Chimney Creek

On the July 4 weekend Paul and I went camping in the southern Sierras. The Chimney Creek campground was at 6000 feet, so some of the desert heat would be gone, but we wouldn't be too cool either. I chose this campground because of seclusion and because the Pacific Crest Trail crosses it. We were secluded. The campground had only 10 of the 36 campsites occupied. It was also on a Back Country Byway too new for inclusion in older books. The other campgrounds higher up in the mountains were basically filled.

Our campsite was hidden in the pines. Getting there and set up at about 3:00PM, we had time to go for a drive. We followed the Chimney Creek Backway around the sagebrush meadow and up a mountain road that used to be paved. We saw lots of quail along the road. We finally came to the turnoff for the Long Valley campground. After following the road for 2 miles, we found the campground deserted on Thursday. It was getting late, so after scouting around we returned to camp, resolving to return the next day to take the Long Valley trail to the south fork of the Kern River, a stream supposedly legendary for trout fishing.

Returning to our campsite, we found we were not alone. It was mosquito time. There were also tiny flies that seemed to want to live in your mouth, ears and eyes. They never bit, but they were a nuisance. We spent some time in the tent before cooking dinner, trying to avoid them. That became our routine: come back late, spend time in the tent, and start dinner at dusk. After dark they were gone and the temperature was quite nice. By 10:00PM, the sky was filled with stars.

The next day, Friday, we started (not too early), having a liesurely breakfast and then headed out for the trail. The first sign you saw said the river was 3.2 miles away. But once you got onto the trail, signs said it was 1.5 miles. #.2 was correct. The trail stayed generally above the creek as you descended the first mile. The trail was clar and well marked. Plenty of wildflowers were blooming. The stream was small, but promised to get larger as we neared the river. It didn't. In fact, in some places along the second and third miles it disappeared. There was some rock scrambling to get down the canyon. There was even a little stream crossing. The canyon got steeper in the second mile, and we passed to the canyon bed in the third mile. The descents were never hard, which means coming back up wouldn't be too hard.

We finally reached the river and had a snack. The river was not as good as I thought it would be for fly fishing. The biggest problem is that, unless you had waders, you couldn't cast because of all of the overhanging willows and oaks. The stream was pretty and you could see how high the water had been earlier in the spring. We hiked back out and then had lunch before driving further on the backway. The day ended as the day before with bugs, dinner and billions of stars.

The third day was our driving day. We took the road to Kennedy Meadow. The area is somewhat developed, but without electricity. The meadow is basically sagebrush. However, the south fork of the Kern River runs through the west end of the meadow. The river was clear here, and plenty of fishermen were casting into it. I didn't catch the fish in the picture. It was a whitefish, a "trash" fish that someone caught and threw away. After spending some time wandering the river and talking to fishermen (and women) we continued into higher forest country.

There were plenty of side trails to take at higher elevations. Many of them were open to ATV's. We saw plenty of wildflowers blooming along the roads. But not many people, other than at campgrounds. Troy Meadow was one of the stops we made before passing the ranger station. Again, there were plenty of wildflowers. The road continued to climb to Sherman Pass, at over 9000 feet. You can see Mt. Whitney and Olancha Peak from the overlook at the pass. The descent to the north fork of the Kern River is steep and rapid. The roads are curvy. Worrying about gas, I decided to continue to Kernville or Lake Isabella. Once you got to the Kern River, the descent lessened. But the river, famous for rafting, was filled wall to wall with people. They were camped together like it was a local K=Mart with a blue light special. We followed the road to Kernville and Lake Isabella, where we stopped for a late lunch.

We noticed smoke on the mountains on the east side of Lake Isabella. We saw a large brush fire that was just about under control. We watched a helicopter go from the fire to the lake, fill up it's scoop, return to the fire, and then pour the water onto the fire. It was fascinating. The winds made the task hard, but the helicopter was gaining a slow advantage.

The road back to the campground took us through the canyon formed by the south fork of the Kern and then through desert. Gas lasted longer than I expected, so we lasted untikl Inyokern. That allowed me to bag two passes in one day, as Walker Pass, the lowest over the Sierra's is on the way to Inyokern. Would you believe that the only paved pass over the Sierra's I haven't completed is Tioga? Well, that's another story. We completed the drive though high mountain forest, meadows and back again into desert. There was the usual time in the tent before supper to let the bugs go to bed. And the usual tons of stars at night.

We completed the trip, which was done partly to test the theory that the Sierra's weren't much farther than the mountains of Utah from Las Vegas. They are as close as Bryce Canyon, but not as close as Cedar Breaks. We drove to Lone Pine and stopped for a snack at a rest stop before going to the Interagency visitor center. Then on through Death Valley to home. There has been a lot of new signage put up in the new parts of that National Park describing roads (dirt and 4WD) into those areas. The day after we got home, I read in the newspaper that it was 118 degrees in Death Valley when we drove through.

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