Management (BLM) property was previously known as
Squaw Leap, and I have been going there since the late 1970s for
hiking and backpacking, but this was the first time I had taken my
RV there. The last few miles are quite steep and winding, and the
34-mile drive took close to an hour.
The camp
area is not really RV-friendly, especially the main campground next
to the trailhead parking lot. Last year I had talked to one of the
rangers about camping in the group camp area where there is more
room, and was told it would
be OK as long as it was not in use.
Even this
area is not ideal, since the paved parking lot has quite a slope,
but I managed to get the vehicle sort of level, and decided to get
in my major hike before even getting out my lawn chair. I've gone
down the trail to the river many times, and walked back up a paved road
which goes in to the power
house, and which provides access to the
main trail route by a short connecting trail, one that did not exist
during the first 20 years or so that I went there. I decided to walk
down via the road, which is very
steep, and seemed worse than the trail for walking down, since the
trail zig zags down the side of the river canyon. Although the trail
is all
downhill (or uphill), there are very few really steep sections.
The trail
crosses the river on a footbridge that was built in the 1970s,
shortly before I made my first hike down there. It's a fairly
amazing bit of engineering, and a look at the bridge and the steep
gorge below inspires admiration for the people who built it.
I had eaten
a smaller than usual breakfast, so just past the bridge I found a
fairly comfortable rock, and sat for a while, eating an apple and
drinking water. While
there I observed that the river is lower than I've ever seen it, and
recalled the raging torrent that it presented the first time I
crossed the bridge. I've never seen the water as high as it was that
year, but part of the reason is that water is diverted to a newer
power house that was built downstream during the 1980s.
A short
distance past the bridge the trail forks. The
Wuh-Ki'O, or River
Trail goes west, and after a mile or so, forks again, one fork going
down toward the river and to the upper end of Millerton Lake, while
the other continues up the ridge to the north, connecting with the
Ridge Trail, now identified as Pa'San
Ridge (pine tree). All the location and trail signs in the area are in the language of the Dumna or Ketchayi
bands of the Yokuts tribe. I hiked the ridge trail in 1980, but have
not been on it since, although I've gone the other direction many
times, so I took the right fork toward the ridge.
Even before
the fork I came across a crew doing trail maintenance, and met
several of them at various points along the trail. They are in the
Americorps program, and will be working at the San Joaquin Gorge for
about a month. They were installing some new water bars and steps,
using 4X4 beams six feet long. In talking with them, and later by
observation, I realized that they were carrying these timbers in by
hand from the road just above the power house, down a very steep
section of trail, and then up the north side to wherever they were
needed.
The trail is
very pleasant to walk on, going through an area that is more like a
woods than the open terrain of the other trail. Although it
eventually goes up quite a ways above the river, the part I walked
had plenty of up and down, with nothing very steep. Although it's
mostly very dry, I did pass a spring where water runs down into a
muddy watering hole that the cows have obviously been taking
advantage of. I also found quite a bit of green grass, always in small,
shaded
patches. The new grass is very short, almost hidden
by the old dry grass, and will need a few good rainstorms to get it
growing normally. (As it turned out, we had a series of significant
storms starting the next day and continuing into the first week of
February.)
I knew when
I started I was not going to hike the entire ridge trail, so I
probably walked about a mile past the bridge before turning back.
The walk back to the bridge was fine, but the hike up from the river
to the trailhead was a little rough for me. I think the problem was
going down that very steep road, which in retrospect was hard on the
legs and more work
than walking down the more gradual trail. By the time I got back to
the motor home I was done with physical activity for the day, except
for short walks around the immediate area.
After
resting a while I heated up the leftover pizza I had brought and had
my dinner or supper or whatever you call it at 3:30 in the
afternoon. I walked around the immediate area, where there are
several unofficial trails, including one that goes from the group
camp area to the river trail, bypassing the main campground. This is
a well worn trail, which I suspect is kept maintained by people
riding horses on it from the equestrian camp.
For the rest of the day,
as long as it was light, I sat outside reading. At 5:30 it was too
dark to read, but I walked around some more till it got almost
completely dark, and got a couple of good sunset
photos. By 6 p.m.
it was dark enough to see Orion and many other stars clearly.
Once I went
inside for the night I read some more,
watched TV, had a chocolate ice cream soda for my
final snack of the day, and got to bed around the usual time, about
10:30.
