Brandy's Adventures

The last time we hiked Warren Canyon Trail we ran out of water and decided to call for a ride rather than do the return hike. This time we had plenty of water and food. The weather, after the heat of the summer, was welcome cool and overcast.

We took Lake Poway Trail from the Lake Poway staging area to Mt. Woodson Trail. Warren Canyon Trail starts at the junction where Mt. Woodson Trail climbs to the Mt. Woodson ridge and ends at Highway 67. It’s virtually all uphill from Lake Poway to the beginning of Warren Canyon Trail. Warren Canyon Trail is mostly either up or down and very little flat.

When we got to the first picnic table, we saw that the tree that shaded the picnic table and had burned in the Witch Creek fire had finally fallen over.  We almost missed the relatively hidden table because we relied on the tree as a landmark.

We stopped for a food and rest at the second picnic table. We had been there for a few minutes when I caught a glimpse of a speck of blue in the sea of leaves by the table. I investigated and found the corner of a geocache that was virtually buried in the leaves. We had found the cache on a previous hike, knew where it belonged and returned it to its hiding place.

I had read about a spur trail off Warren Canyon Trail to the Poway/Ramona border and was looking for that trail. It was said to be partially overgrown and had some poison oak. We finally came to a narrow trail that led off to the east and decided to take that one. It was easy for a while and then more difficult as the chaparral encroached upon the trail. I was following Brandy and at times when there was no discernible trail, I just trusted her. Every time the trail would eventually reappear. She led me through poison oak (that was a trail marker!), up a dry creek and under two boulders that I could hardly squeeze through. Then, as before, the trail suddenly reappeared. We continued and followed the trail to the Poway/Ramona border at Highway 67.

The Warren Canyon trailhead was west on Highway 67 about 0.4 mile. Because of the sharp dropoff from the road shoulder, we walked in the bike lane as close to the guard rail as we could. I had Brandy on a very short leash. At one point, when a car passed that was slightly into the bike lane, I decided that hiking on the highway was a poor choice. We picked up the pace and soon came to the Warren Canyon trailhead. The trail comes steeply up from the valley and ends at the guard rail.

After a short rest and a few pictures, we descended Warren Canyon Trail into the valley. A short distance after we had passed the spur junction on our return, we came upon a trail came in from the right. I decided to explore that trail for a short distance and then come back to the main trail. Suddenly, that trail looked familiar and I came upon a Warren Canyon Trail trail marker. I didn’t remember that on the way out I made a sharp left at a “T”. I did mark the junction on my GPS and will explore it on a future hike. The lesson learned it to be far more observant!

The hike was a strenuous (for me) 8.4 miles round-trip.

We hiked the Van Dam Peak area of Poway to find two mines, one of which is purported to be Old Hag #1, the other apparently unnamed. We left from Sabre Springs Park and climbed a very steep hill to the top, battling the innumerable kite strings along the way. My new boots had great traction on the slippery DG; the last time I hiked here with my old boots I was slipping in many places.

About half way to the mines, we surprised a rattlesnake alongside the trail. We were just a few feet from it when either we saw it or heard the rattle; both appeared to happen simultaneously. In my excitement (nervousness), I thought it was shedding its skin. Brandy growled at the rattler as I took two pictures and then we left the trail to get around the rattler.

We found the large mine and then took one of the smaller trails back to the main trail. We stumbled on the second mine alongside the trail where the smaller trail joined the main trail. We had passed the main trail on the way to the first mine but had not recognized it. I don’t think the second mine was Old Hag #1 because it’s too far from the listed coordinates.

At this point we decided to return. I had strained my foot about a week earlier and I didn’t want to overuse it. On the way back I saw the rabbit alongside the trail and thought we’d interrupted a coyote kill. It wasn’t until I looked at the pictures that I realized that the snake was eating its kill, not shedding its skin.

