Springtime Hike

Posted on April 4, 2024 by Robin

On Monday we went on a hike with my brother and sister-in-law. I think it was actually a walk because the trail followed the edge of the lake fairly closely. Doesn’t a hike involved dramatic changes in elevation or at least some level of difficulty? Regardless, it was a beautiful day while the annual growth is still green and not all the trees have fully leafed out. (Is that a word?)

We drove to the north end of Lake Berryessa and stopped at the trail head.

My brother has been here several times and expects to find ospreys and eagles. We saw ospreys in the air on the way here and found another not long after starting on the trail.

This is a view of the landscape and the lake. There is an osprey in this photo also, but you have to look hard to see it.

Here is the osprey, right in the middle of that other photo. Notice there are two here. One is below the nest.

Another view across the lake. What a beautiful site for a ranch headquarters.

I have always taken more photos of plants than birds. Plants sit still longer and I can get closer.

Here is a magnificent oak tree.

The oak woodland landscape.

We noticed several trees with holes in the bark. Can you tell what is in the holes?

The holes are filled with acorns.

The acorn woodpecker is responsible for this. Wikipedia has this to say about this behavior: Acorns are stored in small holes drilled especially for this purpose in “granaries” or “storage trees”—usually snags, dead branches, utility poles, or wooden buildings. Storage holes—always in dead tissue such as bark or dead limbs—are used year after year, and granaries can consist of thousands of holes, each of which may be filled by an acorn in the autumn.

This turkey vulture wasn’t about to leave his meal, although three others did fly off as we walked by.

Can you spot the bird here?

This one is a bald eagle.

We walked about as far as La Pointe (on the map at the top) and turned around because we all had visitors coming for dinner. On the way back we saw the same osprey pair.

This is Dan, me, Kathy, and Dave thoroughly enjoying the day.

A Birthday Hike

Posted on November 9, 2023 by Robin

M birthday was last week and I spent the day with my son exploring some of the El Dorado National Forest.

Matt drove and I wasn’t looking at a map so all I know is that we headed up Ice House Road and went beyond some of the other areas we have hiked in the past. The first stop was to look at the Van Vleck Bunkhouse, built in 1957, and now rented by recreational users from the Forest Service.

I had no idea that the Forest Service was in the vacation rental business. This might be a fun place to stay with a group of people. It sleeps six, has propane for cooking, but no electricity, and has running water during the summer.

This is the meadow south of the bunkhouse with Desolation Wilderness in the background.

Matt didn’t care that there was no water. He tried out the bathtub at the edge of the meadow.

This is more of what was the meadow. Matt said that several years ago they did a prescribed burn here to maintain the meadow, but trees are encroaching again.

After leaving the meadow we drove further and then followed GPS coordinates to find the site of a plane crash in 1941. The info at that link tells of the air force pilot and crew that were flying a B-17, known as the Flying Fortress, from Salt Lake City to Sacramento. Due to weather and mechanical issues it went down on November 2, 1941. The pilot had ordered the passengers to put on parachutes. They all made it out but the pilot did not and two days later the crash site was discovered. We were here exactly 83 years later.

There is a trail of sorts to the site, but you’d still have to know where you’re going to find it.

The wing stretches off to the right. The other wing is at a different location.

This is what the remaining wing looks like.

Matt had the coordinates of other parts including the wing, and we walked farther to find the site, but didn’t see it before we turned back.

As we walked back down the trail I turned and could see the plane from an angle where I hadn’t noticed it before.

There were several downed trees in the area. I was surprised to see so many down with the roots pulled out of the ground. I suppose the severe storms last winter were to blame. The root structure of this one is massive.

Check out the size of this tree.

This was my view.

There were some big mushrooms too. You can’t tell from the photo but that one is bigger than my hand.

We drove back towards Matt’s house, but first turned up the road to Big Hill, the heliport where Matt used to work. This is the view of where we had been earlier with Desolation in the background.

View to the west. I wish I could make an arrow on this photo. I’d point it to the mountain top that is Mt. Diablo, the mountain that I see due south when I walk Across the Road at my house. There is a strip of white above the mountains, below the blue-turning-pink part. Do you see a small dark bump just above that white strip, just to the right of center? That is the tip of Mt. Diablo. I think it’s interesting to see it from a totally different vantage point.

