Trip Date: May 11, 2020
Find this SpotThe god’s had conspired against our trips thus far in 2020. Even though we had a very dry January and February, bad weather cancelled 2 trips to the Mojave. These storms were very rare this year, and although not particularly strong, they were massive, covering basically the entire state. We looked further south, NE into the Black Rock, up the North Coast, and into the Los Padres beyond Hunter-Liggett. We even considered staying at the Hacienda, but the 3 big rooms that are super cool, are popular and not the kind you would find available at the last minute.
The stupid Coronavirus was upon us as well, and it riled us enough to cancel 2 attempts at getting up to the property in March and April. There were rumors and reports of travelers being stopped and turned around and fined heavily, for being out and about. But later on, you hear that that only happened in specific hot spots such as Lake Tahoe Basin, while Tom drove up here to Sacramento and Jordan and Jenny went to the coast unmolested. This situation, like many others, calls for simply doing what you think you need to do.
The time had come. We had been under the “Shelter in Place” request for going on 3 months now, and people were getting a bit itchy. I hadn’t been to the property since Steve and I put the water bars on the road last November 11. I have not seen the property in April or May and I had already missed my chance to see it in April, so I put the call out and Tom and Bob took the bait. As the date approached, more worries about the Covid and the weather arose, but we persevered.
By the time we were ready to go, the weather had completely deteriorated again, but it didn’t look like postponing a day or two would matter, and besides, we had the covered kitchen for weather protection. So up we went on a very decent Monday. K had again shopped and prepared and got me all ready so that I was on the road by 6:30. It was clear sailing up to Truckee, North on 89 into Sierra Valley, and on up 395 to the property. I was stoked.
I was much relieved to see the gate up, one “Property under Surveillance” sign still on the gate, and no tracks in the road. It looked just as we left it almost 6 months ago. I was ecstatic to see so much growth, mostly flowers already growing in the road, already covering up much of the clearing we did in constructing the road. The yellow flowers were out in force; the Arrow leaf, the tall wispy ones on the road, and the large flowering bushes.
The water bars were still in good shape, although they had definitely carried some material off the road, and had partially filled up with soil. The cabinet door on the backside of the outhouse was open, but otherwise, it looked great. The top looked just as we had left it. The top was also largely covered in the yellow flowers, lots of lupine, and lots of other plants getting ready to flower. It looked really green and fresh. The kitchen looked great having weathered its first winter. No loose or flapping parts. All looked great.
Until it didn’t. I noticed that the shitter door was open too. I walked down to close it. With so much wind up here, no wind related issues would surprise me, although, it didn’t seem like the wind would have blown away my cool old welder’s hammer that I used for the TP holder. It seems like, if the wind got in there, the TP and the wipes would be on the ground, and not gone entirely. The bag of sawdust, my “soup” ladle, and the hand brush was still on the wall, but, something seemed amuck.
It wasn’t until I went to the back cupboard and saw all the shelves bare that I had to admit we had been robbed. God Dammit! Fucking Assholes! Now I noticed the empty pallet in the bone yard. I assume that was filled with stuff when we left. My heart sank. I was mad, crushed, so disappointed, and felt like all our hopes and dreams for the place had just been crushed.
We had just bought a 31’ trailer and were about to bring it up here and put it under a nice metal cover. We were about to bring all the gear up we would leave here for the season. Now it felt like they had eyes on us and were just waiting for us to go so they could steal everything we brought up the hill. How disappointing. I didn’t need more worries, fears, concerns, trouble. I wanted this place to have good times and happy times with my brother and family and friends. I didn’t want to worry about what was happening when we were gone, what we might come up on every time we came, what might happen while we are here. Fuck all that noise!
I called Mike and talked to him a while. I called Kristen and talked to her for a while. Bob came up the hill and I showed him what happened. I called our neighbor Dale to tell him we were up here and that some stuff had walked away. I called Sheriff Dave to tell him. I was so bummed, I had a real hard time not just leaving and calling it quits. I wasn’t doing this to acquire more problems and all the head trips that come with them.
Bob and I consoled each other and we came to the conclusion not a whole lot of valuable things were lost. 8 rolls of barbed wire, maybe 50 or so very used metal “T” posts, all the toilet paper, wipes, and paper towel. I think perhaps a metal ladder, but definitely the thing I missed the most was the cool welder’s tool. No damage; no destruction; no vandalism, broken windows, fires started. I guess I should feel lucky, right?!