We found a bird entangled in kite string as we started down our last hill. I tried to rescue it while keeping Brandy away. Unfortunately, I couldn’t adequately restrain Brandy while disentangling the bird’s leg and she nipped the back of the bird damaging it. I then let her have the bird to put it out of its misery. I was very disappointed that I couldn’t save the bird.

We went on an evening walk about 9:30pm, originally planning to walk in the olive-tree filled median on our cul-de-sac. We decided to go to the aqueduct and on our return spotted a coyote on the edge of the street about 150 feet ahead. We quickly saw that there were two more coyotes across the street. Brandy was pulling hard and whining to get to them but I held her tightly and waved my free arm in attempt to frighten them. I had a 2-cell flashlight and it wasn’t powerful enough to see at a distance. Two coyotes moved slowly into the bushes that we needed to pass and the remaining one disappeared into the cul-de-sac where we live. I trusted that it would be afraid to approach us, as I couldn’t locate it, and we entered the cul-de-sac. I looked behind me to see if the two were following, saw nothing and we continued home.

I was in my office about noon loading my GPSr with geocache waypoints when I heard Shirley’s panic-stricken scream quickly followed by a shrill, “There’s a coyote!”

Brandy (~28 pounds) was in the back yard and came immediately when called. Brandy apparently never saw the coyote. The coyote had disappeared behind shrubbery, and perhaps over the back fence, by the time I got to the patio door.

We went outside to look for the coyote but never saw it again. The coyote had scaled a 5-foot fence between our neighbor and us. It’s not clear whether the coyote was looking for Brandy or had been trying to avoid our neighbor when he went into his back yard. It has been unusual to see coyotes on our street during the day.

We had seen the same (or similar) coyote late afternoon about a week ago in “Coyoteville”. This one was brownish, unlike all the others that we have seen that were grayish.

Further to Old Coach Trail:

We just obtained and started developing a Poway Trails website, PowayTrails.com. In our research, we came across a 2005 article from North County Times discussing a connector trail between Old Coach Trail and San Dieguito River Park’s Mule Hill Trail. Yesterday, we explored the trailhead for Mule Hill Trail so we were now interested in checking the trail alignment on Google Earth. Wow! It went close to Highland Valley Road so we zoomed in and discovered we had been really close; we had been about as close as we could be without having to cross Highland Valley Road. I measured it to be about 250 feet!

We planned to go to Sycamore Creek via Stoneridge Trail and turn around at the bridge on Old Coach Trail. But, the day was beautiful and we thought we’d try to find the north end of the Old Coach Trail as we had previously gone just a short distance past the bridge.

The Poway Trails Guide showed Old Coach Trail meeting Highland Valley Road but I couldn’t determine that by using Google Earth. We followed Old Coach Trail north to its unmarked “Y” and took the left, northwestern segment. We crossed Heritage Drive and the trail became a steep downhill road. Ahead, we saw the sign on a barricade across the road and shoulders that read, “Emergency Access Road Only” and assumed that was the end of the trail. However, we took a closer look and found that there was a “labyrinth” pedestrian access through the barricade.

At the bottom of the hill was another barricade, and a sign the showed “Emergency Access Road” with a directional arrow to the right. We followed the road to the right and a few hundred yards later we came to an unmarked intersection with unpaved roads that appeared to go through a nursery. We made our best guess and followed the most-improved road. We quickly found ourselves in the middle of a large nursery, among the palm trees, evergreens and various other large plants. The road we were on kept getting narrower and less traveled as we hiked on. We, obviously lost, could see Highland Valley Road so we just headed to it. However, the nursery road didn’t provide an access.

We were now very aware we were on private property with only a few field workers around and we wanted to quickly get out. Fortunately, I correctly noted landmarks which made our “escape” easy as we returned to the paved emergency access road. Perhaps, I’ll follow up by telephone after New Year’s Day and determine where the emergency access road is located.

We returned to our car on Old Winery Road retracing the way we had come. Total round-trip distance was approximately 7.5 miles, including a few exploratory diversions.

