The Santa Ynez Valley in a mountain setting

I recently spent a weekend with a friend in the Santa Ynez Valley and had a great time. We toured around, went wine tasting, had dinner at the Hitching Post, drinks at Root 246, and met nice people. I love the place and recommend it to anybody who lives in Southern California.

Here's a vid of that trip should you be interested:



I remember reading a listing about a property for sale in Walker Basin describing it as "the Santa Ynez Valley in a mountain setting" and "Champagne land at beer prices." Sure, the areas have some similarities such as landscape, oak trees, weather (somewhat-they rarely get snow) but I don't think you can compare the two. For one, most of the Santa Ynez Valley is at 200 ft above sea level; the basin is above 3000. The valley is agricultural with much viniculture, the basin is not. The valley gets a lot of water runoff from the Sierras, it just roars by us on its way down. They have hospitals, wineries, restaurants and churches, we have the Trading Post and TOGS. We do have a church in Twin Oaks though.

Walker Basin is also described in the listing as the Old West. That I would agree with. It's the living Old West whereas the Santa Ynez Valley is by now only an image of that time. We still have unpaved road, too much rain or snow makes access difficult, electricity goes out once in a while, some of us are off the grid, we have wells for our water, we keep wood for the stove in winter, we walk over to our neighbors and friends, we help each other. It's the California Steinbeck describes so often in his books.

Oh, I forgot another similarity, we have ostriches in Walker Basin too...



We don't have large ostrich farms but a neighbor in the basin has about ten... The picture above was taken near Buellton by the way.

Walker Basin/Twin Oaks/Piute Meadows/Thompson Canyon is not for everybody. The place is stuck in time. Never mind that the Joe Walker Mine was the highest producing gold mine in California in 1870. One would think, looking at Coloma and Northern Cal's gold country off the 49, that it would have been enough to start communities. In 1870 there also was a tremendous earthquake that flooded the mine and that was that. The Pony Express used to go through the basin. Thing of the past. Havilah had the Kern County courthouse, thing of the past. The basin was called Yitpe by Native Americans, thing of the past.

I don't really want to live in the past, sounds way too rough for me, but I really like getting a sense of what it was like for pioneers and living it to some degree. So far I've noticed that I have a greater appreciation and respect for Nature. I won't elaborate about the rest because it is something personal each of us needs to experience to understand but I can at least say that I feel that it has made my soul richer. For one, it has taught me not to take anything for granted. Heck, a warm shower really is a wonderful thing.

'Til next time.

Holidays in Walker Basin

It's been raining in Southern California so the hills and mountains in the Sierra foothills are already green, something I haven't seen yet at this time of the year. That makes for very happy cows and terrible road conditions. Caliente Creek Road, the alternative to the Lions Trail has collapsed here and there, is flooded in many places and therefore closed to traffic. To show you what I mean, following is a little video. It all starts out when I picked up my friend Ernie to go check out Thompson Creek. We could hear it growling from his porch so I was curious. What was supposed to take fifteen minutes turned into a two hour challenge...



The drive back was interesting as you can see. But rain is one thing, snow and ice another.

Last weekend was New Year's. My neighbors and friends Pam and Andy had a few of us over for dinner and that was fun. The next evening dinner and poker was at Bill's across the street. I'm not much of card player, even less of a poker player so I lost my five bucks very quickly. That was fine as I enjoyed Ernie's guitar playing and Scott's conversation.

On Sunday I left at 3:30 p.m. after checking the road conditions but there was no notice of road closures. Getting from Caliente-Bodfish Road to the 58 to Mojave was busy going west but I thought there was an accident. Going down to Arvin there was a lot of traffic in the opposite direction but heck, it was the end of a special weekend so I didn't think too much. Here's a photo of Arvin for those of you who have never been there.



I got on the 5, and it was crawling. Probably another accident I thought. Eventually got to the very bottom of the Grapevine where those airheads from Caltrans had a sign that said "tune your radio to so and so so for news" while the CHP was having everybody go back to Bakersfield. A bit late for a darned notice! Grrrrr...

I went back to Arvin, had a quick burger, and decided to go through the 58 to the 14. The freeway was crawling so when I got to Tehachapi, I decided to turn and go back to the cabin. It was snowing and the Lions Trail was real slippery. I slid a couple times so I drove really slowly (10 mph) so I wouldn't become one of those crosses on the side of the road. It wasn't fun but I made it back at the cabin at 9:45 p.m.

I emailed Ernie who had left at noon. He called me in the morning and said he did the same as I, i.e. go the 5 way, had to turn back at the bottom of the Grapevine, drove to the 58, and on to the 14. It took him 11 hours to get home. On the other hand, Pam and Andy's son left at the same time as Ernie but he went straight to the 58 to the 14 and got home in 2.5 hours. Luck of the draw. Still, Caltrans could put signs up. What the heck!?!?! No brains anywhere, no wonder the state is bankrupt. I can't forgive them because it ain't the first time it snows on the 5!!!

I woke up the next morning at 7:30 because Jorgy was barking. I walked out and it was a beautiful winter wonderland (a winterland?) all white with a few clouds that completely disappeared a couple hours later for a bright blue sky. Here's a pic of the cabin in the morning. Sure is lovely.



I had left the gate open and to my surprise I was greeted by a big old black bull in my yard. Weird part is that I yelled at him "out!" and he got it. He went back out the gate. Smart bovines in Walker Basin.



The next day I waited until 3:30 so the sun would melt the snow and ice and drove via the 58 (it was closed in the morning too but open in the afternoon,) got on the 14 and the rest was smooth sailing. Tehachapi was beautiful under the snow and so was the desert.

So there, a nice weekend in spite of horrible road conditions. I was OK though, I always pack up plenty of food and libations so I could have stayed all week. All week... Hum, that sounds mighty fine.

Happy new year everybody!