The next
morning I was ready to hike again. At home I always take my walk
before eating, so as soon as I got up and dressed, I took my camera and some water, and walked to the
equestrian camp a few hundred feet a way. Here I had noticed a sign
reading "Nature
Trail," and after going through a
gate, I
found myself on a very nice trail that winds up and across a ravine
and back down. Along the way are a number of signs explaining the
trees and shrubs that are common in the area. I thought this set of
signs were better designed than those at most such trails, so I took
photos of every sign and most of the plants described. For those who
are interested I have created a separate San
Joaquin Gorge photo
album page.
Along the
trail I got the answer to one question that had plagued me for at
least five minutes the day before. On the bulletin board list of
rules, it said not to remain more than 30 minutes within a certain
distance of a wildlife guzzler. This struck fear into me, because if
I didn't know what one was, how could I be certain I would not
violate this rule? However, a trail sign explained that it is a
device to catch and store rainwater for the convenience of animals,
and one was on display about 10 feet off the trail. Even
with the very
dry stretch we've had the last few months, it had a little water in
it.
Another
question arose as I walked the trail. Not far from the beginning is
a structure built into the bank of the ravine that looks just like
the opening of a mine shaft, but much smaller. I asked about it at
the visitor center, and they do not know what it was for. The shaft
goes in about 15 feet, and is not big enough for a young child to
stand up in. Speculation is that it might have been for storage,
although there is no evidence of a house having been located in the
area.
The trail
has multiple loops, so it's not just a matter of going around and
you're done. To see everything, I had to repeat a small section of
the trail to get to sections that were not part of the main loop.
This was no big deal, and allowed me to notice a few things I had
missed the first time.
When I had
finished exploring the nature trail, it was back to the motor home
for breakfast, and then a bike ride to the visitor center. I had
been to this area before, but never when it was open. It turned out
to be well worth the time. There are some very nice displays about the area, including a number of items and old photos relating to
the Native Americans who were the first to use this area.
There is
also a topographical map connected to an excellent video display.
Pointing at various dots on the map and clicking brings up a
panoramic photo of that area on a large flat screen, which also has
other interactive features.
On one wall
is a mural size photo of the area taken from the top of Squaw Leap,
the table-top mountain on the south side of the camp area which gave
the location its original name. It's easy to pick out the buildings,
camp area and trail junctions, as well as get a good look at other
features in the several thousand acres of this property.
When I
entered I was greeted by Brenda, who is in charge of program
planning for the area. She is part Indian, grew up in the area, and
is very knowledgeable about the region, the native people, and all
aspects of the Gorge. Some of the activities include a monthly
wildflower walk, a basket weaving class, and talks by
representatives of the Mono Museum in North Fork. We chatted for at
least a half hour, and I look forward to a return visit.
On my way
back to the motor home I stopped at a native village that has been
set up, although it consists only of a few cedar bark
lodges. Back
at camp, I rested a while, then set out to do a short walk on the
San Joaquin Trail, which runs parallel to the river high on the
south side, and goes all the way to Sky Harbor, about 12 miles. It
turned out I was more tired from the previous day's efforts that I
realized, and the walk ended up being even shorter than I had hoped.
However, I have walked some distance on this trail two or three
times, and will do so again.
Back at the
motor home again, I got everything ready to go and was on the road
about 3 p.m., arriving home within an hour. Usually I take the motor
home back to storage as soon as I unload, but by this time I was
ready to have dinner and rest, so I postponed that task till the
next day.
Background and History
While I have your attention, or even
if don't, I'd like to offer some general information about the
history and background of the San
Joaquin River Gorge Special Recreation Management Area or
SJRGSRMA as I will NOT refer to it. Some of this information has
been included in previous travel reports, but I will attempt to
consolidate and expand that information here.
I first
heard of this area, then known as Squaw Leap, in the late 1970s, when
I read an article in The Fresno Bee about the construction of a new
bridge across the river. I have not been able to find anything about
the bridge construction on the Internet, but I did see a reference
to an earlier bridge, which was washed out by a flood during the
1950s.
A short time
after reading the article, I made my first visit to the area, and hiked down to the
river, but didn't go beyond the bridge. At that time, the water was
very high, fast-moving and dangerous, but of course I didn't
scramble down the steep bank to get close to it.