We have a new waist pack with two water bottles. We replaced one of the water bottles with Brandy’s water bottle (fits perfectly), although Brandy drinks very little, if at all, on our hikes.

Yesterday afternoon, we hiked Poway’s Western Ridge Trail that runs at times along the border of Poway and San Diego. We were hiking from the south and paused to enjoy the view just as we reached the top of the hill (Google Earth). I heard a buzzing sound that I recognized as bees but wasn’t focusing on it as I was taking in the view. Finally, I looked to see where the bees were and then I saw that I was by a hive in the rocks with an entrance just a few feet from me. I watched a bit as the steady streams of bees entered and left the hive and then we moved on. Brandy had been patiently waiting.

We then hiked to where the trail starts to decend and then turned around. Brandy, of course, wanted to continue. I promised her that we would hike the trail the following day. We passed the bees again on the way back and then I thought about reporting them to those in Poway who maintain the trails. The bees weren’t bothering me (if fact, I like the interest they add) but I know that some people are allergic to bee stings.

Today, we hiked the Western Ridge Trail from the north where the trail begins at Old Winery Road. We went over the hill and found that the bees were still there and as friendly (no stings!) as before. I understand that tomorrow someone from Poway will be evaluating the bees.

There was no way to avoid it; it was raining and we had to do our evening hike. I wasn’t sure my jacket would keep out the rain and, besides, it was cold outside. I bundled up and off we went. As we approached the narrow trail to “Coyoteville”, Brandy was ahead and as soon as she was beyond the solid wood fence and could see the trail she suddenly ran down the trail to the end of the retractable leash. The fence was blocking my view so I couldn’t see what Brandy was chasing. Two or three seconds later, I was past the fence but by then whatever she was after (rabbit or coyote?) was gone.

We took the wider trail on the south side of the creek and explored the creeks in “Coyoteville”. Water was flowing over the trail in one place and the creeks were full. The ground wasn’t muddy due to the grass and debris from the trees although it was soft in places due to the myriad gopher holes. We explored a bit more and then returned to Summer Sage Road.

Brandy didn’t seem to notice that it was raining, as she was poking, sniffing and exploring as usual. We stayed on the pavement and didn’t go on Espola Trail as we usually did because of the mud. As it became dark I shortened the leash and we walked on the left side of the road facing traffic, jumping on the curb or into driveways as cars passed.

We have begun calling the open area off Summer Sage by our home Coyoteville, because we know the coyotes live there. We go there frequently to enjoy the meadow, creek, shrubs and trees as well as to look for the coyotes. We were there late this afternoon and Brandy either picked up a scent or saw a coyote as she suddenly started pulling hard. I didn’t see anything immediately but in a few seconds a large coyote appeared from behind a small hill and was running from left to right toward the trees and creek. I took note of the long, flowing tail as it ran; a beautiful sight for me to see. I don’t remember having seen a coyote running fast before. I’ve always seen them either stopped or moving just fast enough to stay out of my way.

We set out this morning to explore the east end of Blue Sky Trail. We found several spurs at the end and investigated most of them which are ultimately blocked by Ramona Municipal Water District “No Trespassing” signs. One trail petered out by what appeared to be the remnants of small stone buildings, perhaps houses, and we didn’t try to extend the trail. We met a runner on one of the trails, stopped briefly and discussed the extent of the various trails. We were all on these trails for the first time.

We returned to the junction that leads to Lake Ramona and decided that we would attempt that. I’d been on it before with Goldie, but never with Brandy. It was a pleasant hike up with Brandy once leaping toward an almost vertical dropoff while presumably chasing a lizard. I quickly pressed the thumblock on the leash and caught her in midair bringing her back to the shoulder of the road. Otherwise, she would have stopped at 26 feet, the leash length, and I would have had to drag her back up the hill.

