TRAVELS WITH LIZ—PART I

I left Mendocino on a Friday--the weather was sunny and pleasantly warm. Arriving in Stockton in the afternoon, I found the day hot, a blast of oven-baked air hitting me as soon as I climbed out of the 4Runner to check the tree line on the way in to my sister-in-law Liz’ walnut ranch. Checking the trees was important, because last year on my trailer’s maiden voyage, the trees overhanging the drive were not trimmed, and a walnut branch pierced the hide of my little Roo. I’d finally managed to patch the six inch gaping hole in its upper driver-side corner just a week ago, and while it looked crude, it was watertight and white (as opposed to black with Gorilla tape which we’d used to patch it on the rainy trip last year; Laura had scrambled up a too short ladder and with me shoving on her rear had been stable enough to make a solid black patch with tape—it held up through the trip and the winter rains; we’d only had one chance to get it watertight because Laura wasn’t going up that ladder again—in fact, that was the trip where we discovered the merry ins-and-outs of repeated emergency room treatment for Laura in Lakeview, Oregon, with her racing heart.)

The tree line was not clear, but it looked like I could avoid any large branches, and so I drove on in, and parked by the barn for a couple nights while we did last minute preparations for our trip.

We were supposed to be three—Helen was to go with us, but had to cancel at the last minute for medical needs of her own. Way overdue for a cardiologist visit, Helen had been having some medical issues and required changes in her medicines, so all in all she needed to take care of things before she traveled to the remote back country of Oregon and Washington. Liz and I regrouped and decided to postpone the Oregon/Washington trip till Helen was with us, and planned to go to Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada, then Kings Canyon National Park. These revised plans were made before the heat wave swept in and made us rethink 100 degrees in Nevada with no trees. So now the revised plan was modified once again—this time to play it by ear, avoiding the heat, and starting out Sunday night at the edge of Yosemite National Park.

Sunday morning July 18th was clear and hot, and the temperature was climbing as we passed first through Manteca then Escalon along Hwy 120. Once past Don Pedro reservoir, it grew cooler, remaining in the low 80s for the drive into the park and long the Tioga pass Highway. Once into the park (no fee for us with our Senior Pass) we took the first available campground (half price for us at $7.00/night) suitable for my trailer, selecting White Wolfe, and decided that we could do quite a bit of sight-seeing while using that campground as a base.

The White Wolfe campground is passable—a 5 on a scale of 1 to 10 in my book: the bathrooms need to be kept cleaner, and there seemed to be a surfeit of horn alarms going off during our stay. The roads are narrow, mostly unpaved, and the campsites more suited to cars with tents than trailers or motorhomes, but there were plenty of these latter none the less. The camp was noisy until the quiet time of 10:00 p.m., then it was indeed quiet. The granite boulders and forests around the camp were lovely, and the meadows full of wildflowers. One noteworthy negative was the lack of a trail map for near the campground. Trails had to be here—short and long, but no signs or maps were provided directing the camper to these nearby hikes. This was a common issue for throughout the Park—no printed materials were available describing the hikes or giving an easy or moderate or strenuous rating. In contrast to the National Monument we would visit later in this trip, the National Park information was limited. This well-used Park was full of hikers and trails, but lacked any free information regarding the trails to guide those diverse hikers in their selection. No doubt there was a book for sale in the Park visitor centers, but some basic free information should be provided. Although the free information included a newsprint paper/magazine describing the Yosemite areas, the information was spotty or decidedly incomplete. We took a short drive this first day up to Tuolumne Meadows, passing breathtaking scenery.

On Monday morning, we again headed for Tuolumne meadows, determined to go over Tioga Pass and visit Mono Lake and then the ghost town of Bodie.

Mono Lake is a California State Reserve and has a lovely visitor center, demonstrating native water-wise plans, pollinator habitat, and the geology and history of the area, including the slow destruction of Mono Lake by the City of Los Angeles from the late 1950s until recently with the decision of the State Water Resources Control Board for restoring the lake back to near-historical water levels. Well-marked trails from the visitor center lead to tufa formations at the base of the lake, and the visitor center also draws one’s attention to the best tufa viewing site on the south side of the lake. The day was warm, low 80s, but hiking about the lake where a breeze blew was comfortable.

We picnicked by the side of the lake, then headed toward Bodie on a road that’s best left for four legged creatures. Bodie was interesting, but it was hot afternoon by the time of our arrival and we knew we had a long drive back to camp on a questionable road leading from Bodie. The alternate way back was better, and we soon were climbing Tioga pass and heading back to our campsite, with a brief stop for me to dunk myself in Lake Tenaya, shown below left.

The next day, the 20th, we headed first to Bridalveil Falls, arriving there before the mass of tourists were up and about. Most tourists in the park are foreign (Swedish, Dutch, German, French, and Japanese abounded), and those of us Americans are clearly using our National Park less than our international counterparts.

Glacier Point was spectacular as was the overlook just before the Point. Many tourists disobey the warning signs and climb out past the wall barriers, sitting on boulders above sheer drops of thousands of feet. We stayed on the safe side of the wall, and still enjoyed the view.

We decided in the future that we could camp at Bridalveil Creek campground and use that as a base for many lovely hikes off Glacier appoint Road, and visiting in the Valley itself should be done only early in the morning, before 9:30, or the crowds are so thick it isn’t enjoyable. [Continued in Next Blog]


(copyright Susan Warner. All rights reserved.)

Mouse in the House

Smokey caught a mouse last night. Usually, he eats them when he catches them and I find the tail somewhere on my carpet. Last night he was haunting the area around the attic door, caught a mouse who came out from under the door, and carried this mouse down as usual to the lower floor where he likes to continue his cat-and-mouse ordeal. However, the mouse escaped to flee under the sofa, where it hid for the remainder of the night, eeeeking occasionally. This morning it darted under the piano. Smokey waits.

July 4th

The flag is hanging off the porch, the dog is sleeping in the sun, and Laura is working a puzzle. Today, I will put the gravel in the pits for my garden entries, then go into town for the parade and help with selling Rotary hot dogs at the old fire house.

My Cousin Gary cleaned up the workshop, and it looks really nice again. I plan to organize the tools this summer, and update the list of tool locations.

Everyone likes the doodlebug tractor where it has been placed.

The garden is finally in down below, the latest I've ever planted, but I was doing bed reconstruction, so that is my excuse.

No ducks on the pond anymore, so the dogs are allowed back down there to swim. Good thing, too, as it is very warm and they were happy to swim yesterday.

July Chronicles

It's a beautiful and warm day up here on the coast. No fog, and already in the 70s this morning. It will be a good day for gardening and working on irrigation/sprinkler heads!

The rhodies are nearly all gone--the wild ones tapered off last month, and the last of the domestic rhodies are in bloom now. Poppies are open, and the squash and tomatoes are begining to come.

Mendocino Chronicles

On Tuesday, just as I was pulling out of the house circular drive onto the main driveway, I came upon an unusual sight. There, slowly moving down the road, was a mother mallard duck and her eight ducklings. They went down the road, turned in on the trail to the pond, kept going about one third of the way to the pond, then headed off through the salal toward the creek. A very short while later, I returned with Erich and found them all the way to the pond, swiminng. Sue H also saw them swimming about. I have not seen them since, so they may have moved on.