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Between getting married and now planning a move I haven't had much time to hike. I managed to get away yesterday, though, to do a hike up Sunday Peak with about 10 other people belonging to the Kern River Valley Hiking Club. Sunday Peak is the highest peak in the Greenhorn Mountains, which are at the southern end of the Sierra Nevada. It was a very nice drive out along the Old Stage Road south of Porterville over miles and miles of golden rolling hills and oak woodland through the hamlets of Fountain Springs, Posey, and Sugarloaf, then up through the forest to the top of Portuguese Pass. This is an area of Sequoia National Forest that not many people see. I only passed a couple of cars on my entire day's journey out there and back towards home... Only locals seem to get off the beaten track and explore this area which has a lot to offer in the way of scenery, camping, hiking, etc. The trail to Sunday Peak is 1.7 miles one-way and you climb a little over 1,000 feet. So not a very long or arduous hike, just enough to fill the morning with a good workout. The trail is shaded with huge pine and fir trees and and this time of year there are lots of wildflowers - we saw spotted coralroot orchid, iris, blue penstemon, ceanothus, cinquefoil, snowplant, yarrow, western wallflower, Indian paintbrush, etc. About an hour or so walking we made it to the summit at about 8,300'. To the north you can see the peaks along the Great Western Divide and as you scan east you can see Mt. Whitney and Mt. Langley, the Needles, Olancha Peak, Sherman Peak, Owen's Peak, etc. To the west are the foothills and beyond is the great San Joaquin Valley.      After having a snack and enjoying the view we made our way down. We were surprised to meet about 10 dirt-bikers who were headed up. The Sunday Peak trail is not open to motorized vehicles and it's clearly marked as such. But of course they "didn't see the signs" and didn't turn around when we told them they weren't allowed to be on the trail. A few of them didn't even slow down but just barreled on past us on the narrow trail. Ugh! Oh well, at least it didn't happen until we were near the bottom. I decided to drive back home the scenic route, via the Portuguese Pass road. The Portuguese Pass Road is definitely one of my favorite roads on the forest. No where else in the western Sierra can you drive on a paved road for many miles and get such fantastic views of the highest peaks in the range - Mt. Whitney, etc. - along its route. I also got a good glimpse of where the Goldledge Fire has been burning in the rugged Kern Canyon. The 4,000 acre fire is mostly out but I was amazed at the very large retardant line that they created. It's the largest retardant drop I have ever seen! So much of this area has burned in the past few years that they're doing everything they can to stop these fires, which of course have all been caused by people.  I then took the cut-off to the Packsaddle Grove. The Packsaddle Grove is a large grove of Giant Sequoias that, again, not many people ever see. There are no trails through it and the terrain is steep and rough. But there are many huge beautiful sequoias in there and I took some time to explore. Let me tell you, once you've gotten a taste of a sequoia grove in wilderness condition, you won't want to go back to the tamed and domesticated ones with paved trails and roads, trams, crowds, etc.  The other benefit to exploring a wild sequoia grove is the amount and abundance of wildlife you'll see. I saw more deer and squirrels and birds than I've ever seen in Giant Forest or Grant Grove. No bears, though, which I wasn't unhappy about.   I also went past the Starvation Creek Grove and stopped to take a few photos of the huge sequoia trees there. Then I headed up Parker Pass then north along the Great Western Divide Highway. I stopped to get a bite to eat at the Ponderosa Lodge and there I found our Forest Service Law Enforcement Officer eating lunch with a Sheriff's officer and so I sat with them and got caught up on all the gossip on recent search and rescues and illegal activities taking place on the forest. They filled me in on gang activity taking place in Coffee Camp and about a guy who fell off of Peppermint Falls and broke his back. Ouch! They also bought me lunch, nice folks  Then it was on to Quaking Aspen where I took a nap then woke up in time to help with the evening's campfire program. My good friend Horace told real forest ghost stories, including his experiences with the ghost of Lewis Stringer, of which I posted about a couple of years ago here. I'll see if I can dig up the post... Anyway, it was a really enjoyable evening and after the program I pitched my tent, slept the night up in the cool mountain air, then in the morning headed down the Tule Canyon back home. --------------------------------------------------------
The mountains are calling and I must go. ~ John Muir ~ www.tarol.com
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