Home / Mojave Preserve and Desert bikepacking trips / 2007: Henry Coe State Park Mountain-Bike Camping / Day 5: A short day hike from Jackrabbit Lake to Paradise Lake and back. 27
Another great day of solitude, but very hot again, so I take it easy. I settle on a short (six-mile round trip) walk to Paradise Lake and back.
I was hoping to do a longer hike today through the Orestimba Wilderness well beyond Paradise Lake, but the combination of getting up late, having water-filter problems and the hot weather made me reconsider.
- Late-morning breakfast of miso soup and coffee at Jackrabbit Lake.
It stayed warm overnight and the temperature is rising quickly. There is just enough dappled shade that I've been able to sleep in a bit and stay inside to avoid the morning gnats buzzing around. A few clouds earlier helped attenuate the first rays of the day. OK, the tent is hot enough inside that I've been sweating most of the morning, but at least it wasn't so much that I felt like I was suffocating. Breakfast is instant miso soup with seaweed, then coffee, then a few handfuls of granola, then some dried apricots and tamari almonds. For dessert I have a thin semi-sweet dark chocolate bar that I've been keeping flat in the back of my notebook in the hard-backed pocket in one of my saddlebags. Each time I've wanted to eat this chocolate bar so far, it had liquified from the heat, with just the wrapping holding it together. In the hope that it's at least semi-solid from the cooler overnight hours, I get it out, but it's too late; it's liquid again. I give up this time and just eat the liquid chocolate bar with a spoon. Yummy! - The south tip of Jackrabbit Lake shows that the lake is not at its fullest.
I tried pumping some water a while ago, but my pump still seemed clogged, so I went back to my campsite to try clean it up some more. Maybe some of those flower parts from Clark Spring somehow got into the pump. So I've just come back down to Jackrabbit Lake to try pumping water again. I'm taking a walk around this end of the lake to choose a spot to sit down and pump. - Jackrabbit Lake, looking north.
There's a bit less green stuff floating in the lake a little further along. The shore of the lake is moist clay, so it's not immediately apparent where is a good spot to sit down and pump. - Walking past Jackrabbit Lake, looking southeast, as I begin a short day hike to Paradise Lake and back.
The water pump was very tight and squeaky because the replaceable filter is almost worn out, which I hadn't noticed before. So it took quite a while to fill my water bag and Camelbak with water pumped from Jackrabbit Lake. After returning to my campsite to drop off the 10-litre, 22-pound water bag, I'm finally heading out on today's little hike to Paradise Lake, about six miles round-trip. I'm just bringing my full two-litre Camelbak, my water filter (so I can refill at Paradise Lake) and a couple of energy bars. Fortunately, today is not quite as hot as yesterday, but it's still in the high 90s, which discourages longer hikes. I originally planned to do a much longer day hike today through the Orestimba Wilderness, well beyond Paradise Lake. - I climb up that crazy short and steep slope on the road on the way out of Jackrabbit Lake.
I keep looking at this hill thinking that it's probably too steep for me to be able to drag the bike up it. Fortunately, it's not very long. - On a knoll on lower Long Ridge Road, on the way back to Orestimba Creek Road.
I'm drinking lots of water in order to keep my sweaty neck glistening. The road climbing the hill in the background is a really steep part of Long Ridge Road beyond Jackrabbit Lake that I won't be travelling with the 10-ton bike during this trip. - View from Long Ridge Road across the valley toward Mississippi Ridge.
I begin the short descent down to Orestimba Creek (Road). My Mississippi Lake campsite two nights ago is more less straight ahead up in the mountains in the distance. - In the hot gravel of Orestimba Creek Road again.
I have a 0.3 mile walk in the dry creek to reach Red Creek Road. It's not quite as hot here as it was yesterday, but it's close; I can feel that heat radiating from the gravel again! - This might be some kind of buckwheat growing on the bank of the Orestimba Creek at Red Creek Road?
There's shade here right now, so I stop here for a couple of minutes and take advantage of it before heading up Red Creek Road. - Red Creek Road crosses Paradise Flat.
Flat land in Henry Coe State Park? - Wild pigs on Paradise Flat along Red Creek Road.
Surprisingly, these are the first wild pigs I've seen on this trip. There are a lot of these in the Park, so there is a chance of seeing them often, not just once or twice. - Another shot of the wild pigs on Paradise Flat along Red Creek Road.
The family of pigs has crossed the road to see what's under the other oak tree. - The wild pigs run away once they hear me coming up the road.
I didn't count the size of this family, but it seems like there are more than a dozen of them, perhaps 18, big and small. - Manzanita tree along Red Creek Road.
