Hike Info:
Type:
Hiking
Trail:
None-Cross
Country
Destination:
Finding a tree
Distance:
1.27
miles 1
Start
Time: 10:19
End
Time: 1:57
Travel
Time: 3:38 (.35
mph)
Moving
Time: 2:15 (0.57
mph)
Elevation
Rise: 558'
Descent: 225‘
Maximum
Elevation: 6,655'
1These miles were cross-country
and about 50% of the time was in brush
Description:
I will start this post off
with some background and a quandary:
Background: When we are in a
fire lookout, there is a lot of territory which we see, some
interesting and some which seems to be rather prosaic. On the
latter, Jeff from Buck
Rock
perked our interest last week by asking about a particular tree we
both could see. He asked about the azimuth from Delilah-he
was trying to locate it on his map. So we got our azimuth: 93o
from Delilah and 303o
Buck Rock. I was able to plot out and come up with an approximate
coordinates of the tree. The key word is approximate. So finding the
tree has now become something more than prosaic and risen to the
level of “interesting”.
 |
| Bovine in the road |
Quandary: After doing this
trip, we now have some doubts about whether we have the right tree.
What our memories are is that there is a single tree just poking up
on a ridgeline. The first branches are high up and the tree has seen
a few years. Both what we found and re-examining a picture taken
from Delilah do not match this description. So there is a bit of
uncertainty about this. Will we need to make another trip?
Note from July 16, 2020: Judy at Delilah yesterday and I had her verify the azimuth from Delilah. She has an azimuth of 89o45' which is very close and within the tolerance of our equipment of my computed azimuth: 89o53'.
It is time to explore, to go
to a place which I have not been to before. Saying it like that, I
almost sound like Captain James T Kirk of the Star-ship Enterprise. We
are going to visit a tree which we can see from Delilah. I get up a
little before 6am. Sherri a bit after 6. We get ready, along with
Korra and Steven and then we are off by 8am. I then realize, we will
need gas. I think I took the slow way to get there. But we do. I
realize that I have forgotten my mask, but there will be a limited
amount of time when I will need it, so a bandana is used.
 |
| Stump at Converse Basin |
We stopped at the Big Stump
restroom-the parking lot did not seem that full. A person asks if I
have been here before-yes. He wants to know about going to Mist
Falls. I tell him where it is. Then he asks where else he should go.
I give him General Grant Tree, Panorama Point and Big Baldy as he
likes to hike. This may have help with Franco-American relations,
just a smidge.
 |
| Korra |
Now it is on to our hike. We
go to Cherry
Gap and
take off like we are heading towards the Chicago
Stump.
But first, we see a flash of white. Turns out it is a cow with horns in the road. We pass by it and head on to road 13S65.We go down the right (east)
branch for about a quarter mile and find a nice wide place to park.
Time to get ready for our quest.
We stop about 10:15 and spend
a few minutes getting ready. It is going to be a warm day. Ordinarily
I would take off my pants legs-not as obscene as it sounds. But with
us going without a trail and the reports talk about brush. So I leave
the legs on the pants for protection.
I have the approximate
location loaded onto mine and Sherri’s GPS. Unfortunately, I am not
proficient in travel with GPS-I am much better with a map.So we head
off where I think the GPS is telling me, about a quarter mile up the
hill. We gain the top of the ridge after going through a little bit
of brush.. The GPS is now saying go north about a quarter mile. This
is over the top of a knoll. We are on top of Hoist Ridge, close to
where Hoist
and
Verplank
Ridges
join.
 |
| Steven and Korra scouting out a path |
Steven has gotten on top of a
rock to see if there is a route around the buck brush to the west of
the top. But looking at a topo map, that side gets steeper, so we go
to the east. We definitely do go through brush. But there are also
lots of small Sequoias. My guess they are less than 5-7 years old.
That would put them just about the time of the Rough
Fire. I
wonder how many of them will survive the next 20-40 years?
We make our way around the
knoll and spot a large Sequoia. I am wondering if this is what we are
seeing from Delilah? We get up close and I take some coordinates. But
looking a bit further north, maybe about a hundred yards, there is a
taller, not as full, and older Sequoia. The first Sequoia we, or at
least I, call the Younger. Now that one has real possibilities. We
stop and have lunch before continuing on to investigate.
Unfortunately I did not bring the picture we took last week. That
would have been helpful.
 |
| Sherri in a bunch of elderberries |
After a few bees drove us out
of our lunch place, we went on to the other Sequoia tree-we are
calling this one the Elder. I suspect it is much more middle age or
even on the younger side of middle age because of the texture of the
bark. But it is definitely older than the first large Sequoia we came
to. We think this is our tree as it fits many of the requirements.
As we gaze around, we realize
we cannot see Delilah from here. Verplank
Ridge is
in the way. But then the questions arise, are we at the right tree?
We are close to my plotted coordinates. Maybe we are only seeing the
top part of the tree? Once again, I wish I had brought my picture.
 |
| The Younger |
 |
| The Elder |
We circle the ridge which
drops off pretty good after our tree. And now we see the road beneath
us, so we crash through the brush to reach it. Something which I have
not talked about is the amount of stumps we have seen in Converse
Basin.
This area was heavily logged in the late 1800’s. These stumps are
the remnants. Sherri raises the question, how could these people be
so short sighted? They were falling trees thousands of years old and
for what? Roof shakes and fence posts. Seems like an ignoble end to
a majestic tree.
 |
| Steven, Sherri, and Gary |
We head back up the road about
a quarter mile and find our car. Now what to do? I think we all feel
pretty tired. Going cross-country through brush is that kind of
tiring. Even though it is in the mid-80’s, the heat really sapped
me. There is this road we have not finished going down, so off we go.
On my old topo map, it says there is a trail at the bottom. But that
trail is really a road.
We go down that a way. People
are having a picnic back in there. Imagine us disturbing their
peace-we are not the only ones. There are just a few. When the road
goes down sharply, we do a 9-point Y turn and head back up the road
until we get to Highway 180 and then it is on home. We get home
around 4:00pm. We decide that DiCicco’s is a good after hike dinner
so Sherri goes and gets it for us. Contentment.
Trail Lesson: When exploring, come prepared.
Animals
Flowers and Plants
 |
| Indian Paintbrush |
 |
| Maybe Elderberry |
 |
| Maybe Elderberry |
 |
| Buckbrush |
Balch Camp Heliport.
A couple of things, Delilah looks right down onto Balch Camp. So we
were interested in seeing it. From Delilah, I could not make out
what the buildings looked like-it is 7 miles away. But the housing
looks pretty modern, maybe nothing fabulous, but definitely not slum
housing. One of the things we do in the tower is make sure we know
our territory. In going through my list of places on July
5th, I
came across Balch Camp Heliport. I had not seen a Heliport down
there before so we started looking closer, even using Celeste to
assist us. Nothing definite. So we visited the Heliport. It is
across Dinkey Creek and up a ways. It definitely looks like a place
for a helicopter to land. I think it is mostly a place PG&E uses
as there were some insulators laying on some pallets. Could we see
Delilah? A big maybe.
Haas Penstock.
These are the penstocks we learned about last year when the sun hit
them just right. This penstock is maybe 4’ in diameter and only
goes down about 3,000’-only 3,000’-into Black Rock Reservoir.
Not as photogenic as the Patterson penstocks, still impressive
enough.