The most
dramatic part of the topography of the area is a series of table top
mountains that parallel the river, some on the south side, but
mostly on the north. These are topped with basalt
cliffs, which are about 80 feet high, and mark the channel of
the river thousands of years ago, when lava flowed down the canyon.
Eventually the softer rock and soil on both sides of the basalt was
worn away, the river shifted, and the table tops remained.
In the Recreation Area, Squaw
Leap towers above the campground on the south, while Kennedy
Table, one of the longest continuous sections of this land feature,
rises to the 2,300 foot level, 1,500 feet above the river, and about
1,100 feet higher than the campground. I've been to the
top of Kennedy Table several times, but it's a cross-country
trip, with some scrambling through brush required, so I don't think
I will be doing that trip again.
When
I made that first visit, Smalley Road,
leading into the area from Power House Road just north of Auberry,
was very steep, narrow and winding, and I don't think it had a
center lane. There was a restroom and a few picnic tables at the
trailhead, as well as some shooting benches, since the area was used
by a muzzle-loader club for target practice. This is no longer
allowed, although hunting of legal game in season is permitted away
from the campground and visitor center areas. There were no other
facilities as far as I know.
I made at
least one other trip into the area that spring, with Teri and
Jennifer, my teenage daughters, and Tim, a friend of theirs who
later became Teri's husband. Some time after that Tim and I hiked in with
backpacks and spent the night. This was the first time I went past
the bridge, and the only time until this recent trip that I went up
the ridge trail. This was in 1980, a year or two after my first
visit, and by this time work was underway on a new power house about
a half mile down the river from the bridge. To accommodate big
trucks, the road had been realigned, making it wider, less steep,
and with fewer curves (however, no one driving this road today would
consider it a fast, easy road).
Backpacking
is not a common activity at the Gorge; I have met only one other
party backpacking in all my trips to the location But it was a great
place for me - low elevation for winter and spring camping, and a short,
relatively easy walk.
The old
power house, just upstream from the bridge, was opened in the 1920s,
and draws water from Kerckhoff Lake about three miles upstream. It's
not clear to me if the old power house is still in use, but the
opening of the new one resulted in water being diverted through a
tunnel that starts above the bridge, so the water flow there has
never matched what I saw on my first visit. With several years of
below average rainfall, it was the lowest I'd ever seen it in
January, 2014.
Development
of the area for public use got underway in the 1960s, when there
were plans for the land to be sold for residential use. The Fresno
County Sportsmen Club and the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) came
up with a proposal for the area to be administered by the BLM as a
wildlife preserve. Efforts were spearheaded by Ted Anderson, who had
been involved in wildlife management and sporting activities in the
area for some time, and the original request was to name it the Ted Anderson Recreation
Area. It was the policy of the DFG not to identify areas with the names
of living people, so it was called the Squaw Leap Wildlife Management
Area, after the name of the table top mountain on the southern (Fresno
County) side of the property.
The 1966
Wildlife Management Plan is very informative about some of the
early planning efforts, and a
few quotes will summarize the key points:
Local interest for the project is very strong, and is centered
around the Fresno County Sportsmen Club. The Madera Sportsmen Club has also expressed an interest in the development of the area.
These clubs, especially the Fresno Club, have indicated they are willing to back the project with money and manpower. The California Department of Fish and Game is
also interested in the project and are willing to cooperate in any way necessary to develop the area.
The elevations within the management area vary from 800 to 2,300
feet. The topography consists of both gently rolling hills and rugged, almost inaccessible terrain.
Several projects are planned for development. The two key projects in the development are: 1)
road location to bypass the Pacific Gas and Electric facilities and 2) the bridge to span the San Joaquin River to provide access to
the north side of the area. In connection with these projects, a trail network is planned to provide a riding and hiking trail to
connect with the proposed trail network to be developed in the State
Park (Millerton). The trail system will also provide for normal public
use for sightseeing and nature study.
As can be
seen from my various reports, much of this came to fruition,
although the original plans have been modified
or evolved over the years Hunting is no longer the focus,
although still permitted within DFG regulations.
Squaw Leap,
the table top mountain that overlooks the gorge, gave us the legend
that led to the name. Briefly summarized, an Indian woman was
distraught over the death of her mate, and leapt into the river
below, where she turned into a fish. Researching this, I found
several stories related to the area, but they seem to be even more
fanciful than the story I described, as well as having been written
by non-Indians.
