Spring in the Mountains

It's been mercifully cool. The snow is thick in the lower portions of the high country. I am content to pedal my bike up roads closed to cars until their upper portions are deemed free of snow and downed trees are logged out for the summer. I survived my first busy holiday weekend, and I am pleased to say that I haven't yet settled on a singular question that gets asked too often. I think it a good sign. Perhaps it's just the questions of when roads will open, but you can hardly fault someone for asking that, it is an unusual snow year after so many easy winters. 

I went for my first hike of the season yesterday - around Pinecrest Lake, and up and down the spur trail for Cleo's Bath. Or is it Clio's? No matter. It isn't very bath-like at the moment, but I could see under the raging river how it would make a most excellent swimming hole... perhaps I'll return there in late August and see what it looks like. That trail was much more of a scramble than I anticipated and definitely tried me out. Overall, the roughly 6 miles took me 3 hours, and I felt like I was trying hard. I suppose I'm a bit more out of shape than I expected, and perhaps still adjusting to the altitude somewhat (though that should be straightened out by now). Of course, I did hit the trail after a day of work, so that may also account for some of my lackadaisical pace. Afterwards, I changed into my swimsuit and waded out into the lake. I let my knees and feet soak for at least fifteen or twenty minutes before jumping in and rinsing the sweat off the rest of my body. The water was cold, especially since it was evening and cloudy. 

The housing is so-so. A nice, modern building with few problems, but not surrounded by nature, no picnic tables to invite outdoor hangouts, and in response to my saying that I don't drink much, one of the guys turned to the other and said "I'll get her going" as if I was a windup toy that they were going to pull the string and watch me go. Disgusting. On top of that, it's a 10-mile drive to my work each day, and 10 miles back. They put us down here because we were supposed to work at the ranger station just a few more miles down the hill, but when we got here they said maybe that'll only happen sometimes, and then yesterday they said it won't happen at all. So all told I'm considering making a request to move to the housing up the mountain. Either the Pinecrest, where I will be able to walk to work, or the Strawberry, where I will be right next to the Stanislaus River and able to fish or swim as I like once the water levels go down later in the season. The only real bonus to being here, as far as I can tell, is that I have limited cell service in the parking lot, and I am only a short drive or ride down the hill to the nearest reliable wi-fi. This will be handy next week when I start school, but aside from that, and the slightly higher rent (which would be balanced out by not having to drive?), I don't see why I couldn't be happier up the hill. 

But enough musing, it's time for pictures! I apologize for the lack of quality, I apparently had adjusted my camera to low-quality for some reason awhile back and didn't think to check the settings before I got going. I only figured it out once I got on the computer, so these are all small and you can't really zoom in or they just get blurry. But I have over a dozen different wildflowers, most of which I'm fairly certain of the identity and a few which I'm questioning. If anyone else knows, feel free to clue me in.

Pinecrest Lake from the dam site

California Broom (?) Or else it looks like some sort of mallow, but I wasn't sure on this one.

Applegate's Paintbrush and Mountain Misery

Bumblebee on a Blue Dicks flower

Western Sagebrush Lizard (?) and California King Snake

Hartweg's Iris - my first time coming across one of these as far as I can remember!

This one is a mystery - I'm thinking either Lobb's Nama or Jacob's Ladder... anybody else have a guess?

Harlequin Lupine

Mountain Pride - one of my favorites

More lake views

The CCC marked this trail with arrows spray-prainted on the granite

Gooseberries!

These little guys are Whisker Brush <3 td="">

Young leaves on a California Black Oak (or some other variety... they intermingle a lot)

Cleo's Bath

Granite Gilia 

Mountain Jewelflower - this was another first! It looks like a miner's lettuce that forgot to stop growing...

Slender Cinquefoil - we had cinquefoil growing throughout our lawn in Crescent City, but I never did see it bloom

Some captured snowmelt (I'm guessing) made a nice reflecting pool above the lake

Another lake view

Sierra Currant and Common Scouring Brush

False Solomon's Seal

This was another new one, but I think it's a Golden Brodiaea, also called "Pretty Face".

I thought this was my favorite, California Hesperochiron... but now that I look closely I don't know what to make of those blue lines... perhaps it's an Alpine Gentian? or a Baby Blue Eyes? I need to look into that...

Sierra Currant flowers

Until next time!