Walkin' the California Aqueduct

[Zombie Zeke]

Starting at the beginning, this is what you see upon entering at most any points, unless the signs have been taken. We were on foot, it was me and my brother in law. The beginning point was on Vista Largo rd just outside of Valyermo of the 138 literally in the middle of nowhere.

The 'duct looks the same from most angles, I am not really into man made structures but the signs of biodiversity here really captivated me. We saw Mallards in migrition, a black tipped jack rabbit (huge), all kinds of insects and scat from various desert dwellers.

We found shells from small freshwater clams and saw some type of Perch in the Aqueduct, neither of which were on my radar before going out to see.

Knives sunning in the Yucca...My lil bro's Leek, he is so proud of that, of course I gave it to him, now he carries it everywhere. My Rajah, because if I can't carry an HK its the next best thing

to be continued....

 

[Zombie Zeke]

Packrats Nest, great place for a snare trap.

Packrat Scat, dooby dooby dooo

Beetle, unknown type, beautiful coloration about 2" long, .5" thick

Some of the landscape got a little surreal...

This was way off the fence line sitting in the desert

The heat got rolling at about 1230

One of the stranger things to behold flies and moths but almost no bees on a flowering bush

once again...a moth were bees usually are

Feral Dog scat, they are packed up and evidently along with the coyotes using this as a thoroughfare through the desert

Leek and unidentified bullet, maybe a .26 caliber, odd because of the lack of distortion on what is usually a higher velocity round...maybe not a bullet at all?

Snare trail

Critter bedding

Thank you for looking.
zeke

 

[tknife]

A friend of mine used to live in Littlerock and we'd ride atv's out and cruise around the aqueduct. Lot's of desert and no people around for miles, it was awesome.

 

[Zombie Zeke]

A friend of mine used to live in Littlerock and we'd ride atv's out and cruise around the aqueduct. Lot's of desert and no people around for miles, it was awesome.

I love it, I can literally use it to walkthrough California, it's a mile from my backdoor and .5 mile from my Dad's....



400 miles away

 

[ras]

How would the Aqueduct be for bicycle traffic? Just thinkin' . . .

 

[culpritish]

Valyermo? That's one of those "blink, and you've passed it" towns, kind of like Llano! I used to live in Littlerock many years ago, and I could stroll all day in the High Desert.
Nice pics; I sure miss that area.

 

[Zombie Zeke]

How would the Aqueduct be for bicycle traffic? Just thinkin' . . .

None.

Bicycles are not allowed, no vehicles except service vehicles...That was first thing I thought about when we were walking the fire road off to the side of the asphalt. The other concern for bicyclists it the place is LOADED with goat head thorns.

 

[Zombie Zeke]

Valyermo? That's one of those "blink, and you've passed it" towns, kind of like Llano! I used to live in Littlerock many years ago, and I could stroll all day in the High Desert.
Nice pics; I sure miss that area.

Yeah, we have been on two quests to find the tiny wildlife area, Mescal and both times we ended up in interesting places, one was Saddleback Butte and this was the other.

 

[mtnfolk mike]

great pics.. i spent a lot of time exploring/fishing the Cali. aqueducts, with my Dad, as a kid..

 

[shangchi108]

Thanks for posting. If I had time, I would make many such journeys myself.

 

[stevomiller]

Nice pics, thanks for sharing!

When I was a kid we used to hunt pigeons along the aqueducts in the central valley with an interesting technique. You walk quietly up to/on to the small wooden/metal bridges that the farmers use to get from one side of the duct to the other. Then, you jump up and down to make a lot of noise, thus scaring the pigeons roosting under the bridge. The pigeons fly from under the bridge and you shoot them: unfortunately they almost always fall into the aquaduct. So, you jump into your truck and race down to the next bridge and wait with your long handled fishing net and wait for the pigeons to come floating by and when they do you scoop them out.

 

[dnhald]

Nice pics, thanks for sharing!

When I was a kid we used to hunt pigeons along the aqueducts in the central valley with an interesting technique. You walk quietly up to/on to the small wooden/metal bridges that the farmers use to get from one side of the duct to the other. Then, you jump up and down to make a lot of noise, thus scaring the pigeons roosting under the bridge. The pigeons fly from under the bridge and you shoot them: unfortunately they almost always fall into the aquaduct. So, you jump into your truck and race down to the next bridge and wait with your long handled fishing net and wait for the pigeons to come floating by and when they do you scoop them out.

you are right that is quite interesting. the aqueducts and canals are nowhere near that cool.

 

[dnhald]

...in az. lol i forgot that part

 

[Bopleo]

The LA river

 

[sicily02]

Neat pics of the area that you hiked it. A very clear picture of the one bug.