Getting back
to the early '80s, even the opening of the new bridge did not bring
a huge influx of visitors. It was not unusual to go there on a
weekend and see only one or two other cars in the parking lot. But
there was lots of activity due to the construction project. We
camped overnight once at the trailhead, and were awakened at 6 a.m.
by an endless stream of pickups bumping over the cattle guard on
Smalley Road, as workers arrived at the construction site.
Just east of
the trailhead was the project headquarters, with a number of
temporary buildings and mobile homes, plus storage of construction
materials. When we camped at our favorite spot across the river,
security lights from the headquarters a mile across the river shone on our
campsite.
While the
noise and light of the construction project were sometimes a minor
annoyance, the end results were beneficial. No doubt as a condition
of licensing, PG&E removed all construction buildings and helped
build the group camp and equestrian camp in the area they had
occupied. The lights and the construction traffic are long gone, but recreational
visits have increased, so that the parking lot is usually full on
weekends. Even on my mid-week visit there were three or four cars at
the lot most of the day, although no one else spent the night.
The planning
document mentioned a large variety of wildlife in the area, and over
the years I've seen a number of species. Quail, doves, hawks,
vultures, and and many
smaller birds are found year-round, and wild turkeys were introduced
there about 25 years ago. I've only seen one, but Brenda, program
planner for the
visitor center, had seen a flock right outside the window recently.
We've also spotted deer and heard coyotes, and a hunter who hikes
off-trail told Brenda that there is a place beyond a ridge in the
northeast section where there a number of bears. There is a pond on
the upper part of the Madera side where my grandson and I heard
hundreds of frogs, and we've also spotted them in the little creeks
that flow through the land. We saw salamanders in these creeks years
ago, but none have shown themselves in recent times.
Fire of 1982
It will
probably not be surprising to read that a dry foothill area has been
affected by wildfire. A search on-line turns up information on fires
in 1989, 2000 and 2007, but all of these were on National Forest
Land north and east of the Gorge. I couldn't find anything on the
1982 fire that is burned into my memory, so this may become the
reference source. It's accurate to the best of my knowledge, based
on personal observation and discussion with a friend who was a
firefighter on the blaze.
In the
summer of 1982, I was coming down Highway 168 from a camping trip
somewhere above Shaver Lake when I saw smoke to the north. I did not
know the exact location, but I could see that it was close to
Auberry, and eventually I learned the details.
Some people
were picnicking on the north side at the upper end of Millerton Lake,
downstream from Squaw
Leap. After cooking lunch in a small hibachi, they set it down in
the dry grass away from their picnic table. For some strange reason,
the dry grass caught fire. The ultimate result was a major wildfire,
which burned significant acreage on both sides of the river, mainly
in the BLM area.
Firefighters
brought in a bulldozer and other equipment over the rough dirt roads
that enter the BLM land from the north, pretty much destroying the
half mile of trail between where it joins the road and the junction
of the Ridge and River Trails. The fire went through the area on the
Madera
County side where we usually camped, burning part of a makeshift
bench we had built from branches and cut-off fence post ends in
1981. It then jumped the river and went up the Fresno County side,
burning uphill through drainages as far as the road in some places,
and through the parking area, where it destroyed the shooting
benches, picnic tables, and a number of fence posts, and no doubt
threatened the project headquarters.
For the most
part a grass fire like this burns fast and low, and does not
permanently harm the vast majority of trees. In the long run, the
fire was beneficial. Natural fires have burned throughout the
foothills and higher elevation forests for tens of thousands of
years. The 100 or so years of suppressing all fires had the unwanted
side effect of increasing dead brush and other fuel, leading to more
damaging fires. The Squaw Leap fire burned all the dead brush and
fallen logs, as well as the thick layer of old dead grass that
accumulates year by year. Some big patches of chaparral were burned
to the ground. Although it did a good thing in removing a lot of the
fuel that contributed to its rapid movement, the fire did kill a
number of trees,
some of which fell over and became fuel for the next fire (which
hasn't yet happened).
Visiting the
Gorge over the next few years was a lesson in how an area changes
and recovers after a big fire. The first and one of the most
dramatic effects could be observed the following spring. The fire
had burned off not just the standing dry grass, but the layer of
dead grass that accumulates on the ground over the years, offering
better access to the soil. It did not burn the seeds lying on the
ground, and I think virtually every one of them sprouted. With
plenty of sunshine warming the earth, and a good rain year, the wild
grasses were close to six feet tall. Trees that
had suffered extensive fire damage died, but those with minimal burn
scarring continued to thrive.
