Gary-Summer: April 7, 2021

Wednesday, April 7, 2021

April 7, 2021 - Potwisha Flume

Title: April 7, 2021 - Potwisha Flume
Hike Info : Description : Background : Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Trail head: Potwisha Disposal Station

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking

Trail: Flume on South Side of the Kaweah
Destination: End of the Flume
Actual Destination: About half a mile before the end
Distance: 7.36 miles
Start Time: 9:05
End Time:  2:59
Travel Time:  5:53 (1.23 mph)
Moving Time:  4:15 (1.71 mph)
Elevation Rise: 1,687' ¹
Descent: 1,687‘¹
Maximum Elevation: 2,200'

Grinding Holes

GPS Tracks

¹It certainly did not seem like a 1,600’ elevation change. But my GPS said 2,000’+ and this is what Google Earth gave us. AllTrails report says 550’ elevation gain which is much more reasonable in my mind.

Description:

Bridge over the Kaweah

Don, a friend in my neighborhood, told me a couple of weeks ago about a flume close to Potwisha on the Kaweah River. He was going to hike it soon. That piqued my interest. So before it got too hot, I thought we would hike it today. I found a trail report on it and saw it on Google Earth. Our regular group dropped out on me, except for Betty. I made arrangements to meet Betty in Farmersville at 8:15. Then off to Potwisha which we made a little before 9. A good thing we started earlier than later since there are some exposed places on the southwest side of the flume which started to get a bit hot.

Locked Ladder

Betty and my boots hit the ground just a few minutes after 9. Betty is telling me that she has gone for a hike from this trailhead-over to Hospital Rock. But we will be crossing the Kaweah. But first we come to a large rock where we see some Indian grinding holes. After navigating through some river stones, we come to a bridge across the Kaweah. From what I can tell, this was made more for servicing the flume than for us hikers. But there is no reason why we cannot use it. There is a bit of sway which I was not expecting.

Planks to walk on

On the other side, we find where the trail takes off away from the River. The trail goes off to the east-but it looked like there was another path to the west. I think we see this trail when we walk the flume above. But instead of immediately heading up, we should have looked around a bit. I had seen on another blog saying there is a pictograph on a rock on this side of the river.

Gauging Station

But we miss the pictograph and head up the trail. Lots of little flowers-mostly from the Miner’s Lettuce. We also see a little Sierra Newt. When we get to the top, there is the flume and a tower. The tower I think is a gauging station as there is a pipe coming out of the flume and a strip having markings indicating water level. We are wondering if it is in depth or flow or what? Whatever it is measuring, there is only a couple inches of water flowing. I am thinking in a couple of weeks, there may not be any water. (Doing some reading apparently what we saw is called a Parshall Flume-used to gauge the flow of liquid.)

Of the two ways we can go, we decide to go east towards where the water enters the flume. The path is pretty level with only a few ups and downs and nothing more than a few feet. The places where there is a major dip, boards have been placed to level the trail. It is my opportunity to walk the plank.

When we hit the end of the path, there is no place to go, even though we are not quite at the place where water enters the flume. There are boards across the rest of the flume and the ladder up to it has been locked. Can we go down and around? Maybe, but for this old body, I am not as anxious to see the end. So Betty and I look at each other and retreat, only just a little disappointed. (Talking with my friend Don, he indicated he and his friend scampered down and around. Did not say if there was much of interest.)

I have not said too much about how the environment is yet. Lets just say there is a sense of being in an artist drawing as you walk the flume. The filter light through the partial broad-leaf canopy gives a feeling of being in a natural tunnel. And this is not for just one short strip, but it goes on. The coolness of the morning air makes this a place the old ones would consider being fey.

And now we come back to the gauging station/monument. We go past this and it is more of the same. We enjoy the quietness of being alone, even though we are a short distance from anybody else. The sound of the river masks the signs of civilization, except for a few loud cars. But even these pass quickly. But as we pass westward, the trees overhead are replaced with more frequency by lower brush. And the brush opens up to grasses. This lets in more sunlight. Pleasant now, but what will it be this afternoon?

Truck and Bovine

On one of our stop and gawk places we spy what looks like the path of our flume. But why is it higher up than us? Can water in this part of the world flow magically uphill? After all, this place seems to intersect another world at times.. Also at what looks like an end, there is a truck sitting up there. Is there a road going there? And why is the truck there in the first place? There is a large white object just below the truck. I think it is a goat; Betty thinks it is a rock. (When I get home, I enlarge a grainy photo and it is of bovine nature-where is Sherri when there is a cow around?)

A little ways further we stop under a tree-now not nearly as plentiful for lunch. Pleasant just resting here. The body and the mind are saying, “Do I really want to go on?” Of course I do! Also Betty does too. So we will continue on a ways, hopefully making it up to where the truck is.

Planks by flume outlet

A short ways further, we hear the sound of rushing water. Sounds like a pretty decent size creek. The path dips down a ways, followed by more planks. It looks like the water is being released from the flume. This is the longest set of planks and it is playing some minor mind tricks on this fear-of-heights person. But we make it across without a problem.

Distance from start of flume

When we get back level to the flume, we look in and there are only puddles of water in the flume. Where did that thin layer of water go? Of course! It is being released, creating the creek we just crossed. Also I notice that we are now going uphill., not in a major way, but enough that careful observation will notice. This is an Ah Ha! moment. Remember we had seen something which looked like it was going uphill? Now we know what we were seeing is the flume. (When we get home, I look at Google Earth-there is a pond at the upper end of the trail.)

I do not think we will be making it to the end, but at least we can get close by getting around two ridges. We do that. While we want to go on, we also think it is prudent to turn around and leave the rest of the flume for another time.

Moro Rock

We retrace our steps. It has warmed up-when we get back to the car, it says 77^o. We make pretty good time. We get back to the “creek” in pretty good order. It really is a repeat. After that we continue our walk. There are times when things are going alone too well. This was one of the times. As we were walking along, a rock decided to rise up and trip an unsuspecting hiker. The result? Blood! The nose, a lip, the arm and shin. That rock certainly got its jollies that day.

Redbud Reflection

That incident slows us down, but we continue on. While things are relatively level, we are glad when the gauging station comes into sight. We know that it is just a short hike down to the river. It is a bit of a shock to me when we get close to the river. There are people playing. Also a couple seems to have staked out positions on the bridge. I guess anytime I come in from being isolated for a time like Betty and I have been, it is a shock to see and hear people.

We pass by the people on the bridge quickly-my thoughts are, don’t these people realize there is still a pandemic going on? We get by rather fast. And then it is a short hike back to the car. We get back an hour later than I expected-this is getting habit forming. It has been a good hike. I think I would do it again, either late Winter or early Spring. We take off in separate cars. I get back to Fresno by about 5pm, plenty of time to shower, eat, and have our family Zoom call.