Sierra Foothill Conservancy
Dale Matson
Last Saturday Sharon and I were a part of a docent led hike of about four miles. The main focus was the wildlife with an emphasis on birds. Our docent Sue gave a brief introduction at the beginning and then stopped at various view markers to note historical information. For example, part of our hike was on the old SJE railroad line bed. The rails had been removed in the 1930s.
Sue noted at the beginning that she had led many trips and had never seen a rattlesnake. Well, wouldn’t you know it, we did see a rattlesnake. I was mostly interested in the possibility of seeing a Golden Eagle and looking up to the bluff, I was able to see a Golden on top of a tree above the cliff. It made carrying my Sony A7R4 and 600mm lens worth the effort. I also had a 1.4X TC and could shoot cropped. This gave me about 1200mm of reach. I also had a Sony A6600 camera with a 10-18mm lens for the group and landscape shots.
The trip was about five hours total with a morning break and a shaded lunch. We were fortunate that the temperature was much lower than it had been all week and in the mid 70’s.
I ran into one of my former graduate students Dave Weber who is also a docent for the conservancy and we did a lot of catching up. It is a relatively flat trail with about 400’ of gain to the mid-point and flat to downhill after that. We were with about 15 people and learned a lot. I have a lot of foxtails to remind me of the hike to pick out of my socks.
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