Although California remains under an official Stay-at-Home policy, each county is able to make choices of how to begin reopening. San Diego County has reopened its parks for camping at 50% of capacity and only household members can share a campsite. That was enough incentive for us to join up with friends Doug and Marilyn and their granddaughter Lilly for a few days at William Heise County Park. As required, in separate campsites, of course.
Our site in RV Loop 2 was nice, but small and did not offer much shade. Bigger rigs would find RV Loop 1 better suited.
We took the short Nature Loop trail for our first hike. We’ve done this trail several times before, but not in the past decade or more. The trail seems now at a higher elevation and a lot steeper! The hills must be getting bigger…
Near the trailhead was a hen turkey with her three poults.
The Rio Grande Turkey was introduced to the area in 1993 by US Fish and Game, they are now estimated at 20,000 in the area.
The trail starts out in the shade of the Cedar and Oak trees that were spared by the 2003 Cedar Fire.
And quickly climbs to the remains of the new growth of the area where the fire took a toll.
Wildflowers are among the new growth.
After our ‘strenuous’ hike we headed into Julian to see how it was opening up. There were nearly as many hand washing stations on the street as there were people.
Most of the stores along main street were open. However the restaurants were takeout only. The pie shops sold only whole pies.
The following day we took the Cedar Loop Trail that passes through an area hard hit by the Cedar Fire. The fire opened the area for many new growth opportunities.
The steepest section of the trail has a 'pull' rope for assistance. Other trails are accessed from the top of this section.
The trail will cross Cedar Creek several times. It is possible to reach Cedar Creek Falls from the Julian side, but it is best done from the maintained trail on the Ramona side, which I blogged HERE.
The park is also planting many dozen Incense Cedar trees that once populated this area.
Lilly gave a gallant try at making Jiffy Pop over the campfire.
The pictures in this post are all from my phone. In the process of checking out the features on my new camera I managed to not be able to use it! I finally resorted to a factory reset!
This is my first post using the new Blogger, I hoped it would be an improvement over the previous version.
Looks like a hike we'd enjoy taking but would definitely need to use Loop 1. Nice to see reforestation taking place in the area affected by the fire.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately the improved Blogger is more of a setback.
Be Safe and Enjoy!
It's about time.
It may be awhile yet before Ontario reaches the mid-80F marks, but you should be out before then.
DeleteI agree the new and improved Blogger is new, but not improved.
Thanks for following along.
Nice to finally get out again! That park is in such a pretty area and close to.....Julian! I'm making the last of our cross country traveling Julian Strawberry Rhubarb pie for Dave's birthday dinner tonight! How did you find the new Blogger?
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, Dave! How did that last piece of pie make it all the way home!?!? I don't have that will power! I ate the last of our Apple Mountain Berry this morning. Julian is a nice local destination when it's too hot in Borrego.
Deleteyou should find a "Try the new Blogger" on the far left menu section of your blogger posts home page where you start. The changes improve the interface for use with a smart phone, but i use a computer ... ARG!
It wasn't a piece of pie (that would never make it more than one day!) it was an entire, frozen pie. I buried it in the bottom of Beluga's freezer so we wouldn't be tempted! I, too, use a computer to blog so I'm not looking forward to having to use the "new Blogger". ARG indeed!
DeleteWe often pick up a Take-n-Bake pie for our summer vacation trip. The RV smells soooo good with it cooking! Ours has never made it as far as Ohio, glad you smuggled yours home!
DeleteIt's great to hear things are continuing to open up and people are getting out and about, and it's always comforting to see new growth in areas of wildfires. We saw a lot of that when we were in the Pacific Northwest two years ago. Nature always finds a way. That Julian Pie is amazing. Not only have we had it, but we keep hearing about it... and not from traditional advertising, but, rather from word of mouth. They have most definitely built their business well.
ReplyDeleteI have at least 2 dozen pie tins in the garage - all from the Julian Pie Company! I'm a sucker for a good pie :))
DeleteNature is indeed reclaiming all of the Laguna/Cuyamaca Mountains that the Cedar Fire burned.
Your phone took great photos of your outing. It does feel good to be outdoors. I love pie!
ReplyDeleteOH NO! Great photos on my old iPhone 6?!?! You're being too kind, I'm not going to tell Fran I bought a new camera for no good reason :))
DeletePie over cake anyday ... any pie or any cake.
It felt so good to escape from the Cabin Fever at home.
Geologically speaking, maybe there is uplift on those taller hills. ;) Those are prolific turkeys. Looks like the vegetation is doing well after that fire. Are you sure it's a pull rope and not a fence to keep hikers on the trail? I'd feel terrible having to buy a whole pie ;) What's different about the new blogger, it looks the same?
ReplyDeleteThat's got to be it a geological uplift! No wonder the hills took a bit more effort to scamper over ;) Good to hear the blog looks the same, it's the composition side that has changed.
Delete