Back on the Road

Jan 18th

We are on the road again! The holidays were great, and we got to visit a lot of family and friends. We stopped for the night at Hensley Creek Reservoir, about 15 miles east of Fresno. It is gorgeous, which Fresno isn’t. After choosing a camp site, we decided to stay a couple nights so we can explore the area. There are over 75 campsites, and only 4 campers. The reservoir water levels are extremely low. Our campsite was once a waterfront site, but now we have to walk over 300 yards to get to the water. Mia, Oreo and I walked down to check out the water. As we walked, Oreo stopped and refused to move on. He was staring at the top of the hill next to us. When I looked up, there was a coyote looking down at Oreo. The coyote and Oreo, were about 40 yards apart, having a staring contest. After about 30 seconds, the coyote turned and walked out of site. In the middle of the night the coyotes were in the campground all around us. The sound is pretty haunting when it is that close.

Jan 19th

After breakfast this morning, we went for a hike. The trail wound through the hills and some really cool rock formations. After the hike, Mia and I, did some school work. We sat outside because it was such a nice day. It was a little hard for Mia to concentrate, due to all of the distractions. There are ground squirrels everywhere, and they chase each other all over. Right in the middle of our spelling lesson, two coyotes came wondering up from the lake. They just walked by us as if we were of no interest to them. Luckily, Oreo was exhausted from our morning hike and didn’t even see them. Our final animal tally during school: ground squirrels, cottontail rabbits, hawks, osprey, ravens, untold small birds, and of course, coyotes. We took a second hike this afternoon, down to the lake. The water is covered in algae. We won’t be putting our kayak in.

Jan 20th

The air quality in the Central Valley is horrible, so we are trying to get to clearer skies today. Apparently, the Valley has some of the worst air in the country. It’s been allowed to go unchecked by the EPA, because it is such an important agricultural area. The air is brown and disgusting. We found some BLM dispersed camping by Lake Isabel, and that’s were we headed. I think our Garmin GPS unit has made its final mistake. It took us across Hwy 58, and then we cut across the mountains on a very narrow road, that took us an extra hour, and wasted a lot of gas. When we came up over the mountain into Lake Isabel, we were at the top of a ridge with a shear drop off on one side, and only one lane. After looking at our paper map, we could have taken Hwy 178, a 4-lane road, all the way from Bakersfield. The campsite we picked in is near the Kern River just below the lake. It is beautiful and secluded. We did find bear tracks all around the area though.