California Wildflowers and Returning to this Blog

Posted on May 12, 2023 by Robin

I started writing this blog in 2008, but when I started my SquareSpace website (www.meridianjacobs.com) in 2019 I switched to writing my blog there. It bothers me that if (when) I stop using the website for business someday and, therefore stop paying for it, I’ll lose all my blog posts. My blog is like my scrapbook and I like to look back at things every so often. Besides, I liked the way that I could find previous posts when I wanted to here. It’s never worked as well on the other site. I hope I can set this up the way I remember from the old days. Hmmm. 2019 was the “old days”, the “before” days. Before the major injury I had and before the pandemic. Things seem different now. Rusty’s blog is still here too although he didn’t write anything after mid- 2019.

Another thought is that the website blog should be business and this one is more the rest of life. However, in my life business and everything else are completely intertwined. Is it realistic to think I can keep up with two blogs? That’s doubtful. So this is a trial to see if I like this and how best to do it.

Green hills with yellow flowers at base.

About two weeks ago we drove to Ukiah to deliver wool to the mill. Knowing this was the best time for wildflowers we planned to find a place to hike on the way back.

Here we are overlapping business and pleasure already. The trip was to deliver wool and I decided to bring my Ashford e-spinner to make use of time while on the road. It works great this way, although it would have been handy to have it on a box instead of the floor.

We stopped at a place where Dan remembered seeing a trailhead. Don’t confuse this Lynch Canyon with the one in Solano County. We were in Colusa County. There is nothing here except a place to park and this map, which has seen better days.

The trail is a dirt road and you can see that its going to be very hot once summer is here.

The first part of the hike is across the side of the hills where it looks as though maybe rock had been removed when making the highway. It looks as though the terrain was disturbed years ago. Along side the dirt road we were walking on were these boulders of serpentine.

I am fascinated by this rock and by the photo. Doesn’t it look as though that brown part in the center is something dropping in front of the boulder? Or is that just me seeing it that way? That is part of the rock.

I am disappointed that I don’t know all the plant ID the way I think I used to. However I don’t remember ever seeing this grass. It is quite different than the usual species we see.

I can identify an oak tree, however, even if I’m never sure of which oak it is.

About a mile or so away from the main road we found this building. There are old tables and chairs and evidence of electric lights. There is also a menu on the wall for “Roadkill Cafe” and it includes things like Chunk of Skunk and Awesome Possum. This is obviously a more modern addition and you can find downloads of various versions on-line. I looked because I was trying to find out some history of this building. The best I could find is the description of a hunters’ cabin at this location. It would have taken quite a bit of effort to get this building here and also power it (a generator for lights?). Or maybe it was brought here without the plan of ever having power to it again. So it remains a mystery to me.

I was intrigued by these flowers, thinking that I recognized them and that they don’t get any more showy than this. Later I found one that had finished it’s blooming but I don’t have a photo. When it pops open it looks like a white papery dandelion. I have photos of that in one of the next blog posts I’ll write here from when I went to Jepson Prairie. It is called Blow Wives.

After a stream crossing past the cabin we found several trails going in different directions. We chose this one.

This flower is Ithuriel’s Spear, a native perennial.

Purple wildflowers in green grass with oak trees behind.

In quantity, they were quite showy.

We didn’t reach the end of the trail. We kept going a little farther to see over the ridge, but there was never a ridge top to look over, just more hills and trees. Without a map we decided that we’d probably gone far enough.

As we turned around and came back down the trail we did have a great view of where we’d been. You can see the dirt road through the grassy area at the base of the ridge on the left.

Buttercups I think.

A view of the Road Kill Cafe from the other direction.

Just beyond that point it looks as though the creek used to be dammed. This is quite a sizeable dam. It’s obviously not being used now but it makes me wonder again about the history here.

View from the car on the way home.

So I hope that I can format this blog the way I remember it from before. Then I’ll have to decide where I want to live…at Squarespace or here at WordPress… or both?

Inverness

Posted on November 15, 2017 by Robin

The Fibershed Wool Symposium was last weekend in Pt. Reyes Station. This is one of my favorite events of the year but this year it was more special because I spent the night in nearby Inverness with other Fibershed friends and we had our second Northern CA Fibershed Coop Board meeting on Sunday. Following the meeting four of us went on an impromptu hike on Inverness Ridge.

This local church was booked for any of the Fibershed group who wanted to spend the night after the long day at the Symposium.

It is a great place to stay for anyone traveling in that area. This was originally a house that was purchased from the Frick family in 1950 and turned into a church. There is a fascinating multi-level maze of rooms and halls and stairways. This view looks down from the third floor on what was originally the family’s living room.

