Fleming Meadow - January 2024

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On the Monday MLK holiday, five of us drove up to Sly Park, near Pollock Pines, heading east on hwy 50. The Fleming Meadow walk, new to all of us, turned out to be one of the best general hikes in recent memory. 

We started off heading in a wrong direction, on a muddy road. After 15 minutes we checked the AllTrails app & doubled back. In the last photo, we are on the official start of the trail and left to right are Diane, Marcia, Donna, and Jean.

note - you can enlarge any part of a picture by left-clicking in and then out again (with some exceptions). 

start of the walk

burned & cleared  area

heading back to the start

There were a lot of burned trees with no foliage, being more than two years since the destructive Caldor fire. But we also saw some trees that survived, with burnt trunks yet retaining higher-up foliage, and near the end of the walk we even saw a forest with no fire damage at all. 

Admittedly, the worst fire damage occurred starting a little further east on Mormon Emigrant Road, and it is terrible to see the scope of destruction.       

	in the woods		winter light		Common hairmoss (also called golden maidenhair)
		Foxglove		high voltage ROW with a Hawk above		hilltop at 4,000 ft.
	after a lunch stop		these trees looked pretty good
				hairmoss again at lower right		large Manzanita
					almost back

Both Donna and I used the AllTrails app to monitor our route, but you had to be constantly watching because the main route was sometimes 20 ft. wide, like a road, and other times was a 12 inch wide single track, so we overshot a few turns & had to double-back, and our 5.1 mile walk became a 6.7 mile walk. 

That was OK with us and (being at the back & taking photos) I was impressed by the quick walking pace the group kept up after the lunch break. There were two extended uphill sections which were a great workout. Total elevation gain today was about 800 ft.  

Back at the carpark, the hikers all expressed appreciation for the walk. It had the added benefit of being not far from home, and, because of the holiday, the freeway drive up & back was uncrowded.  

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Postscript - Jean and Donna and I stopped in Pollock Pines for an early dinner at Paco's Taqueria, where we found good food & service.