September 25 The Hirschman Trail

 

Wednesday, September 25 The Hirschman Trail

My humans have been gone for like forever.  Where are they?  What if they don’t get me food?  How can they leave me.  Oh!  I hear them!  MEOW!

We were gone all day yesterday, and Rudy was all over us all night long.  I guess he missed us, as much as a cat will miss a human.

Spouse came on my morning walk.  We decided to head down Hwy 49 for a few hundred feet, then go up Cement Hill Rd.  Sounds pretty, right?  It is a rural road with no room to really walk.  We were just about to turn around when I saw a trail head.  The Hirschman Trail is about a 4 mile round trip.  This was originally a hydraulic mining operation more than 100 years ago.  Once that dried up, the land restored itself to what it is now.  Hirschman Pond was actually fed through a tunnel, that has since collapsed.  The pond is still there, fed by springs.  Lots of wildlife, and some interpretive signs guide us along.

As we walk, we notice through a gate, that the Elks is right across the highway.  No need to go back to Cement Hill.  This will make it easy.  It is a beautiful shaded trail.  Lots of pines, varieties of oaks, willows and some awesome, gnarly manzanitas.  The pond is a mirrored reflection of the surroundings.  Fall colors are starting to kick in.  There are some amazing trees with expressive trunks.  There are my beloved berry brambles, where we were able to get a few ripe ones without risking our lives!  Little bridges cross creeks.  It is a beautiful and peaceful trail.  It would be ok for bike riding too, but I think I prefer walking it.  We got to a fork in the road, and figured it was getting late and we needed to get going so we headed back.

Since it is a long drive home, we decided to stop at the Elks in Visalia for the night, and get back home tomorrow.  Nothing I can write will make the drive down hwy. 99 exciting, so I probably will not post anything else.