We finally got to the top of the dam and explored a bit. To the right (south?) was a private road obscured by a hill and we went as far as we could. We went across the dam, taking a few pictures of the view, and then decided to explore a bit more. I knew from the trail map that there was a proposed trail that was to connect to Old Coach Road and was trying to find the Lake Ramona end. There were several trails and trail branches and we randomly took one of them. We quickly reached the top of a hill and could see parts of Old Coach Road and a couple of roads or trails nearby to the north that might be viable. We’ll plan to explore those next time. We understand that a new trail map is in the works. (Here’s a temporary link to the current trail map.)

We then returned to Blue Sky Reserve and about half-way back I saw a small snake stretched out on the road. Brandy either didn’t see it or just ignored (not likely!) it. It was about three-eights inch in diameter and almost three (est) feet in length– a very skinny snake. I stepped around it and then it occurred to me that there might still be rattlesnakes around. I had expected that the snakes would not be active and felt comfortable hiking close to the brush along the trails. I’ll rethink that!

The trail that was damp and firm earlier in the day was dry with the ball-bearing-like DG making descent a challenge, especially when Brandy would extend the leash to the end and give me a tug to help me along.

I offered Brandy water numerous times but she refused all but once and drank very little. It seems strange that she drinks so little water on our hikes.

We began at the west end of Stoneridge Trail. This brought back memories of Amber, who first introduced me to this trail and which is one of my favorites. We made it almost to the open area to the east when we met a lady with a German Shepard and a Golden Retriever. She had stopped on the trail constricted with two fences and I signaled that we would move off the trail in an open area while they passed. She insisted that we proceed, which we did. Suddenly, she was being pulled by her dogs toward us and unable to stop them. I don’t believe that she could have stopped even one of them from pulling her as these dogs were big. I was concerned that Brandy might snarl and start a fight, even though the dogs seemed friendly. Fortunately, she, the dogs and I milled around for a moment and then Brandy and I were able to pass with no snipping or snarling.

We went past the houses, hiked a few minutes in the open space and came to a small trail that led toward the creek. We thought we’d take the small trail and a couple of minutes later Brandy stopped and placed her body across my path. I stopped and moved slowly ahead. She gave a little but still kept her body crosswise to the path. I thought that maybe she sensed something ahead so deferred to her, returning to the main trail.

Shortly we came to Sycamore Creek and met up with Old Coach Trail. We took it to the left, toward Highland Valley Road. After a climb up the steep hill, we took a spur that was used to reset the power poles and then returned to the main trail. Once again Brandy put her body across my path. I moved away from her back the way we had come and she quickly moved ahead of me. I thought I’d reverse direction and once again she moved in front of me and blocked me. Once again, I deferred to her and we continued back across Sycamore Creek.

When we started up back up the hill we saw a smaller trail off to the left and took that. It was a pleasant walk along the creek and then back up the hill but at a more gentle slope. This trail was the same one that we had previously started on that from the main trail; it was just a bypass. Brandy didn’t seem to have a problem with using it from the other end.

We came upon some shrubs with white bumps and no leaves. Upon closer inspection, the white bumps were flower buds just beginning to open. I think we’ll come back in a week or so and enjoy the flowers!

We uneventfully completed the hike.

Brandy and I left from our home intending to go past Lake Poway toward Mt. Woodson on the Mt. Woodson Trail or the Warren Canyon Trail (depends on the map one is using) to where the trail “T”s. When we got to the T, we thought we’d go on a little further. Finally, we came to a Mt. Woodson Trail sign with an arrow showing the way, and decided to see how far we could go. The trail was very well maintained but very steep with numerous switchbacks. Signs of the Witch Creek fire were everywhere.

