Park Activities And This And That

                                  

They have finally started on the construction of the small group site.  The construction company finished their part in three days.  All the grading is done and the paving too.  There is still more finishing work to be done, fencing, another fire ring, food locker and picnic table.  They should be putting in a port-a-potty too.

I think that it will be a very nice site, perfect for a family get together.

Last week the BAOC met.

                               

Each person in this group get a topographical map and time sheet and then run across country to a spot where there is a time stamp and then back to the finish line.  They compete for time.  They were even running through my site.

 

There was also a geo-cashing group that added more people to the mix.  I spoke with one lady and her son who told me that they were also there to pick up trash, but was disappointed because they couldn’t find any trash, not even a bottle cap.  LOL.

On Sunday Ted and Leslie came for the day.  We just hung out for a while and then went down the hill to San Jose for lunch.  We ended up at Famous Dave’s and had BBQ.  It was very good and had plenty leftovers for him to take home.                                         

                          

While there I was able to use a 10% off coupon at Best Buy on a new I Pad.  I really like it.  It has a touch screen and works very similar to my I Phone, even takes pictures.

CRACK !!!!!!!!

On Monday morning, while doing my rounds, I heard this loud crack.  Right in front of me a branch fell onto these picnic tables in the day use area.  One more thing for maintenance to clean up.

A couple more pictures of wild flowers, California Poppies.

Hey, Ted,  just to let you know that I actually fixed something healthy for lunch, two days in a row.  The first one I used the zucchini that I bought on Sunday in the Veggetti thing and stir fried it with other vegetables added some tomato sauce and cheese.  It was good.  The other was tomato, cottage cheese and mango salsa.

I guess that’s enough of my rambling.  I hope that you all are having a great week.

Thanks for visiting

Taking a nap in between work runs.

Susan and Angel

Flower Trail Part 2

First of all there’s a couple of corrections to my previous post.

This first picture is of Mule’s Ear, leaves are shaped like a mule’s ear.  The second one is not Baby Blue Eyes, but Blue-Eyed Grass.  At least that is what I have been told.

To continue on the tour, from the Circle Corral we bypassed Lower Hotel Trail, and took Brush Trail where we avoided a large hole that later Pete (in maintenance) added dirt.  We headed over to Bass Lake.

Yes, there are bass in the lake and fishing is allowed (with a license , of course).  Some people will park up on Hwy 130 and hike down to the lake rather than hike all the way from the parking lot inside the park.

 

                                 

                     I think that that is a fish in the center of the above picture.

In the first picture of the lake, on the right is a picnic table and a trash can.  Since it was full, I helped  Theresa empty it. While doing that we discovered a mouse with babies, but the babies got caught in the trash bag.  Theresa was able to rescue a baby, but then would hear more squeaking and search for more babies.  She saved four babies and put them back in the bottom of the trash can with their mama.  Theresa has a soft heart when it comes to baby animals and will probably miss that part of her job when she retires.

            

Somewhere in there are the babies, waiting to be rescued.

 

                          

After the excitement of the rescue, we continued the trail tour, on Eagle Trail and then on Upper Hotel Trail.  I’ve had people ask if there is a hotel in the park and the answer is no, but I did find out why there is a Hotel Trail.  There actually was a hotel near Smith Creek, but is no longer there.

Those are California Poppies and more Vetch along the trail.

 

About this time Theresa got a call on the radio of a possible accident on Hwy 130, so we had to end the tour.  She dropped me off at the CG and left for the call, which turned out to be a false alarm.  Both she and Lisa responded, as she had just come on duty.  Lisa had to go down the hill off the road to locate the “car” that the person who reported it, thought they saw.  No car, just trash in the middle of a whole lot of Poison Oak. 

That’s just part of the Ranger’s job.  That’s why they always have a change of clothing in reserve.

That’s the end of the Trail Tour on the south end of the park.  We may take a tour of the north end and maybe I can see where the Deer Camp was.  (The cabin burned down a couple of years ago.)

I hope that you enjoyed the tour.

Thanks for visiting

Still pouting.

Susan and Angel

Visit And Flower Trail (Part 1)

 

First of all I want to say we had a great visit with Laurie and George Owen,  They took the time to come from their current gig about 9 miles away before heading to their new one in Montana.  I gave Laurie a tour of the park while George hung out with Angel.  Thanks for coming and safe travels.

Next an introduction to another inhabitant of the park.  This was a small gopher snake that found it’s way into the Rangers’ office.  Ranger Theresa picked it up and put it outside. Punky, the office cat had already found it and and tried to take it out.

 

Friday was the long awaited familiarization trail tour. (we never got to do it last year, it got too busy).  The best time to do it is in March or April after the rains and when the wild flowers are in bloom.

The first trail we took was the Dutch Flat Trail.  It took us up to the Overlook where there is a memorial bench overlooking Santa Clara County which includes the city of San Jose and the south end of San Francisco Bay.  There is also a picnic bench.

Below is a lot of vetch, some native and some non-native and miniature lupine.  It’s all very pretty.

(?) Almost to the top.

From the overlook, looking east back into Halls Valley you get a good view of Grant Lake.

 

Below to the far mid-left, there is a white spot.  That’s “My Spot”.  All you can see is the back end of my MH.

I believe the next to pictures are of Baby Blue Eyes and Yarrow.

  I don’t remember what this is.

We only did half of Dutch Flat Trail and came back to pick up the Dairy Trail

Along this trail are wild Teasel, extremely invasive, and Fiddleneck.

 

There was also a Spring fed water tank and water trough. 

Any time that we got out of the truck, we had to be careful, not only of snakes, but of the poison oak.  Theresa explained the difference.  Below is one of the young oak trees on the left (maybe Valley Oak) and on the right is the poison oak. (Leaves of three, leave them be). They have little tendrils with seeds that spread a lot.

This part of the park is where a rancher grazes his herd of cattle, mostly cows and calves, along with a bull.  You can hike there, but you don’t want to disturb that bull. 

And of course, there were cows on the trail where we wanted to go.  I think I now know what it’s like for the cowboy, herding the cattle.  Lots of dust and cow poop.

These cows blocked our way by the gate and Theresa had to get them away so that we could get through without letting them out.  (Not her favorite thing to do.)  They were not humping each other, just trying to get the other one out of the way.  Below on the right is the circle corral.

That’s where I will end part 1 of the tour as this is getting a bit long.

Thanks for hanging in there and

Thanks for visiting

They wouldn’t let me come :(

Susan and Angel