A few years ago, a friend and coworker of mine told us of a nice place to go for a walk up near Sonora, called Table mountain. Table mountain is a mesa, and just below the ridgeline there is a nice trail, through a pasture.
We went there a year ago, which I joked about here.
Last time we didn’t try to go up to the top of the mesa, but this time I prevailed upon the missus and talked her into trying to go up the hill. She pointed out that the map we’d printed out called the hike “challenging.” Which turned out to be true. The ridge is barely visible below the light, in the background here:
And yeah, it was a fairly warm morning, and the dogs had already been bounding about joyously, as you can see from Ernie’s dangling tongue. At first it was an upward slant through the woods. Stooping below low trees and stepping over fallen logs and dry creekbed, before heading up again. And then it got steeper. Then we got to the switchbacks. The trail zigzagged up the rocks, so that it was like climbing a very rocky, irregular series of stairs. Eventually on your hands and knees, but the missus dropped out just before that. A few “flights” or rocky switchback below the top (which was hard to see through the boulders, brush, and trees) she opted to sit down on a nice shady flat rock and leave the view to us. Which view was nice:
The trail we’d been on is just beyind the barely visible telephone lines, below. And those are not bushes beyond my shadow, those are treetops. As I’m not crazy about steepness, going down was in some ways harder for me than going up, in part as our Edie girl was a bit unclear on the switchback concept and I had visions of her romping off the trail and tumbling over the cliff. But first, more of the view facing (I think) north, across Los Melones Reservoir:
Here’s the view to the northeast:
Those little tiny distant white specks along the shoreline at right are pleasure boats in a harbor. I wished Mrs. O had been there to enjoy the view, too. The pups took a peek, but I think it was lost on them.
They were more interested in drinking the water I’d brought with me (smart dogs!).
It was hot, and we were out in the sun, so I got them down off the mesa and headed back down the trail. We found Mom-dog just a few switchbacks below us. She was most interested in the blossoms we found:
Back down on the trail, I took another shot looking up at the ridge; unfortunately, the autofocus keyed on the thin branches nearby.
All in all, it was a lovely way to spend the morning. Even with the welcoming committee for any stragglers who lost their way on the trail:
Wow, that is some view! Well worth the effort of the climb 🙂
And is that resevoir low on water? Looks like the high water level should be significantly higher up the banks.
Ugh. Hiking in CA is so dang brown and dead to me. Probably why I don’t enjoy it. I sometimes go and hike in Portland, OR, and THAT I love. But the dead dry grass…ugh.
Maybe that’s just me.
And yeah, actually, your pictures make it look like a nice day anyway. And Woo, yes, we’re in the midst of a horrid drought here, so water levels are dangerously low. Bah.
J, I generally agree with you. I could not, for instance, live in a desert. My wife doesn’t mind it, likes Vegas and Arizona, but it’s just deathly dry to me. I also really enjoy Portland — lots of water and vegetation is so much more alive to me. Maybe a result of my growing up in the land of lakes.
But I’ve come to like the dry summers of California. Maybe the drowzy live oaks and dormant vegetation is evidence that wet winters will return, I don’t know. Maybe because, as a baseball fan, there are no rainouots. (Now when I see a game rained out back east it seems so … impractical to me.)
At any rate, I don’t mind the “golden brown hills” of dry California summers. They make for pretty vistas, to me.
Woo, it’s true that we’ve had a bad drought here. But bear in mind that that reservoir is very steep–you can gauge the incline below the water by the steepness of the hills above. So the water still runs quite deep, down in the submerged canyons defined by the mountains rising above.
We have been asked to ration water in the east bay (where we live), but recently our utility district announced that the rationing has been relatively successful, and the winter was wet enough that our water district has sufficient reserves; they are calling the drought “over” (whatever that means) on July 1.
I think it behooves us to still be careful with our water, but it is good news that our efforts have paid off and the situation is no longer as dire as it was months ago (early winter was dry for us).
Loved the scenery. The masthead picture of your dogs with that natural sepia in the background is first class.
wow… what a view. Reminds me of when I lived in Barstow and the few times I drove from San Bernadino up the pass back to the high desert.
nice pics.
I love the contrast of brown and green. I guess it’s because I’m used to the desert mountains, although this is even more brown than what we see around here.
Thanks, you guys. I’ve been a it low-key lately, and none of my blogging notions have made it from noggin to fingertips and keyboard. Just getting up and getting in to work seems to take all my energy.
Jules, you lived in Barstow? Did you like it there?