Bob and I set up camp in the cold breezy afternoon and unloaded the rigs. Tommy came about 5 and we got some fire, dinner and cocktails going. Bob brought a delicious mushroom chicken and rice meal that calmed the nerves.
It was cold and windy and overcast, and the end of a long day, so the night did not last long. NST Engineering was coming tomorrow to do the survey, so images of steel chain, compasses, transits, and theadolites danced in my head.
Tuesday morning was also cold, windy, and a tad moist. I was up early with coffee and fire and the boys soon joined in. About 9, Dale crested the hill and right behind him was NST to do the survey. It was a tad awkward greeting both, but Dale quickly recognized Bob, so they entertained each other, while I talked to Leo and his assistant. They were going to get to it and he would let me know once they got to the point of placing posts or flagging so I might be able to add a few more in between to have a better line of sight of the boundary.
Dale visited for a while and then shoved off with his dogs. The weather was wildly alternating between sun, rain, hail, wind and calm. We had great fun trying to figure out where the surveyors were while setting our chairs up in the sun, but being ready to run back to the kitchen or the bench when the solid or liquid precipitation came. The white survey truck spent hours well beyond our property lines; far across Termo-Grasshopper to the North and well beyond to the West. Back and forth on the same road and to seemingly the same spots North and West of the property. Our theories as to what they were doing were quite comical. I alternately hoped they knew what they were doing and then maybe didn’t resulting in a massive land grab.
Bobby took a nice walkabout off the Eastern shoulder and hunkered down under the Junipers as needed. He was gone a couple hours as we tracked him periodically with the binocs. By late afternoon, we finally saw the surveyors gather around a spot close to where we thought the NE corner would be and heard the tink tink tink of a stake being pounded into the earth. They had planted our flag. We could not see the goings on to locate the NW corner, but eventually the rig pulled up the hill and they reported success. They never did let me know if/when I could come down and add additional markers or flagging between whatever markers they were leaving behind, but he flagged the northern boundary very well so it was obvious, and he even found the elusive 6th BLM monument out in the field, the mid-western point and staked that. Out in the Western pasture with no trees and little sage, those flags were easy to see with binoculars, so that was well marked too.
Leo was impressed with our spot up top, so I brought him out to the cocktail lounge. He said he had only seen one other place like this with such a prominent rocky viewpoint. He said it was about 80 miles East and the Indians used it to put a signal fire on when other tribes were approaching. I liked the idea of our spot serving a similar if not more significant purpose. He said they would email us the info and the bill, and off they went.
That night brought considerable cold, wind, and rain, but I was super stoked at getting the survey done and having a lot of positive energy up there to push out the negative. Bob and Tom were early to bed so I sat up with great tunes, beverage, and fire for a couple albums and enjoyed myself immensely.
The morning sky was again light grey and dark grey and the cold kept us from feeling like doing anything but keeping the fire going and staying out of the wind as much as possible. It just was too rough to do anything too significant. We pounded some cement framing stakes in the ground with little pvc caps to lay out the approximate location of the RV cover and the trailer. We connected some longer PVC pieces to get a couple up about 12’ in the air and then drove down the road to see how visible they were from the pavement.
Bob used his transit to check the level of the area where we intended to place the trailer and cover and it was near flat. With that, Bob was off. Luckily, before he left, I realized I didn’t have my camp stove valve, so Bob left us his stove. With his departure, Tom and I decided to get out of the weather so we packed up and took a nice loop drive up 139 to Adin, 299 to Alturas, and 395 back down to Termo. It was a great drive full of memories. We had a great lunch at the Wildlife Refuge just South of Alturas.
Back at camp we heated up some lasagna and zucchini and celebrated our day. I again lingered by the fire finding a good spot out of the smoke, but receiving the heat of the BBQ. I slept well every night in my bed. I ripped a hole half way across the bottom of the tent, but I used my dirty clothes and an extra bag to block most of the open gash. Fortunately, it was on the lee side of the tent and therefore wasn’t worsened by the wind or susceptible to driving rain. Each night seemed a little milder, both in terms of weather/temperature and the fear and loathing over being robbed, so sleep came easily.
I called Mike the road builder to see if he could move some rocks for us and he let me know that he was again battling colon cancer. I had no idea, as we had just worked with him last year. He suggested the younger guy on the crew might be able to do the work for us and so he would get back to us. I also asked Sheriff Dave for a recommendation for a fence builder so as to make some progress on doing something about security.
