I Like Pigeons Because Nobody Else Does

 His browbeating finally eroded my resolve and we left San Diego yesterday morning for Palm Springs under the condition that I’d go as far as I could whether it meant reaching the pinnacle or not. We took the aerial tramway to an elevation of about 8516 feet and began the hike from there. From this elevation and up, the mountains are subalpine which means that they are just below the treeline and consist of plants specialized to grow in harsh conditions. The persistent blasting wind causes trees to grow crooked, stunted and twisted and allows only conifers to persist. On the side of the mountain where the wind isn’t blasting, the conifers grow tall and plentiful. It’s a completely different type of forest than what I am used to.

Mt San Jacinto itself is 10,834ft above sea level and the mountain range is the second highest in California. It forms the west border of the Coachella Valley and the San Bernardino Mountains form the east.  Palm Springs, at the north end of the valley, and all the other towns lie right on top of the San Andreas fault. I’ve spent much time in the mountains on the San Jacinto side working with the museum on our San Jacinto Centennial Resurvey study, but we have not yet done any surveys at high elevations.

It’s a 12 mile round-trip from the tram’s lodge to the peak of Mt San Jacinto. “No way in hell am I going to make this” I whined probably ten times. And indeed, I didn’t…but I made it a lot further than I thought I would. When hiking above ten thousand feet it seems as if it’s an endeavour of diminishing returns – the higher you get, the harder it is and progress comes to a crawl. We made it to around 10,500 and decided to turn back. We probably could have done it if we’d taken our time and just gutted it out, but I simply didn’t have the mental fortitude at that point.

We ended up having a great time, despite my expectations to the contrary. That’s probably our last hurrah here in California before we head back east.

Gene finally received his official discharge paperwork and we were able to schedule the movers. We submitted a pack-up date of May 27th and plan to leave San Diego on Saturday the 30th to begin the long drive across the US to Pennsylvania. I just want to get this overwith as soon as possible.

We went to Palomar Mountain last Thursday to do some hiking and have lunch in the fine weather that is an almost-permanent fixture in southern California.

There haven’t been any mountain lion attacks in SoCal in recent history, but there isn’t a trail around here that doesn’t have one of these warning signs:

They’re a very real danger here, but rarely attack people. In 1996 there was a woman attacked and killed on Cuyamaca Peak which is a favorite spot of ours. She was running alone early in the morning and suddenly found herself as mountain lion breakfast. 

Many of the trees on Palomar Mountain have been burned in past forest fires:

Here’s Gene looking at an acorn woodpecker’s fallen larder tree:

I posted about acorn woodpeckers before. They’re the only colonially nesting woodpeckers in the world and the reason they’re able to exist in that manner is due to these larder trees. They work together to store acorns and they do that by drilling holes in the thick bark of trees and inserting acorns for later use. The ensuing shrinkage of the bark ensures that the acorns are securely stored. Some of these trees have as many as 20,000 acorn holes.

I tore a piece of bark off of a fallen tree and regrettably disturbed this termite colony that was busy doing termitey things:

The small soft-bodied white insects are the workers which represent the majority of the colony and are responsible for egg care, tunnel maintenance and construction, foraging for food and feeding and lastly, grooming other members. The jawed individuals on the upper left and lower right are the soldiers, obviously responsible for defense. The termite in the middle without large jaws is a king termite who mates with the queen.

Gene spotted this alligator lizard sunning himself on the trail:

Normally I’d have not hesitated in handling a lizard, but these things are called “alligator lizards” for a reason. They are capable of a serious bite and I just left him on the ground.

We walked up Cuyamaca Peak yesterday for the second time. It’s the second highest mountain in San Diego County at 6,512 feet (1,985 m). It’s an easy walk since there’s a paved fire road the whole way to the top but it’s so steep and the elevation change so great that I’m a real slowpoke on the ascent. We always see animals, but have yet to spot a mountain lion which is not uncommon in this area. A woman was killed on the fire road in 1996 while jogging.  But the turkeys, ravens and acorn woodpeckers are entertainment enough.

The burned trees are leftovers from the 2005 Cedar Fire that burned 90% of the park. I read in some park literature that it was one of the biggest human-caused fires in California history.

Mr Hanzawa and I had a great weekend, thanks to lousy weather. San Diego was recipent of quite a bit of rainfall on Sunday morning so we spent the morning at the Natural History Museum visiting the Pompeii exhibit and, when it stopped raining, ventured over to the zoo. We almost had the run of both places and it was fantastic. Monday brought clear skies, so we hiked 6 miles in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park before he caught the Amtrak train back to Los Angeles.

Last weekend Gene and I went to nearby Cuyamaca Rancho State Park and did a 10 mile hike. We only saw a few other people which was really nice since our intent was to get away from them in the first place.  This is a great place to see wildlife – we saw many lizards and new birds so I’m going to have to go back there soon on a photography expedition.

Tonight we’re going to one of Gene’s coworker’s homes for dinner and then into San Diego to a club called the Casbah to see my favorite band of all time, Southern Culture on the Skids. They’re from Chapel Hill and I’ve seen them twice when we lived in NC. They’re actually better live than on a CD which is something you can’t say about many musicians.

Tomorrow off on another hike, maybe we’ll return to Anza Borrego.