Got a text from Don on Saturday evening that there had been a report that Tule Spring (mile 137), a very important water source for thru hikers on the southern edge of Anza, had failed. So, I drove out first thing Sunday morning to check it out.

Tule Spring is set up to flow into a large fire tank, which in turn feeds a valve-controlled pipe, so accessing the water in the spring is actually done via this tank and valve. Sure enough, the water was coming out in drips, rather than the usual torrent. (I estimated a flow rate of somewhat less than a liter an hour. — Not nearly enough for the hikers who rely on this source.)

I had brought some water and other stuff with me, in the event that this is what I would discovered, so I immediately set up a bucket under the pipe outflow to capture every drop, in the hopes that, even at this slow rate, it would have time to fill partially between hikers.

 

 

I also scouted the best route down to Tule Creek, below the pipe, which still had a small flow. I wanted to try to prevent hikers from using the route closest to the pipe, which was very steep and was already showing significant signs of erosion just from a few sets of boots. We had had some rain the previous week, and I knew that there wouldn’t be water flowing in this creek for long, but in the meantime, hikers would want to access it.

I had brought some water with me and set up a small cache — 30 gallons — just enough to see the hikers who had not gotten the word at either Trail Angel Mike’s or Warner Springs about the failure of Tule Spring, and would not have enough to get them through to the next water source.

Once I had a cell signal, I sent confirmation of the ring failure to Don and pctwater, texted Trail Angel Mike to alert hikers going by his place to really stock up on water, and called the Warner Springs Community Hall to also alert hikers.

The last thing I did was up my cache to 64 gallons and top off the Sandy Road cache at mile 143.1.

What started as a VERY windy day on Saturday turned into an ideal day for a group hike of the PCT from my place to “Anza’s Grand Canyon” and back. The event was sponsored by the Anza Borrego Foundation, the non-profit organization that both handles fundraising for land acquisition and offers programming in and related to the Park, as this one. This event was part of their Hikes and Hops series, and ended with beers for the participants at my picnic tables after the hike.

Because of the cold, wet weather we had had over the past week, wildflower blooms were still very close to peak, with both wild canterbury bells and lupine putting on a great show, as did this manzanita.

After a large drug enforcement operation nearby 10 days ago, I had my first opportunity to take a close-up look (from the PCT, of course) of the area. It is so sad, seeing what the pot growers have done (and continue to do) to the segment of this wonderful trail in Anza. While the plants and the pot growers were gone (well, not quite — they were there removing appliances from one of their RVs while I watched from the trail), the RVs and grow houses still stand next to the trail. The plastic has been partially pulled away and is starting to break away from the frames. Soon enough, it will break totally free and become yet more trash that the pot growers have “contributed” to the area.

Here are a few pictures of what remains:

Our local paper, the Anza Valley Outlook, had a nice news story and op-ed about the bust and what the pot growers are doing to the area.

It is hard for me to write a post only about the ugliness that morally ugly people are bringing to the area, so I will close this post with a couple images I shot on the same day from our little piece of the PCT.

This has been the best spring yet for wildflowers along the PCT in the Table Mountain area. Mojave Yucca and Our Lord’s Candle usually own the show in mid-spring, but this year, Scarlet Bugler, Brittlebush, and California Poppies are also putting on a great show.

For the past three years, I’ve been featuring a watering hole on my property in Anza to get a better look at the wildlife that I share this place with and to help them through the horrible drought we are experiencing — and continue to experience in the “no Niño” winter/spring of 2015-2016.

I’ve been concerned from Day 1 about mosquitoes breeding using this water source. (While we don’t have many mosquitoes in Anza, we have a few, and I don’t want to be the one responsible for them reproducing in large numbers.) In the past, I combatted this by emptying the water hole every other week. — Boy, was that a chore.