Hikers could
still make their way through the area of the trail that was
destroyed, and eventually it was rebuilt on a slightly different
alignment, which allowed a more gradual climb up from the trail
junction to the first ridge.
Within three
or four years the chaparral was two or three feet high, and within
ten years it was hard to find evidence of the fire, as new
brush and dead logs took the place of those that had burned.
Not
necessarily related to the fire, the campground was improved, with
new picnic tables and fire rings, the group camp and equestrian
areas were developed, and a visitor center was established in a
house that had previously been used by a PG&E power plant
employee and his family. Brenda thought that it had opened about 15
years ago, but I didn't become aware of it till just recently.
Although there is a sign by the main road, it also points to the
group and equestrian camps, areas that most people don't use,
possibly limiting the numbers who go to the center. It would be nice
if they could put a larger sign with directions to the Visitor
Center on the bulletin board at the trailhead.
There have
been some more recent changes. The somewhat open wood
railings on the bridge have been replaced by more secure metal
ones, and the railing now extends past both ends of the bridge
on both sides of the trail, offering greater protection from the
steep drop-offs there. All of the signs in the area have been
replaced within the last year or two. Perhaps less delightful, but
beneficial in its way, a day use and camping fee have been imposed,
with self-pay stations at all the parking areas. And not only is
there ongoing trail maintenance, a number of new trails have been
built, most notably the San
Joaquin River Trail, which runs parallel to the river on the
south side and now connects to a trail that starts at the Sky Harbor
area of Millerton Lake. Eventually this
trail is intended to allow hikers and riders to travel from
Highway 99 to Devil's
Postpile National Monument on the eastern side of the Sierra,
following the San Joaquin River the entire way.
Over the
years I've learned that nothing stays the same. I look forward to
documenting future changes, as I continue to make the San Joaquin
Gorge one of my regular hiking and camping destinations.
--Dick
Estel, February 2014
March Campout
When I
camped at the San Joaquin Gorge in January, I was already planning
to go again if possible, and it turned out to be possible March 3 -
5. I got started about 9:15 under
cloudy skies, and was finished setting up by 11. Although cloudy weather was predicted for all the time
I would be there, the chance of rain was minimal, and the highs were
expected to be 68 to 70.
When I took
pictures at the nature trail on my previous trip, some shots did not
turn out well, and in other cases, the plants described were not
even sprouted yet. This particularly applied to miner's
lettuce, which
was nowhere visible next to its sign or elsewhere. However, we've had a number of
rainstorms in the intervening 32 days, and the hills were much
greener, some wildflowers were out, and there was miner's lettuce in
abundance.
After
getting set up, I took my camera and tripod to the nature trail, a
short walk away, and got new or better photos of the various species
that were missed last time. These updated photos will be found on my
San
Joaquin Gorge photo
album, with a few of them also included below. I continued to
wander around the camp area with camera and tripod, getting some
other pictures I wanted. When I took a good look at my photos, it
was obvious that I was having trouble capturing a sharply focused
picture of poison oak. I don't know if it was the fact I was not
willing to kneel down among the plants or what, but I had to give it
at least two more tries before I got a satisfactory
shot.
The rest of
the day was spent reading, having a bloody Mary, napping, eating,
and more reading. Along with TV after dark, this made for a full day.
The next day
I took my "big hike" of the trip. Since I went to bed
earlier than usual, I was up early on Tuesday, and set out for the
San Joaquin River Trail, which starts across from the trailhead
parking lot about a quarter mile away. I rode my bike that
distance and up the trail a ways, then stashed it in the brush,
significantly speeding up the part of the hike that is on the
paved road.
Since I have
hiked this trail a number of times, I was not sure if I would find
anything of interest to photograph, but in areas like this it seems
that I always notice something I had not paid attention to in previous
visits, and I ended up with a lot of photos from this part of the
trip. Of course, only a few are worthy of inclusion on the web page.
I followed
the practice I use for longer hikes at home, walking for about a
half hour, then turning back. Although there are no long stretches of
steady up or down, the trail winds through a dozen or so drainage
channels, offering a good variety of hiking difficulty.
It was just
under an hour when I got back to camp, and I was ready to enjoy a
bloody Mary, followed by a good breakfast.
