Home / Mojave Preserve and Desert bikepacking trips / 2007: Henry Coe State Park Mountain-Bike Camping / Day 3: A short day hike from Mississippi Lake to Bear Spring 20
I originally planned to head out to Jackrabbit Lake today, but I think an extra day here at Mississippi Lake to rest a bit and enjoy the area is a better idea.
I consider a day hike up the nearby Bear Mountain Peak Trail, but a walk to Bear Spring, only about four miles round-trip, should be satisfying enough in today's heat.
- Time to filter some drinking water from Mississippi Lake.
Wow, I'm awake and alive after yesterday's arduous trip up Willow Ridge Trail! I slept incredibly well last night, even though I had to get up several times to urinate. At least that tells me that I wasn't dehydrated. It's so convenient to have a water source just 100 feet from the tent. I still have some good-tasting water left from Willow Ridge Spring last night, but I want to save it for drinking, and use the muddier-tasting water from the lake here for cooking purposes. - Making late-morning coffee at the picnic table at Mississippi Lake.
It's not as bad as I was expecting, but my body is giving off weird signals and muscle spasms after yesterday's hot and heavy hike-a-bike trip up Willow Ridge Trail. I'm feeling very tired this morning, almost hungover (despite having consumed no alcohol), but my overworked muscles are "just" feeling overworked, rather than pain-ridden. My camping filterless drip-coffee maker is really slow. After using it to make coffee during my Death Valley bicycle trip a few months ago, I've switched to a slightly coarser grind of coffee for this trip, but it hasn't improved performance much, if at all. The hot sun started baking my tent and its contents (me) a bit after 8h this morning, but after a while, the sun rose enough above the ramada here that I was able to relax again inside, rather than just suffocate. - View of my Mississippi Lake campsite.
My third time camped out here. The big old oak tree doesn't provide much shade early in the day, but later, it's very nice to have as a neighbour when the sun is frying everything else around. I'm starving after yesterday's exertion, so I eat a lot for breakfast: one Mountain House Beef Stew backpacker's meal (my favourite, and it "serves two") and one Zen Bakery cinnamon roll. A few pieces of dried carrot and potato escape the meal pouch and fall to the ground, almost instantly attracting the attention of a yellowjacket passing by. Mr. or Ms. Yellowjacket really seems to like the sauce powder clinging to the bits of dried vegetables and hangs around for a while. As someone who is very allergic to yellowjacket venom, I keep a close eye on this. As soon as the cost is clear, I clean up the five or six vegetable pieces. - Heading up the road away from Mississippi Lake (this is actually still part of Willow Ridge Road)
I consider going for a hike up the nearby Bear Mountain Peak Trail, but it has turned into a really hot day and today is my lazy day. After deciding that the water from Mississippi Lake tastes too dirty to keep drinking, I opt for the two-mile (four-miles round-trip), mostly flat walk to Bear Spring to load up on better water. I leave the bicycle at home. I visited Bear Spring at this time last year and remember that its water was pretty good. - Starting up Bear Spring Road.
Judging by the tire tracks, vehicles drive up here once in a while, but not often. - Catching some shade on Bear Spring Road (much of the road is exposed to the sun and not shady at all).
I know that feeling of very hot sun and it's definitely in the mid-90s today. There are a few shady spots on this road and I'll enjoy each of them. So far, each day on this trip has been a couple of degrees warmer than the previous one. This feels odd after the rather cool summer we've had in San José this year. I wonder if this heat is just happening here in the uplands, or if San José is getting it too. It's generally a bit hotter up here anyway, which keeps park visitors at a minimum during the hot season (which is OK with me!) The hat that I'm wearing is an old Tilley hat that my stepdad gave me many years back. - A dry creek crossing on Bear Spring Road.
Due to the heat and the fatigue that I'm carrying from yesterday, I'm walking slowly. In this beautiful terrain, slow is good, there's plenty of texture to look at. The usual gold, green and blue, plus a couple of deer tiptoeing across the landscape. - Bear Spring Road, getting closer to Bear Spring
Near Bear Spring, the road narrows and becomes a trail that goes up the side of Bear Mountain, ahead. - Arriving at Bear Spring.