Living sculpture. - The dead-end road to Paradise Lake veers off to the right (north) from Red Creek Road.
Paradise Lake is 1/3 mile away, at the end of the road. - Paradise Lake sits in a private little valley at the bottom of a steep drop at the end of the road.
This sure is a quaint little spot. The steep hills here create a sense of enclosure and isolation from the outside. - Paradise Lake is small compared to Jackrabbit Lake.
I finished the two litres of water in my Camelbak a while back on Red Creek Road. It's amazing how much one drinks in the heat. I get out my water filter and pump some water here, hoping that it tastes good. The pump is even tighter than it was earlier and isn't providing much water. My patience runs out when my two-litre Camelbak is about three-quarters full and I give up pumping. True, I'll run out of water before I get back to camp, but I'll be close to home and there's plenty of water there. I spend a few minutes walking around the area, and take note of a couple of spots that obviously serve as campsites. Content with my discovery, I turn around and begin the three-mile walk back to Jackrabbit Lake. - Grey pine (pinus sabiniana) along Red Creek Road on Paradise Flat.
On the way back across Paradise Flat, I pay more attention to its non-meadow areas, which include head-high chapparal shrubbery and some taller trees, such as this grey pine. - Ceanothus along Red Creek Road on Paradise Flat.
This stretch of the road is probably really attractive and fragrant in the spring when the chamise and ceanothus are flowering. However, I enjoy these plants at this dry time of year also. - An old State Park boundary sign across the Paradise Flat meadow.
While walking down Red Creek Road, near where the wild pigs were, I notice what looks like an old sign across the meadow. There's not much around, so I'm curious what it would be. I walk across the meadow, collecting lots of tarweed burrs on my socks and legs. It turns out to be an old State Park boundary sign, presumably from earlier days when Paradise Flat wasn't yet a part of the Park. - A view of the Rooster Comb from Paradise Flat.
I had hoped to hike up to the top of the Rooster Comb (that rocky ridge behind me to the right) while I'm here in the Orestimba Wilderness, but that will have to wait until my next trip. - Returning to Jackrabbit Lake, I see that steep grade again further up Long Ridge Road that I was looking at this morning.
That road really is steep, and I congratulate myself again for not including it in my travel plans. It would probably be fun to ride down in a toboggan, if the hill were heavily snow-covered. - Chamise chapparal on one of the knolls that lower Long Ridge Road bounces over.
Looking west. In the background is Mustang Peak, which was on my "maybe" list of places to visit on this trip. Long Ridge Road eventually goes by Mustang Peak after climbing the mountain and following the ridge top. I'm out of drinking water now, but camp is only 3/4 mile away. Lo and behold, I pass a jackrabbit along here. - Heading down that crazy short, steep hill on the road to Jackrabbit Lake again.
This means that I'm almost home. The sun is starting to set and it already feels a degree or two cooler. - Arriving home at my Jackrabbit Lake campsite just a little before dark.
Perfect timing. I think I'll walk down to Jackrabbit Lake to see how it looks at sunset. - Jackrabbit Lake at sunset.
A peaceful place to sit and watch the sunset, listen to the birds, and enjoy the solitude. I haven't seen anybody in three days. While watching the sun go down, I pump a bit more water from Jackrabbit Lake to get a head start on tomorrow's needs while sitting by the lake. I start pumping water into a clear plastic bottle, and notice that the water is grey. Oops, my water filter isn't just clogged; it simply isn't working. I return to the tent, concerned. - Delicious, life-giving, grey water.
I pour some water out of my black water bag into a pot; it too is grey. Hmmm... I've been drinking untreated water all day and didn't find it objectionable at all. Now I just have to hope that the gallon or two of untreated water that I've drank won't make me ill! I can't just spontaneously end my trip because I'm about 20 bike miles and a couple of ridges away from Park Headquarters. I don't have enough propane to boil all my drinking water, but I am carrying iodine tablets for emergency water purification. I may end up using them. Tonight's supper is beef jerky with Trader Joe's boil-in-bag lentil biriyani (great stuff). The pouch is so warm from being in my tent that I question whether I need to heat it up further. But I conclude that it will probably taste better hot than luke-warm, so I do boil it for five minutes. This leaves me with a pot of hot boiled water that I can safely drink. It's a beautiful warm evening and my boiled water remains hot. Tasty! Around 23h, I step outside to walk around the campsite under the moonlight with no shirt on. It's still hot inside the tent and drinking one final cup of hot water before going to bed is making me sweat. But I'm tired and still very happy to be here, so I know I'll sleep well, sweating or not.