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!