Yeah, maybe it has.
We’ve never seen times like this - a lucky generation to date.
But this virus is serious and may be really, really serious. We weren’t well prepared and have had to take some crash steps to avoid medical overload. This means staying home, or close to it. Walks mostly.
So here’s a trip report about a “walk” Katie and I did today. All within six miles of our house, and all totally routine. Even boring in more “normal” times.
It starts like this: many of you have heard of the now-retired logging railroad grade that starts a third of a mile from our house. It’s a great resource for hiking, biking, running, blackberries and, in a few select places, wild strawberries. Some of you have walked this grade with us, or parts of it.
It goes all the way to Lyons Reservoir, our local county water supply.
What those of you who have walked the grade might not know is that that water supply comes from the reservoir by way of a Gold Rush-era ditch system. It was built in the mid 1800s to channel Stanislaus River water to the Columbia area for hydraulic gold mining (a short lived and very destructive method of strip-mining).
Anyway, over the years we’ve walked and biked the grade itself to the reservoir and beyond. Many, many times. We’ve also walked the ditch many times. In fact when the girls were younger, I’d walk/jog the ditch while they floated it on hot days (not sure about that being legal, but hey, who besides the select few here knows?). But we’d never walked the two and a half miles of the ditch that are closest to the dam.
Today, wanting to recreate, but to also stay close to home, Katie and I decided to walk from Highway 108, down to Lyons and back along the ditch to the road and then home (Tricia had school work to do - they’ve gotten things up and running on some classes remotely).
It’s better than nothing. And you, dear reader, get to spend ten minutes semi-entertained by something new, different and only slightly boring.
Vicki drove us up the road (closed this time of year to cars due to snow):
There’s actually climbing right off the highway on this road. Or maybe “climbing” is a better way to say it. I’ve never been very interested in bouldering, I’ve never quite gotten the point. But I know others who love it. Anyway, there are some interesting boulders close to the highway. Some medium sized, some quite small. Here’s a photo of me standing in front of a V-1 called “Mantle.” On “First Arete Boulder" (this one must require a sit-start):
Don’t believe me that this is a climb? Here’s the link, complete with a photo-topo:
https://www.mountainproject.com/area/118358940/first-arete-boulderAnyway, down the road we went. We live in beautiful, forested country, and sometimes I lose sight of how nice it really is:
The dogs like it here too. They dashed to the nearest snow they could find:
And pools of ice water:
And there are bigger bouldering boulders too (I think that the scrubbed streak to the left on this boulder is a route):
Soon we were almost to the reservoir (two miles down the road):
A gorgeous girl catching up after a quick dip:
The railroad grade is at the same elevation as the top of the dam. A grated metal stair leads down to the base of the dam and then the start of the flume and ditch system:
And then we were off. We found out that the ditch starts out as a flume for its entire first mile:
Lots of larger rocks nearby have potential for actual climbing routes (anything would be nice right now - I plan on going up and doing some bouldering soon):
Where the ditch system is a flume it’s a flume for a reason - too many in and out side canyons. As a result of these side canyons, the flume uses some pretty big trestles:
It doesn’t take long for the river to be way down below our elevation:
Eventually the flume ends and the ditch part of the system starts:
Here’s a “normal” part of the ditch:
Our younger dog Halifax is pretty energetic. And today she wanted in the water. First thing. The only problem is that this first part of the ditch becomes a channel quickly (this part of the system was still new to us). And then it re-enters a flume. Hallie’s enthusiasm meant that she got stuck in the channel and then got dumped into the flume and had to ride that for 100 yards (the dogs don’t like this, but each has learned the hard way to look out ahead a bit):
Anddd… there she goes into the flume:
It’s no big deal since it’s all smooth metal and water. But like her siblings before her, Hallie was nervous. Until we caught up to her and called out as we walked above her. Here’s a shot of her in the flume (close-up shows it better):
Eventually she got dumped out, back into another channel. But that quickly became normal ditch again. Now she was safe (in her own mind). So she stayed in the water:
Charlotte got her turn:
Parts of the ditch have been lined with Gunnite to help reduce water loss:
Lots of swimming and floating downstream equals happy retrievers:
It really is beautiful out there:
Some of the flumes have boards to walk on instead of grating:
Eventually we took a side road up to the railroad grade itself. This let us get a little uphill/cardio and, bonus, took us past the secret summertime wild strawberry patch (they’re the size of a fingernail, but when they are ripe - holy wow, one tiny strawberry has more flavor than a huge store-bought):
Here’s the “normal” railroad grade, about a third of a mile from its paved-road end (that end is about a third of a mile from our house):
We’ve always loved the views across the Stanislaus River canyon (the big, snow-covered plugs are The Dardanelles):
And then there were these. We see them every year in the last puddles out there. Some sort of black, poppy-seed size insect larvae. I figured a photo would be enough - in a video the whole floating mass slowly and slightly wiggling might be just too gross:
A wonderful day really. The hike followed a nice morning of working from home and was followed by a wonderful, vegan dinner prepared by that same daughter.
We’re all safe, healthy and doing OK. I’m happy that we’ve been this lucky. And I’m good with a little boredom, if that’s the price we need to pay for our health and the health of others.
I hope you all stay healthy. And sane.
