Spanish Mountain Field Trip 24-26 June 2015

June is a busy month with an anniversary, a birthday, father's day, a long planned visit with friends and hopefully, some time enjoying the mountains and studying flowers. Somehow, I managed to squeeze in three trips, all out of the Rancheria Trailhead east of Wishon Reservoir. All of the trips were designed to hunt areas where Lewisia leeana might be present. It's disjunct population in Fresno County has become my study subject for the past couple of years.

On this three day trip, I returned to Crown Ridge above Chain Lakes. On my first trip of the year, I had been rained off the ridge. Day one took me to upper Chain Lake. On the way, I made several observations of L. leeana, starting on the moraine that dams middle Chain Lake to its west and including an observation within the blocky morainal debris that dams upper Chain Lake on its west. After a pleasant night's rest, I returned to where I had left off during my first trip. L. leeana was in full bloom and very abundant in granitic areas on the north slopes of high point 9900+ which is capped by volcanics. As I headed down the south facing slope, I searched in vain for L. leeana. I moved across a ridge to the east and still had no luck. The view to the south was not promising. Below was a prominence, 9774T, which looked to be entirely volcanic and almost entirely barren of understory. The ridge including point 9477T looked volcanic as well. I decided to descend the canyon north of this ridge instead of going to Crown Rock. There were plenty of flowers to be seen on the way down to the almost abandoned Chain Lakes Trail below. Lower parts of the canyon had excellent grazing so I saw lots of cattle. I picked my way south on faint trail littered with large deadfalls and reached the Crown Valley Trail a little before noon.

The second half of day two proved to be just as interesting as the first. The trail to Crown Valley is heavily used and easy to follow. The country it passes through is generally dry and even dryer during this drought year. Variety improved near the meadows and streams I passed, but I wasn't tempted to explore much. I kept my eye open for L. leeana, but didn't really expect to see any because of the low elevation. Finally, I reached the turnoff to Spanish Mountain at about 12:45. The trail looked seldom used but there was one set of horse tracks that helped me to locate it. Deadfalls were a real problem, sometimes involving many trees. I lost track of the horse prints more than once, only to find them on the other side of the downed trees. I became jealous. It appeared that the horse had levitated over them. The trail passed near or through several meadows where it disappeared and was difficult to find on the other side.

A little before 2:30, I arrived at a shallow, grass fringed lake and found a trail sign at its south end. The sign didn't mention it, but Spanish Lake was only a half mile to the west. It pointed the way to Geraldine Lakes where I wanted to spend the night. I turned east, spending much of the time going cross country but, now and then, encountering a blaze, a duck, or worn ground. Finally, the path turned more southerly and I ascended an unnamed drainage toward Geraldine Lakes. A little before four, I encountered my first L. leeana in the area, a large plant in full bloom. I continued up a broad granitic ramp to an overlook of lower Geraldine Lake, encountering many more L. leeana and other flowers on the way. The route down to the lake looked steep but possible, but I decided I wanted to stay at upper Geraldine Lake. I turned west and tried to find the trail to upper Geraldine Lake. I guessed the wrong direction and flailed around through forest, then swamp until I finally found what looked like the trail.

The ascent to upper Geraldine Lake seemed endless, but I encountered L. leeana again and again on the way up, including a first, one growing in dark metamorphics. Finally, at six o'clock on the dot, I arrived at upper Geraldine Lake. I decided the trip had been worthwhile, considering how many L. leeana I had seen on the way up. Not only that, but it was a pretty little lake where after a few minutes I found a pretty good campsite.

The next morning, I followed the trail which eventually led to lower Geraldine Lake where I found a huge campsite. I guess that's where most people stay when they come to this area. Faint trail led back up to where I had missed the turnoff the day before. I headed west, looking for more L. leeana and was not disappointed. I was not surprised that I found none on south-facing slopes. I didn't make it to the location reported by York and Shevock in 1995(JEPS96202). I figured I'd seen enough L. leeana in the area and I didn't doubt that there would be a lot more plants in the direction of their location.

I headed back to the trailhead. Staying high in an attempt to skirt deadfalls, I overshot the trail, the first of many missteps on the way back to the Crown Valley Trail. It was more difficult than the trip in. I got lost several times, especially in meadows and in areas with dense deadfalls. For a while, I was on a trail that connects the Spanish Lake trail with the Geraldine Lakes trail, that one that starts near the old ranger station. Finally, I made it to the Crown Lakes Trail and it was almost three o'clock. Well, at least I knew I wouldn't have a hard time finding my way back to the trailhead. On my way back, I ran into a couple of fishermen that had spent time fly fishing Crown Creek and we talked for 20 minutes or so. They said the trail deteriorated beyond Crown Valley and had lots of deadfalls across it. A few minutes later, on the banks of Cabin Creek, I made my fourth observation of this trip (third of the day) of mitrewort, this time a new species to me, alpine mitrewort or Pectiantia pentandra. Even though the flowers are almost impossible to see unless you look closely, the leaves call attention to the plant.

I arrived at the junction with the cutoff heading to Rancheria Trailhead and saw the sign I had missed on my first trip of the season. It was new and fresh and located in a place that is easily missed if headed toward Crown Valley. The trail to the Crown Valley Trailhead looked unused. I wonder how long the Crown Valley trailhead will be used to get to Crown Valley? I guess it's still used to get to Statham Meadow.

I descended down to Little Rancheria where I took a break at about six o'clock before finishing the day at the trailhead at about 7:30. It had been a big day and I saw a lot. My first impression of the Spanish Mountain area, a bad one, had been clouded by the difficult trip in from the Crown Valley trail and the hard climb to upper Geraldine Lake. My impression of the area started to change during the final day and by the time I started looking at the photos of the trip, I realized the area was worthy of many return trips (especially if I can find a better trail to Geraldine Lakes).

Posted on Ιούλιος 06, 2015 0719 ΜΜ by sekihiker sekihiker

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Fire crews used the poor trail to Spanish and Geraldine Lakes for access to the Rough Fire. Only one dicey section remains - the part closest to the lake near the trail junction. That area is swampy and the trail becomes indistinct. Expect to get your feet wet.

Αναρτήθηκε από sekihiker πάνω από 7 χρόνια πριν

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