Then, someone suggested I put fish in the pond to eat the mosquito larvae. I did a little research and this seemed like a viable alternative. So I drove to Hemet and got myself a gallon ziplock bag with a few mosquito fish in it using the Mosquito Fish Program offered by RivCo Vector Control. I bought some pond plants  from a local koi supply store. (I was told both the plants and the fish would reproduce, based on the carrying capacity of my little ecosystem, so I should start with just a few of each.) By the end of the day, my little body of water was transformed from a watering hole to a pond.

One benefit of not flushing the water every two weeks is that the Western Toads that I have attracted to my property for the past two years will now be able to reproduce and have their eggs go from tadpoles to baby frogs. And, wouldn’t you know, the very day I put the fish in the pond, I captured two toads “going at it” at water’s edge that evening.

I got a close-up a little later that night of what I think is the female. (I’m no expert in sexing toads, but this one appears to be the one on the underside in the photo above.)

Even though hiker traffic on the trail Easter weekend was light, I decided that Easter was too good of a day to pass up as a kick-off for the Pop-Up Gourmet series of events I have envisioned. So, I told myself I would do it and that this was a “dry run” to check that this was something I could handle once the hikers arrive.

I loaded up the truck (“Beverly Hillbillies-style”) and set things up at the picnic tables near the trail. I combined this with my usual weekend water run, which explains the wet stream coming off the back of the truck in the picture.

 

Everything was ready by 12:30 for the hikers … who never showed up. (This isn’t quite true. I had two guests, but they both needed to get to Highway 74 by the middle of the afternoon, so they just stopped by for a chat and some of the fruit I’d left out.) So, my first Pop-Up Gourmet was a bust, but it was a useful dry run and proof of concept for me. — Yes, I can do this, and, yes, Gracie won’t freak out every time a puff of wind makes the tent move.

I had signed up for a ride on March 25 from Goff Flats to Gold Shot Mine that would have included a bit of the PCT just north of Highway 74. The ride was sponsored by the Redshank Riders, the local unit of Backcountry Horsemen of California. A big windstorm came up and most participants bailed. The few of us that were left (me, Greg, and Ali) decided we would ride, but just not there on an exposed ridge.

Instead, we drove to the PCT/Highway 74 crossing (technically, we drove to Paradise Valley Cafe and parked our rigs there and rode the mile to the trailhead) and rode south the 6.5 miles to my place. Had a great time. Greg ponied a horse outbound and I put Gracie away and rode his horse, a nice little Missouri Foxtrotter named ‘Desperado,’ back to the trucks parked at Paradise Valley Cafe.

On the outbound trip, we’d noticed an overhanging branch that equestrians needed to duck under. The resourceful and always-prepared Greg whipped out his hand saw and performed some impromptu trail maintenance on the trip back.

The Easter Bunny appeared at PCT 145.37 at some point between 9pm last night and 10am this morning. Some fresh fruit (strawberries, blackberries, bananas) appeared in the soda cooler, and the redshank near the picnic tables was festooned with Easter eggs for hungry hikers.

 

 

 

 

A few new sigs.

I was super busy this weekend prepping my equestrian rest stop and water cache for the rush of thru hikers who are amassing at the border. As of this writing, March 27 is the date when the PCTA has maxed out on their 50-permits-a-day limit leaving from the Mexican border. The 50-hikers-d-day limit runs through mid-May. (See their Permit Request Page and click “Check Mexican Border Availability.”) I’m already seeing several thru hikers a day trickle by. We’ll see whether the cancellation of Kick-Off has prevented hikers from bunching up too much.

With just another week until the trickle becomes a flood, I needed everything in place. My thru hiker additions are two large garbage cans (one for recycling, one for trash), a cooler stocked with cold sodas and fresh fruit, and a hiker box with some sugary foods, repair supplies, and a first aid kit.

While I was at it, I set up the water tank to irrigate future shade for the coming summer dry spell.

Next weekend, I’ll up the number of fresh gallons stocked to 32. With the much larger seasonal cache just 2 miles to the south, these 32 gallons will add a bit of a safety factor to hikers that are not carrying enough water out of Tule Springs.