I love this dining area, partly because the table is of the same era (at least from looking at some of it’s features) as the table that my mom bought and we still use, although this one is in much better shape than ours.

I stayed in this bedroom with five other women. There are several bedrooms with different numbers of beds. I think the place can accommodate 36 people. When I got up on Sunday morning I decided to take a walk before our meeting and headed up a road I found behind the church. This is my kind of Sunday morning.

The road I found led me back down to the main road and Tomales Bay.

It was after our meeting ended at about 1 that four of us set of for a hiking trail.

It is great when you find open space accessible to the public.

Rebecca pointed out huckleberries which were still on the bushes, although the normal harvest season was over. I wouldn’t have known and would have avoided these unknown berries.

Stephanie (wearing her handknit Jacob sweater) ate her share as did the rest of us.

This is a much wetter area than where I usually find myself and there were still signs of the previous night’s rain. Another testament to the dampness were the large slugs that we saw. The view overlooking Tomales Bay. What a beautiful day we had! IMG_3278-2 As we were coming back down from the ridge that has a view of the ocean, another hiker coming up the hill saw our silhouettes and offered to take our photo. This is the view that she saw.

What a great end to an inspiring weekend!

A Walk in the Woods

Posted on October 30, 2016 by Robin

This morning I drove to my son’s house in El Dorado County to work on some computer issues. When there was a break in the rain we drove a short distance to Bridal Veil Picnic Area on the South Fork of the American River to take the dogs for a walk.

I just used my iPhone for photos because I didn’t want to deal with the other camera in the rain so it’s hard to see Kirin in this shot. He’s way out in the river swiming back with a tennis ball. That’s Sam nearer the shore and Ginny trying to decide about the river. Ginny isn’t use to going on walks without the focus of The Toy or The Ball.

This Ball was Kirin’s and it wouldn’t have been smart for Ginny to compete for it.

Eventually though I took one ball and when Kirin was distracted in one direction Ginny got to go for the ball in another. I didn’t want to throw it too far out in the river because #1, I wasn’t sure how far she would go out to get it and #2, we weren’t sure if she could handle the current if she did go out farther.

She did get plenty of ball time on the trail.

The people were looking at things besides tennis balls.

We spent about an hour and needed to get back to the house.

What a beautiful interlude. The rain makes everything look and smell so clean and fresh.

Jepson Prairie in Early April

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Robin

Yesterday I visited Jepson Prairie, a nature preserve owned by the Solano Land Trust, that is only about 15 miles from here. This is the time of year to see the wildflowers in this remnant of native landscape. The patches of goldfields (Lasthenia species) are spectacular. View to the southwest.View to the west. But there is more than just goldfields in this gold field.The yellow and white flowers are butter and eggs (Triphysaria erianthum)

The purple flowers here are Downingia species. Brass buttons (Cotula coronopifolia). I looked this up and its a native of Africa. The other flowers I’ve listed are CA natives. How about the name of this one? It’s a species of Wool Flower, requiring a host support. Another species that grows in my pasture is shown here. (If you like this then google hippos and manatees in Stockton.)

Jepson Prairie is also home to wildlife.

I rather amazed myself by getting some decent shots of flying birds…maybe not National Geographic quality, but OK for me. These are Canada geese.

I saw these birds walking across the gravel road to get from one part of the lake to the other. I thought that was rather odd… coots …but looked them up and found that “coots have strong legs and can walk and run vigorously. They tend to have short, rounded wings and are weak fliers” Avocet This bird is an avocet. I will admit that although I know the Canada goose, I didn’t know the other birds. I ran into a docent in the preserve and asked him. Maybe I’ll remember these two.

I want to go back before the wildflower season is completely over. There are docent-led walks every weekend through Mother’s Day so maybe I’ll make one of those.

Bassi Falls

Posted on January 1, 2015 by Robin

Yesterday it was way too cold and windy at Loon Lake … …for us to enjoy snowshoeing for very long so we drove back down……to the trail to Bassi Falls at about 5400′ elevation.There wasn’t enough snow to snowshoe but there was no wind and the other signs of winter were still there. At the base of the falls Meryl and Chris showed off their gymnastic skills.Here is a group shot where we’re not quite as bundled up as in the previous post. How many people does it take to arrange a dog-only group shot? You can see the result of this in Rusty’s blog after he gets his turn at the computer. Maggie and Ginny Once again, Maggie provide entertainment for Ginny because just hiking isn’t enough for her.After the trauma of the first stop we made, Ginny had a great time on this hike. We all thought that she would be worn out for the day, but it seems that the long car ride was enough to revive her and she wasn’t at all tired last night.

