Tenaja Trail

Wednesday, we drove up to the Cleaveland National Forest for an all day hike in a fairly remote area. We are trying to up our mileage in preparation for the Grand Canyon next month.  The highlight of the hike was a remarkable man we met on the trail.

 Right off we sighted a couple Granite Spiny Lizards, who, true to their name, are always on large granite boulders.

 There were numerous Great Basin Fence Lizards.  This is a dark phase example.

 We were on the lookout for breeding alligator lizards, and almost got lucky.  There were two a few inches apart, but one scurried off under cover.

We saw many Western Tiger Swallowtail butterflies near the creek.

From a distance, miles from nowhere, I spotted someone on the trail below, and said to Gail, "That guy is doing trail work!"  She said, "No way, he's and old man!"  I replied, "He has a shovel and tools!"

So we met Bruce who is about to turn 79, and does major repairs to miles of trail out in the wilderness.  He spends his own money and uses his own truck to rebuild trail head parking lots, and remove dangerous trees, among other things.  He is an unpaid Forest Service volunteer.  He told us that he has trouble finding any volunteers to help him when it is over 90 degrees.  Bruce was very animated, funny, full of knowledge, and we must have talked to him for about 20 minutes.

He had dug this rock that was intruding on the trail out of the ground, and was maneuvering it down the trail about 30 feet or so to a hole he dug where it would help support the trail.  This boulder must have weighed a ton!  He was being careful to not let it go over the side, which was steep.  He referred to living in an old folks home.  Amazing!

 San Mateo Creek had some pretty big pools which were tempting.

 We saw Baja California Treefrogs, like this one, California Treefrogs, and bullfrog tadpoles.

This gives an idea of the rugged terrain in this canyon.  Well, I was disappointed at seeing no snakes throughout the day -  I thought conditions were perfect for a sighting.  However, it was a good hike, eleven miles in all.