Gray Lodge

Pictures by Clarence.

Lucky us! It was a Wednesday and a bright, sunny day for a walk at Gray Lodge. Seven of us joined Karen (yes, Karen! and she's looking good) down in the valley hinterlands looking for BIRDS. Tiana wanted the money taker to assure us that we would, in fact, see birds. And birds we saw - tundra swans and snow geese, red-tailed hawks, and ducks galore.

The wheeling flocks made wonderful swishing/chickenyard calls as they would tentatively decide to take to the air in great hords of flapping and group wheeling, take a few turns and settle down again to noisily floating around in groups of like species. Karen brought some extra persimmons and delicious persimmon bars for all at lunch. It was great to see her and all agreed that in spite of the low foot mileage, we had a lovely day.

If you go looking for Gray Lodge, follow the green line from Route 70 in Gridley. We continued to look for the flock of elusive ibis. Instead, we headed home, checking out the piles of free-for- the-taking rice hulls and happy that we had been properly warned by an on-coming truck of a speed trap up ahead.

Cascade Ditch

Well, he had made lunch so rain or shine, we were going to hike. Not surprisingly we were the only ones at Sutton Way so we decided to hike up on Banner. After winning a disagreement on proprietry, I knocked on Akiko's door. "Sure - I love hiking in the rain." So off we went on a trail in the green space around her development and then on to the Cascade Ditch trail. We crossed Red Dog at the end and kept going, rain be damned. Even shared our first lunch (the one John had packed) and ate while walking in the wet. Altogether we probably hiked 8-9 miles, remarking on the Banner Mountain damage from the Big Storm all the while. Amazing amount of torn up trees both on and off the trail - they have been cleared off the trail, though. There was some old snow and ice in the usual parts which slowed us up a tad. We hauled our wet, bedraggled selves into Akiko's garage and went into her house for a lovely bowl of soup and cookies...and what was left of John's packed lunch.

Fairy Falls

Top 6 pix from Clarence.

Having helped Karen gather and crush her walnut crop, Barbara brought us bags of walnuts. Even Laurie showed up. Kudos to Karen and Barbara. Next year we should schedule a fun work day helping with the harvest.

But with sun on our minds, we left Barbara to her dental extraction appointment (lucky lady) and headed down to Spenceville to do the first of our winter walks there. Lovely weather, lots of water...what more could we ask for? Two large birds of prey called and soared over us a few times. We thought they were eagles or a redtailed hawk but after looking at a few bird books, I think they were harriers. After admiring the falls, we headed up into the (former?) pastures shimmied under barbed wire fences and finally settled on a hilltop with a great view of the valley, including the Sutter Buttes in the haze. We relaxed and baked in the sun. After walking down the hill, Clarence and John looked at their GPS's and took a turn away from the cars to extend the hike. We did a large circle as part of a figure 8, ending at the main dirt road. We had hiked somewhat over 7.5 miles.

The recent storm led to some exciting stories: Many of us lost power for an extended period of time, turning our houses cold and dark, and eliminating our water supply. We also lost many broadleaf trees. Akiko lost power for 6 days and she and Selma still don't have phone service.

Next week will be the Gray Lodge bird sanctuary. It is a short hike but lots of birds in the flooded rice fields. We hope that Karen will be able to join us.