Hiking in November

Posted on November 9, 2014 by Robin

November? It was in the high-70’s where we went hiking today. Dan chose the hike from his northern CA hiking trail book and said that we would go 6.3 miles. When we got to the trail head behind the Fire Station in Cool, south of Auburn, we found out that there was a mountain bike race in progress. So we chose another trail leaving from the same place but our 6 mile hike ended up being 10 miles. For Rusty’s version of the day (and more dog photos) see his blog. This was very pleasant weather for hiking but it is NOT what we should be seeing in November. There was green grass that germinated with the rain that came over a week ago, and is growing well with the warm weather, but it’s all going to die if we don’t get more rain. That is what happened last year and the hills remained brown and gray with no feed for livestock or wildlife. Although the situation is dismal if it stays dry, the country is still pretty and the day of hiking was invigorating. There was no water until we got to the river and the dogs were certainly glad of that. This is the North Fork of the American River. We ended up at the river at the site of the proposed Auburn Dam. I didn’t remember any details about that, but looked up the information after we got home. Construction began on this dam site in the late 1960’s. In 1975 there was an earthquake that was determined to be the result of the weight of the water behind the Oroville dam that is 50 miles north of the Auburn site and was completed in 1968. This caused a delay in the dam construction while the plans were redesigned. Ultimately, cost, potential seismic risks, and relative benefit of the dam site caused it to be abandoned although there were several attempts to resurrect it. I read one report that said that this dam would have been three times as wide as the Hoover Dam but the reservoir that would have filled the North and Middle Fork canyons would hold only 8% of the water behind Hoover Dam. I didn’t take many photos of the remnants of the dam construction site, but the massive undertaking is obvious. This photo is a detail of the one above, looking across the river. I assume that those white spots are bolts of some kind. The whole wall is covered with cyclone fence as is the wall to the right in the photo above. This is a view up river of the dam site. Toyon berries. It was a good day of hiking. The dogs are tired tonight.

Road Trip – Days 8 & 9

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Robin

After leaving Imperial Stock Ranch in Oregon we were heading home. There are a lot of landscape photos at 70 mph in this post. I could have left out the blurry ones, but…hmmm…then I wouldn’t have all the impressions that I want to remember. Sorry. It makes me appreciate other people’s very sharp photos that much more. The trusty green truck that Dan got for $5 when his dad moved to Hawaii. Landscape off Hwy. 97 in north-central Oregon. Sunset over Klamath Lake in Oregon.

It was dark as we were looking for a place to camp along the road in California. I realized later that Dan had an ulterior motive for wanting to make it as far as Military Pass Rd., off of Hwy. 97 before it joins up with I-5. If you want to hike the north or east sides of Mt. Shasta that is where you find the trailheads and he wants to do that trip before he goes back to teaching in August. We found a place off the main road, ate what was left in the ice chest, and went to sleep. This is what it looked like in the morning.This is the view from our “campsite”.It’s always a thrill to see Mt. Shasta when you drive into California from the north. The peak is 14,162′ and Shastina to the west is 12,330′.

We spent the morning driving the roads that circle Mt. Shasta to the east and finally join up with the highway to head south. We stopped several times at campsites and trails along the beautiful McCloud River.

Finally on the last leg home. No more stops. Passing Shasta Lake, indicative of California’s severe drought. This is only June and the lake should be filled with snowmelt. Dry hills typical of the Mediterranean climate of California. Most parts of California have dry summers and wet winters. We depend on the winter rain and snowfall to fill reservoirs and replenish acquirers to be able to produce the abundant agricultural crops that California is known for. With irrigation this is what the Central Valley looks like. This is a rice field. This land is usually brilliant green from about October into April. The brown landscape is normal for unirrigated land. However, last year we had an early rain (September?) and then nothing. What grass germinated died. Many ranchers who depend on the fall grass to feed their cattle and sheep had to sell their livestock. The next rains came in January and they were meager. There was not enough rain or snow, especially following other years of relatively dry conditions, to catch up. You can read about the affect of the drought on California’s farmers and ranchersat Voices from the Drought on Facebook. Harvesting hay.Sunflowers at 70 mph. The dry hills are typical of California in the summer. The valley crops are grown with irrigation water.

Well, I got sidetracked into a semi-documentary. These photos in Yolo and Solano Counties meant that we were getting closer to home.