The previous
evening I had chatted briefly with a ranger along the road, and she
asked me to be sure to stop by the visitor center and fill out a questionnaire,
since they are requested to collect 200 for a survey. I rode my bike
down there, and talked briefly with the woman on duty, one I had not
met before. I also photographed the amazing aerial-type photo mural
on the wall, which shows the entire SJ Gorge area. It was actually
taken from the top of Squaw Leap mountain, and gives an excellent
hawk's eye view of the gorge and surrounding hills.
I spent only
a short time at the visitor center, then rode and pushed my bike
back to camp. Along the way I finally found the location of some
Indian grinding holes, also known as bedrock
mortars. I knew these existed, because the area had been first
occupied by Indians, and because I had a vague memory of seeing a
photo of them somewhere in the past.
Back at the
motor home, I got the tripod and went to photograph a
couple of things on the nature
trail that I had missed the day
before. I did a lot of other walking around, always with camera in
hand, and checked out something I had wondered about the day
before.
About 200
yards north of the road that runs past the camp, I had noticed a land
feature that not appear natural. When I walked up to it for closer
inspection, I found that it was an old
dam, complete with a concrete
spillway. The latter was nothing more than a slab of cement on the
top of the dam, sloped in from two sides to allow water to run over the
top without washing it out. The concrete is
deteriorating, and the dam has lots of large and small holes, giving
the appearance of not having been used for many years.
On my final
day, I got up a little after 8 and set out for my usual morning
walk. I had walked all of the "official" trails near the
campground, and was not interested in the long uphill return hike
that would result from hiking down to the river. So I followed a
path that starts across from my camp and goes to the bridge trail,
went through the gate there, and immediately turned off on a game
trail.
These are
very narrow paths, usually made by deer and other wild animals,
although cows probably make some use of them. The down side of these
trails is that they are VERY narrow, about four inches wide at the
most, there are many of them criss-crossing each other and leading
every which way, and they sometimes go into areas that are not comfortable for
humans
to walk in. Small animals and even deer have no problem going under
very low hanging brush and branches, and cows deliberately make
their trails through such areas to get a free back scratch. Humans
have to duck down or walk around.
These trails can also arrive at a barbed wire fence and
continue on the other side. A deer can leap the fence effortlessly,
and small animals can hop through or under, but I have reached the
point in life where getting through such a fence is a major effort. The one that
I did go through had been "modified" by some other
explorer such as myself, who had placed a section of power pole in
such a way as to stretch two wires apart and make a place where I
could get through with a little less effort than usual. Of course,
going through such a fence can mean that you have to go back through
it later, but I was pretty sure this led me into a field that went
right to the road with no other barriers.
This walk
offered some interesting sights, some nice fields with various kinds
of trees and brush, and best of all, a section of the fence where a
blue oak had been used as a fence
post. The tree had grown over the
wires so that they appeared to have been pulled directly through the
trunk, a sight that is not uncommon in the countryside.
As expected,
following the fence led me right to the road where it crossed a
cattle guard, and I then had a short stroll on the pavement to get
back to my camp. Breakfast and getting ready took another hour or
so, and by 12:30 p.m. I was parked next to my garage, unloading the
motor home, and thinking about my next trip to the San Joaquin
Gorge.
Wildflowers:
Along the road leading to the trail and campground complex, I saw
some bush lupines in bloom, although there were none near the camp
nor anywhere that I walked. In addition, the buck brush (chaparral)
and redbud were just starting to blossom. There were quite a few
fiddlenecks, a few popcorn
flowers, and at least three species of tiny flowers that you could
easily overlook, all of them less than a quarter inch in diameter.
There should be masses of all these flowers at this time of year,
but only the fiddlenecks even came close, and they were limited to
small patches a few feet in diameter, but appeared in a lot of
places. The popcorn flowers often present a field of white, but
there were just a few scattered individual plants in bloom.
Wildlife:
The only animals I actually saw were birds and ground squirrels, but
there were some interesting sounds. Around noon on Tuesday there was
some howling and yipping that resembled a coyote, but it was in the
direction of the trailhead parking lot, and I think it may have been
a dog. At 5:30 that evening, when everyone was gone except me,
there was a clear and obvious howl and a couple of yips up the hill
to the south, almost certainly a coyote. I also saw a large bird,
hawk-like in appearance and flight pattern, but a little smaller
than a redtail hawk. It went past the camp and disappeared quickly,
so I didn't get a good look. I also saw a few bluebirds.