Eventually, we came to another T and to the left we could see someone on a large (20 – 30 feet?) boulder at a peak and who was throwing rocks off it. We thought that we would go to the right because it seemed like the correct way to Mt. Woodson summit. We couldn’t see the antennas but trusted our instincts. As we proceeded toward the peak, we eventually were passed by a group of six young people. A few minutes later we saw them ahead and one person was standing at the edge of Potato Chip rock. From my perspective, the rock was so thin that it wouldn’t support its own weight. We continued on past them and soon made it to the summit. What a view! And no camera! 🙂

We stayed at the peak briefly, long enough to determine what we thought was the highest ground. There were two huge boulders that were higher still but we couldn’t find a way to the top of them. We returned much more quickly that we had ascended and I was beginning to get exhausted about a half mile from Lake Poway. I thought about calling Shirley to pick us up at Lake Poway, but as we were now walking on more level terrain I regained a bit of energy. We left Lake Poway and completed our walk back home. What a day! Enjoyable!

Statistics
Home to Mt. Woodson summit: 2.0 hours
Mt. Woodson summit to home: 1.5 hours
Elevation gain/loss: 2145 feet (Google Earth)
Lake Poway staging area to Mt. Woodson summit: 3.3 miles
Home to Lake Poway staging area: 1.3 miles
Total distance: 9.2 miles
Total time: 3.5 hours

This afternoon we took an early hike in our neighborhood instead of going to RB Dog Park.  We thought we’d go down by the creek to get a little closer to nature. We explored around the old stone houses and then turned around and went downstream. We crossed a tributary and then Brandy caught a scent. It wasn’t on the ground, but in the air and she was following it very agitated with her head held up. I saw the coyote first and a few seconds later she saw it. She pulled hard on the leash and I stopped to keep her back. She whined in both protest and eagerness to get to the coyote. I shortened the leash so the coyote wouldn’t try for dinner. The coyote was rather thin. I looked around to see if there were any others and found none. The coyote walked into the brush and we hiked back to Summer Sage, warily looking for other coyotes.

Tooth Rock

Brandy and I are looking for a Poway Adopt-A-Trail Program trail to adopt, but apparently all the trails near us have already been adopted. So, this morning we thought we’d look at Tooth Rock Trail as we’d never been on it. The first issue was determining where the trail started off Golden Sunset Lane. The street ended in a cul-de-sac with what appeared to be four private driveways. Eventually, we found a trail sign about a hundred yards up one of the private drives. Once on the trail, we found it easy to follow because we knew the general direction of Tooth Rock, even though we couldn’t see it.

The trail was generally covered with very fine dust that made little clouds as we walked. The terrain appeared to be “rattlesnake country” and didn’t look like a place we’d like to hike in the summer. We thought that we wouldn’t adopt this trail. The trail met a wider trail (a very narrow road?) and we went right toward Tooth Rock. As we walked, the dust became decomposing granite and the trail began climbing. The decomposing granite acted as ball bearings under my shoes and I struggled somewhat, but Brandy didn’t seem to have a problem with it.

We finally made it to Tooth Rock. The air was clear and we could see far and wide. After enjoying the virtual 360 degree view, we decided to return.

On the way back I missed the narrow trail at the junction of the wider trail on which we were hiking but Brandy picked it up. It was nearly hidden in the brush and could be seen easily only when next to it.

We noticed the log waterbars placed across the trail to control erosion and found about 8 places when the logs had burned in the Witch Creek fire and all that was left was the rebar stakes meant to hold the logs in place.

We returned to the trailhead, meeting only a couple of dogs barking on the other side of the fences.

Due to the construction at Poway Dog Park, the small and medium dog pens have been temporarily closed and the large dog pen is extremely dusty. Brandy complained about it so we are now playing at the RB Dog Park where she enjoys the All Dogs pen.

Shortly after returning to Summer Sage from the coyote experience, Brandy was walking strangely with her body lowered. I thought that she was perhaps on the trail of a coyote. However, after brievly watching her, I saw a sand burr on her left, rear paw pad. I raised her leg, pulled out the burr and felt the the pad. I found a piece of the burr which had broken off in her pad. She let me work with her without complaint. The piece of burr was so short that I couldn’t get it out with my fingernails, so I picked her up and carried her home. As I came in the door, I called for Shirley to get the tweezers. I gently put Brandy on her side, took off my glasses (I have microscopic vision without my glasses), and pulled out the piece of burr. Brandy got up and was just fine.

