Hiking for Rhinos Virtual Marathon Update #2 January, 2019
Wow, am I finding lots of great places to walk, and discovering many interesting and beautiful things that I never knew existed right here in El Dorado County! Here are some highlights from my second week of Hiking for Rhinos:
Walking down the bike trail towards Shingle Springs one rainy afternoon the sky ahead of us was getting darker and darker. I was aiming to go another couple tenths of a mile down the tracks but Lyssa and Tina had other ideas. There was a faint thunderclap in the distance and Lyssa suddenly put on the brakes and did a U-turn and started tugging at the leash to go back to the car. I coaxed her to continue on another minute or so but then there was a second much louder thunderclap and both dogs turned on a dime and took off back up the trail, dragging me with them. We were still a half mile or so from the car when the storm caught up with us- hail, wind and torrential rain. Boy did I get some dirty looks from Lyssa! I had to confess, my dog is smarter than I am!
Fortunately Lyssa is as forgiving as she is smart and the next day she was very happy to lead me on an exploratory hike up the west ridge trail of Cronan Ranch. What a beautiful time to be out in the foothills! The rattlesnakes are lying low, green grass is beginning to blanket the land, and all of the foxtails and stickers are gone. The lichens, moss and ferns are painting lush glowing kaleidoscopes of green on every rock, branch and tree trunk.
At the top of the west ridge we found a field of tiny yellow toadstools sprouting in the grass like a field of daffodils. It was pretty magical!
One day I joined Dr Chris hiking over on the Middle Fork of the American River near Foresthill. We hiked down a section of the Western States Trail into the canyon along the river. The trail wound down through several beautiful tributary creeks that had carved spectacular miniature gorges through the bedrock. The sculptured gorges were draped with branches dripping with thick green moss and lichen.
It was wonderful.
I’m convinced we don’t know how lucky we are to be living in this beautiful Sierra foothill country, or we would be doing even more to protect it. We have so much public land and the freedom to walk and explore. We share these lands with native wildlife, and we have sanctuaries for native plants. We have so much to appreciate, but we can’t appreciate what we don’t even know we have. So don’t just take my word for it! Go for a walk!
Other countries and lands are not so lucky. I’m walking here, but I’m thinking of Africa (see The Art of Bathing in the Mud.)
If you are already a sponsor THANK YOU! If you would like to pitch in, it’s not hard and every penny-a- mile counts! Here’s the link: sponsor me!
Happy Trails,
Shirley & Co
