Re: Yet Another Day on the Madera Sugar Pine Grades...
| September 18, 2019 04:40PM |
Having reached Granite Creek Saddle (where Chowchilla Mountain abuts another ridge), I immediately found a short un-mapped spur that headed south for about 100 feet:
Most likely this was a log loading point.
The grade then curved around to the west before heading northwest to the top of the ridge:
However, I had now used up most of the time I told my wife I'd be gone AND after passing the large log across the right of way, we had started seeing large amounts of bear scat along the grade and even more bear and mountain lion scat from the time I had left my wife up to Granite Creek Saddle. I decided discretion was the better part of valor and retraced my steps to where my wife was waiting:
She was quite happy to see me as she had also noticed the large amounts of bear scat. She spent the time alone playing her iphone music loud and banging a branch on rocks to make sure any bears knew she was around....
On the first part of our trip, we had scared a young bear out of a tree, and watched it crash through the forest ahead of us. Every bear I've ever encountered in the woods has acted this way. Given the chance they've always run away....
We decided to retrace out route back to my truck and I'd finish this branch another day. On the way back I stopped at the spur heading downhill on the north side of Chowcilla mountain (I had bypassed this earlier, hoping to get to the end of the line and them explore this spur if there was time). There was far less bear scat in this area, so I told my wife if she wanted, she could cycle back up the grade, while I explored for a few minutes and I would catch up with her shortly. She was OK with this and off she went. This photo shows the moment we separated:
I headed down the grade and could see glimpses of my wife cycling up the mainline. In about 5 minutes I reached the nearly impassable thicket of brush:
I spent about a minute or so trying to figure a way through. By now my wife was out of sight...
In the next post I'll describe what happened next...
To be continued...
Most likely this was a log loading point.
The grade then curved around to the west before heading northwest to the top of the ridge:
However, I had now used up most of the time I told my wife I'd be gone AND after passing the large log across the right of way, we had started seeing large amounts of bear scat along the grade and even more bear and mountain lion scat from the time I had left my wife up to Granite Creek Saddle. I decided discretion was the better part of valor and retraced my steps to where my wife was waiting:
She was quite happy to see me as she had also noticed the large amounts of bear scat. She spent the time alone playing her iphone music loud and banging a branch on rocks to make sure any bears knew she was around....
On the first part of our trip, we had scared a young bear out of a tree, and watched it crash through the forest ahead of us. Every bear I've ever encountered in the woods has acted this way. Given the chance they've always run away....
We decided to retrace out route back to my truck and I'd finish this branch another day. On the way back I stopped at the spur heading downhill on the north side of Chowcilla mountain (I had bypassed this earlier, hoping to get to the end of the line and them explore this spur if there was time). There was far less bear scat in this area, so I told my wife if she wanted, she could cycle back up the grade, while I explored for a few minutes and I would catch up with her shortly. She was OK with this and off she went. This photo shows the moment we separated:
I headed down the grade and could see glimpses of my wife cycling up the mainline. In about 5 minutes I reached the nearly impassable thicket of brush:
I spent about a minute or so trying to figure a way through. By now my wife was out of sight...
In the next post I'll describe what happened next...
To be continued...
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488 stops for water at Los Pinos tank on closing day Oct. 1979. Photo courtesy Don Richter
The NGDF was started by Don Richter and is currently operated in his memory by Nathan Holmes and others. Others who have contributed to the upkeep of this board are (in no particular order): Charles McCandless, Everett Lueck, Ted Wilton, Cole Adams, James Bane, John Moellmer, Jon Bentz, Linn Moedinger, lloyd lehrer, Rod Jensen, John Craft, Steven Forney, Herb Kelsey, Bill Ramaley, Russ Sperry (El Russo Loco), Josh McNeal, John West, Jim Armstrong, Bob Bergstrom, Greg Scholl, Blake Forbes Doug van Veelen and Mark Fuller.