As she was shortchanged on the previous hike, we took off again on a different hike, along the San Diego aqueduct.

We took our daily morning hike,  this time to the open space by the creek and remanants of old stone houses that are about a block away from our home. The access is a small creek that flows from under Summer Sage and that has trails on each side. The southerly trail is fairly wide and open while the northerly trail is very narrow and squeezed between the relatively dense foliage between the trail and the creek on one side and five-foot wood and chain-link fences on the other side.

We chose the narrow trail this morning and had just started down the trail when Brandy, on a 26′ leash, darted into the brush and I lost track of her. She was growling and tugging on the leash. Suddenly, she reappeared from the brush and ran down the trail. I decided to humor her and ran after her as she helped by pulling me along. We came to a clearing, she slowed and then I saw the lone large coyote, about 50 yards away, moving slowly away from us. We stopped briefly and the coyote stopped. We advanced toward the coyote and it moved away from us, keeping its distance.

We decided that there might be other coyotes nearby and Brandy weights about 27 delicious pounds, so we crossed the creek to take the southerly trail back to Summer Sage. The coyote was stopped, looking at us as we lost sight of it as we walked past the brush and trees between us and the coyote. When we got on the other side of the brush, there was either another coyote or the one we saw was paralleling us as we hiked. We found the southerly trail and took it, uneventfully, back to Summer Sage.

We frequently hike that “open space” because it is interesting with several very small creeks lined with trees and brush, open areas, pools, a dam, many gopher holes and the remnants of the old stone houses. Recently, we’ve heard the coyotes making a kill almost every evening. The coyotes seemed to have disappeared after the Cedar fire, although the Cedar fire, unlike the Witch Creek fire, didn’t come very close to us. We’re glad to have them back, but do want to be careful.

While walking (without a dog) on Summer Sage one morning several years back, I met two single coyotes and one group of three coyotes all of which were in the street. All five kept their distance of maybe 50 to 100 feet and just moved out of my way into side yards as I walked. I was a little nervous about the three together, and was looking for a tree to climb or a fence to jump. Fortunately, I needed neither.

Actually, it was our first vacation away from Brandy and Brandy stayed (and played!) with Woody, our son’s Labradoodle. We understand that they did well together for the week. We missed our Brandy and, since we had some of our pictures with us and to relieve our “separation anxiety”, made some Brandy wallpaper for our computer. (Picture is of Brandy and her Poway Dog Park friend, Dallas.) We were hoping that Brandy didn’t forget us and she didn’t! She was so happy welcoming us on our return. We’ve now had two walks and are disappointed to have found out that Poway Dog Park is closed for maintenance. Perhaps, RB Dog Park is in the cards for this evening.

We decided to hike to Lake Poway this afternoon instead of going to our usual afternoon playground, Poway Dog Park. Brandy enjoyed chasing lizards and peeking into the various drains and culverts. We took the hiked the high road counter-clockwise around the lake only as far as Warren Canyon Trail, because we had to be back to the park entrance no later than 6:45pm, the park’s closing time.

As we were leaving Lake Poway Park, a truck was coming very slowly through the entrance and I heard a low voice saying, “Brandy”. To our surprise, there was Brandy’s playmate, Thumper, with his red kerchief, and his dad looking out the open truck window. Thumper might also have missed his usual afternoon visit to Poway Dog Park. Unfortunately, it was too late to play with Thumper.

Picture: Brandy frequently steals Thumper’s soccer ball at Poway Dog Park. Then, they play tug-of-war.

Brandy resumed hiking the Poway trails a few days ago. We’re only slightly concerned about rattlesnakes and are keeping to the wider trails in the more densely populated areas. The horses and hikers have beaten the decomposed granite to dust so snake tracks should be easy to see. The hikes don’t burn much of Brandy’s energy so we still plan to go to Poway Dog Park most every evening.