Here is who greeted us when we pulled in (my camera doesn’t seem to be doing any better at 0 mph).

We had a wonderful trip but it’s good to be home.

Road Trip – Day 6 – Another Day at Yellowstone

Posted on June 26, 2014 by Robin

In the last post did I say how cold it was when we went to bed the first night in Yellowstone? The cold plus the bison in the campground make me wish that I didn’t have that middle-of-the-night call of nature. However, maybe that’s a good thing because it was starting to rain and I shut the tailgate and the camper window. When everything is shut up it is warmer inside, but it is also stuffy and the windows get wet with condensation. There are trade-offs and stuffiness is probably better than feet in a wet sleeping bag especially when the temperature dips into the 20’s. The green truck is too old to show the temp but that’s what my iPhone said when I asked. So instead of rain we had snow during the night. Not a lot, but nevertheless, snow. Once again we didn’t linger over our breakfast of instant oatmeal but got in the truck and turned the heater on.

I chose way too many photos for this day’s blog and I should cut some out, but I probably won’t. I like blogs that are mostly photos…

Our plan for this day was to drive the northern loop starting with Mammoth Hot Springs and ending with the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.Not far from the campground we saw our first grizzly bears – from the safety of our truck. (Even though I have been told by blog readers that the bear we saw in Grand Teton was a grizzly bear and not a black bear we thought it was a black bear at the time and I prefer to think that we were hiking with black bears, not grizzlies.) The one on the left was eating a carcass of something and was wearing a collar. They were being watched by a park biologist. I wonder if the park personnel always keep track of bears that are collared and monitor them when they show up near a road? One thing that we learned quickly is that being a Park Ranger in Yellowstone means Wildlife Traffic Patrol. Do you know an easy way to spot wildlife?Just look for parked cars and people walking along the road.It didn’t take long to find more bison… …and more bears. This one wasn’t alone. I know, the sagebrush is more in focus than the bears, but that may be my last grizzly bear photo.

It was still early and when we got to Mammoth Hot Springs Terraces the weather was not looking good. It was cold and windy and during our walk along the boardwalk trails it started snowing. But the changing conditions only made the views more dramatic.

We didn’t hike any long trails on this day but there were many shorter hikes. There were people stopped on the road watching a black bear when we got out of the truck to take a half mile trail to see Wraith Falls. Dan was trying to decide if the bear was still entertaining people on the road or had retreated in our direction. Note bear spray with orange cap in the backpack pocket.

There are several one-way roads that you can use to get off the main road. Blacktail Plateau Drive is one of them and the scenery is majestic. To my surprise Dan asked if I wanted to stop and take flower photos. I am usually teased about this habit. This one is wild flax. Phlox.

I wish I knew what this flower is. From a distance it looks like single blue flowers. It’s only when you get up close that you see that it is lots of little tiny flowers.We stopped at another waterfall trailhead and Dan took this photo of a 1936 touring van that he had just read about. These were canvas topped vehicles used in many of the national parks. They seated 14 people and in cold weather (at least in the northern parks) they provided Pendleton wool blankets for the passengers. At least some of the vehicles were used into the 1990’s when they were just too old to keep running. The Park Service replaced the old vehicles with modern Dodge vans but the visitors wanted the old touring vans. So they are on the road again but Ford kept just the top part and replaced the chassis (and all the important things like brakes) with new parts.

Speaking of vehicles it seemed as though each of the parking lots at the main attractions had it’s own sentry. This one was eating crackers.

It was getting late in the day by the time we got to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. There are several access points and trails on both the north and south sides. We knew that we didn’t have time to hike all the trails, but we went to all the overlooks and walked a few of the trails. We took Uncle Tom’s trail to a viewing spot of the Lower Falls. Writing this blog I’m in a tank top and shorts with the fan on and it’s hard to remember that just 10 days ago I was bundled in two layers of wool, my Carhartt jacket, wool hat, and gloves. Originally this trail had over 500 steps and rope ladders. Now it has only 328 steps and no ladders. The trail no longer takes you all the way to the bottom but you still hear and feel the power of the water cascading over the rocks. I love the green color of the water here. This is a scene of the canyon and the river taken from another viewing area. Simply majestic. I don’t think that I would have spotted this osprey nest except that some other people were looking with binoculars. See what I mean? The top photo is a close-up of this one.Another beautiful evening. Again we got back to camp at dusk, ate a couple of cans of beans and went to bed.