The Little Walker

It's been awhile since I was last in here!  A little late posting, but last weekend I went for a gorgeous jaunt up the Little Walker River, a few miles over the border into California, north of Bridgeport. A wonderful day. Sadly, I didn't realize I had my camera with me until the walk back to the car, so I wasn't able to catch the mountains in the early morning light, but late morning was pretty great, too!

The trail eventually crosses the Little Walker, but the water's quite a bit higher than I'm comfortable fording if I don't have a pressing reason to do so! It really has been an impressive snow year in the Sierra, and the rivers have been running high, which certainly made my field season logistics a tad bit interesting. The Great Basin got more than its usual share of snow, as well – this would be the year that we were going to do alpine bird surveys! Ah, well, not complaining. We need the water, and there's always next year! Anyway, above the ford, a track wends its way through the rocks and pines, all sun-dappled. If it weren't for hunger pangs, I could've stayed up there all day!

The wildflowers were everywhere. I have never seen so many Calochortus in one place before – portions of the trail were almost carpeted with them.

 

The Cash-dog plays amidst the flowers.  Minnie and he had such a blast.  I kept Minnie on a leash most of the time, since she's still healing after her surgery several months ago - unfortunately, she was so good, I took her off leash for some of it, and she lulled me into complacency, until she hared off after a squeaking ground squirrel, and came back limping.  Goober.  (She's doing fine, now.)

There are few things better in life than running through aspen.  The Western Wood-Pewees, juncos, and Warbling Vireos were singing, butter-butts flitted around my head, and Red-breasted Sapsuckers tapped their horizontal lines of holes into the bark of nearby trees.  Life is Good.

Minnie, Indian paintbrush, and a small unnamed tributary to the Little Walker.

Tomorrow I head off to explore the lower Walker River - during the field season, I saw some intriguing tracks and old roads that are now calling me!