Today Jordan was coming up so I was anxious about his departure time and driving up in his little Honda with all this weather. He called about noon and said he was just leaving, which disappointed me that it was so late, but at least I heard from him and it gave me a timeframe. I played phone tag with my neighbor Tim trying to figure out a good time to visit. Haley called to say she was on her way down to visit Ingrid. Tom moved his tent to Bob’s old spot, and pretty soon, it was late afternoon.
I grabbed a couple beers and drove down to the intersection of South Grasshopper and Termo-Grasshopper to wait. I called K and then called him. He picked up right away and said he was alongside Eagle Lake. We talked until the he had turned onto Termo-Grasshopper, and in no time he had pulled up behind me. It was great to have him on the property. He followed me up the triangle road, stopping a few times to check his spoiler. At the cemetery, I let him go first so he could stop if he didn’t want to drive any further and we would just load up the truck.
By the time, I headed up the hill, Jordan was already up top. There was much rejoicing. He unpacked in a few minutes and I got him to set up his tent right away although wind and rain were still regular appearances. Tommy BBQ’d a steak and 3 chickens and I sautéed some vege’s and we had a great meal. Jordan and Tom were pontificating as they do so well, so I decided to walk down and have a quieter visit with the boys. It got dark and by the time I came back up, they were concerned about my absence, but I had a good visit and filled my head and lungs with good stuff. I was off to bed.
Jordan slept until 10 and I had already had fire, coffee, and was working on a pile of brush Haley and Brett had pulled to the edge of the landing last summer. Fortunately, he was awake before Tim called again to see if we could get together and as this was almost our last day at the property, and the weather was improving, we decided on this morning for a visit. The weather held and we were able to walk out to the lounge and hang out for a while. Cindy and Tim were super nice people, out of the Bay Area, with much in common, so it was great to finally get to meet them, and great for them to meet Jordan. They offered to keep an eye on the place and we promised to get together again next time Mike is up.
Tom was packing up as Tim and Cindy rolled down the hill on their quad runner. His hip/leg had been bothering him the entire trip and I am sure the cold and wet was not helping. I was super happy he was able to come up and see the property. After Tom headed out, I was happy to have some time with Jordan. We still had the option of staying another night, but neither of us was committing one way or the other.
We moved the rigs to clear the landing to get a better look at where the RV cover, trailer, and cabin might go. Jordan was into it and it was fun to get his ideas. He helped me measure the stakes again and make some adjustments and consider the idea of pulling everything farther West, out onto the road more, and how that would affect visibility from the road and the quality of the resulting view.
We grabbed a few beers and some more materials and headed down to add some markers along the Southern boundary. It was fun to show him the corners so he could get an idea of the size of the property. We put a 10’ section of PVC on the mid-point monument and took turns lining each other up with the other markers and a corner along the boundary. At one point, he lined up the truck and stood on the roof so I could get lined up. That is the kind of commitment I am looking for…
We had done what we wanted to do along the Southern boundary so I drove up S. Grasshopper to mark the point where the Northern boundary line crossed the road/fence. As I was waiting for Jordan to find another flag out along the Northern boundary to line me up, a white truck pulled up behind me. I kind of expected it to be Dale or Tom, as everyone drives a white truck, and most of them seem to be Ford’s. However, as I took my eyes off Jordan to look at the rig, it was a Sheriff.
We said hello and talked about what we were doing. Jordan came out of the brush and we introduced each other and I mentioned we knew Sheriff Dave and owned the Hill and I had just let him know we got ripped off. After gabbing for a few more minutes, I asked if he wanted to come up, so off we went. This was the nicest guy, about Jordan’s age, real easy going, interested in hearing about what we were doing, and really listening and hearing us. He gave us 2 great ideas.
We talked for over an hour and my back began to hurt and it was getting late and we needed to think about packing up. I thought we were done at one point, but I literally had to just walk away and get to packing up. He and Jordan talked another half hour. It really made me happy to see and filled me with all kinds of good stuff. It was a great ending to the trip. Jordan and I packed up, and he was a huge help. I was sorely tempted to stay another day, especially with the weather, but I think it was better to stick with the plan.
I remembered I was supposed to get some Juniper berries for Steve, so I let Jordan go down the hill ahead of me while I loaded up on branches. Down on South Grasshopper, we said our final goodbyes and headed off in different directions; he back the way I came up and I back the way he came up. All in all, another great trip; not without bumps and bruises, but overwhelmingly positive.
Find this Spot
Jordan’s First Trip to Hart Hill Photo Gallery