A nervous family of quail gurgles and scatters when it notices me approaching. On a hot day like today, the shade here makes for a great rest stop and makes pumping water a little easier. Without a map, you'd probably think that the trail ends here, but it actually continues up the hill behind the spring. Just go through the poison oak and cross the creek! - Close-up of Bear Spring.
A healthy trickle of fresh spring water is entering the spring tub. The water is quite clean and tastes great. And it stays fairly cool here in the shade. This is the first cool water I've had today, so I feel like drinking a gallon of it on the spot. My water from Willow Ridge Spring was good this morning; it had cooled down to below luke-warm overnight. I pump enough water to fill my 10-litre water bag (22 pounds) and my two-litre Camelbak. Of course, the water will have warmed up by the time I get back to Mississippi Lake. - Wild California fuschias around a rocky outcrop opposite Bear Spring.
This is one of few California wildflowers that blooms during the hot late-summer months. I really like these and have planted quite a few of these on my property at home. These plants spread by the roots. If you want to have hummingbirds in your yard, plant a big patch of these. - Stachys albens (hedgenettle) in the creek, now dormant and waiting for the fall rains.
It has been a dry year. This time last year, these plants, just downstream from Bear Spring, were fairly dry, but still green. - Old fence along Bear Spring Road.
If I did my research, I'd expect to find that this is part of an old corral, or the boundary of a former ranch. Here the road rises above the creek bed for a bit. - Old concrete cistern along Bear Spring Road.
Also at the site of the fence is an old concrete cistern, which presumably once held water from nearby Bear Spring (or a second spring). - Bear Spring Road drops back down to the level of the dry creek after a short rise.
I've never been here during the wet months to see how much water can flow down this creek bed. - A small California buckeye tree along Bear Spring Road (aesculus californica).
There's a bit of shade here, so it's a good place to take a short break from the hot sun and put down the 22-pound bag of water for a few minutes. During the hot, dry summer, this tree goes dormant and dries up, waiting for fall rains. Its structure is revealed once all the dry leaves fall off. Many golf-ball sized seed pods hang off the leafless tree during the late fall. California buckeye is one of those local trees that many people don't like because it loses its leaves, despite its other interesting features. The tree photographed here is dense and squat, but many buckeyes in Henry Coe State Park have grown to be quite huge. - Back near my campsite, Bear Mountain Peak Trail veers upward from Willow Ridge Road
This trailhead begins just north of the outhouse at the north end of Mississippi Lake. I considered exploring this trail today, but, in the haze of my fatigue, and the 90-degree weather to which I'm still acclimating, I decided that I'd feel fulfilled just walking to Bear Spring to get some better water. Maybe next year? The trail marker indicates that we are 12.1 miles from Coe Headquarters. - Time for a pipe and coffee back at the campsite to end the slow and relaxing day.
It's very peaceful here with most of the sounds being ducks in the lake or an occasional breeze passing through the leaves. I hear some noises and wonder if maybe there are other people out here besides me. But no, it's just a pair of deer walking up the hill on the other side of the lake. The sound of a jet crossing the Park in the distance every now and then is a reminder that I'm not very far from civilization after all, despite how it feels to be here. - And more coffee.
In this weather, iced tea would probably be preferable to hot coffee, but I'm really enjoying the coffee nonetheless. I guess that means that I am starting to get acclimated to the heat again. Drinking warm water during much of the day and walking a few miles in the hot midday heat have provided me with some practice. - Mississippi Lake campsite area just before sunset with Willow Ridge Road passing through.
In most situations, I avoid camping so close to a road whenever possible, but there's no sign of anyone around besides me. The last people that I saw were in those two pick-up trucks that passed me on Poverty Flat Road yesterday afternoon. The sun will go down soon, the gnats will go away, and then I'll make another instant backpacking meal-in-a-pouch. Tonight's is Backpacker's Pantry "José's Chicken Mole." The sauce is a bit heavy-handed flavour-wise, and perhaps a bit salty, but it's tasty enough that I'd buy it again. After supper, the full moon is up again, casting shadows, another gorgeous night. The heat of the day has lingered on into the evening, and at 21h30, I'm sitting at the picnic table with no shirt on, writing in my journal by flashlight lantern.