This is the only
place I have ever seen them, and that was only one time, but they
are supposed to be fairly common in the Sierra foothills. This
species has a red-brown breast, and when sitting the blue is not as
noticeable, but it is very visible when they fly, and is a nice
shade, almost a royal blue. (A month or so later I saw several
bluebirds at my daughter's place in the country, five miles from
Oakhurst.)
Human contact: Besides the BLM people I talked to, I said a few
words of greeting to three men who were just setting out from the
equestrian camp for a trail ride, and was visited by a man with a
large work truck who borrowed my water hose for a while. There was a
lot of traffic up and down the main road (above my camp), as well as
on the road that goes past the group camp to the visitor center and
power house. These vehicles were divided fairly equally among
PG&E trucks, BLM vehicles, and "other," which included
obvious work vehicles as well as passenger cars which could have
belonged to visitors or BLM employees. Once quitting time arrived,
around 5 p.m., the traffic dropped to almost zero.
One of the
things discussed with BLM people was an event coming up on Saturday
that I was glad to miss. When I called to make sure the group camp
was available, I was told that there was an event on the weekend,
but since I planned to be gone by Wednesday, this was no problem.
After arriving at camp, I learned from a notice on the bulletin
board and my conversation with the ranger Monday evening, that it
was to be a half marathon. About 120 runners were expected, and they
were going to be using all the trails, up and down, in an area where
the temperatures were expected to be close to 70 degrees. Not for
me.
What I'm
reading: Sometimes I mention what I'm reading on my trips, and
this is one of those times. There's some history required here: When
I was a kid I read a western adventure book that belonged to my dad called The X Bar X Boys
in Thunder Canyon. It had been given to him by his mother as a
gift in 1926, and was part of a series of at least 20 titles.
Although credited to "James Cody Ferris," the books were
written on contract by various writers, similar to other series for
boys and girls of the time such as the Hardy Boys. I re-read the
book several times over the years, and recently bought several more
books from the series on EBay. The stories are set on a ranch in the west, and seem to be
aimed at (or written by) people who don't know much about wild
animal behavior - every book seems to have an attack by dozens or
hundreds of rattlesnakes, bears, wildcats and cougars charging the
boys, and other unlikely events. However, they are good enough to
hold my interest. The quality of the books varies,
not surprising with different authors. The one I read on this trip, The
X Bar X Boys Lost in the Rockies, was one of the best, although
still with plenty of very unbelievable scenes.
I also
started a very gripping novel called The English Girl
by
Daniel Silva. It's sort of a
spy story, but much more. It was very suspenseful and the climactic
scenes were extremely tense. It's part of series featuring the same
protagonist, and I will be getting
more books by this author.
What I'm watching: When it gets too dark or too cold to read
outside, TV time is close at hand. Of course, I can read inside,
with some limitations. The 12-volt lighting system is not bright
enough to comfortably read magazine type unless I have an electrical
hook-up, or run the generator. The Kindle app on the iPad is
readable even in the dark, but sometimes I'm reading stuff on paper.
I'm not going to run the generator just for reading, so when it
comes on, so does the TV and DVD player. At home or away, I'm usually
watching a series that I've collected on DVD, and currently it's The
Hogan Family, first known as Valerie and then Valerie's
Family, starring Valerie Harper and Jason Bateman. I've also
been watching selected episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generaton,
the best series in that franchise (some will
disagree, but they are obviously wrong). During this trip I also
watched Mr. Rock & Roll
, a fair biopic about Alan Freed.
Weather:
During the week before my trip, the weather forecast consistently was
for mostly cloudy with only the slightest chance of rain. On Monday
this changed to "showers late," and the rain started about
1:30 a.m., lasting probably an hour. Having noticed the forecast, I had
brought my lawn chair in.
The first
day the high was around 68, with a low of 51 after the rain. The
clouds were thinner the second day, and it got up to about 72, with
a low Tuesday night/Wednesday morning of 52. At 5 p.m. Tuesday the
sun could be seen going down behind Kennedy Table, but there were dark clouds
up the river. The forecast for that evening was "cloudy early,
clearing late," which was fairly accurate. At 2:30 it was
mostly clear with clouds on the western horizon. There were a lot of stars visible,
but not very bright due to a lot of moisture in the air.
--Dick
Estel, March 2014
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