Um, you saw a what? Yeah, I know!!

So, came right off a three day weekend at the Bioblitz and back into work!  My body is like what?? lol anyway, Monday I had a bit of down time in the office, processing things from the weekend and such.  Tuesday, we headed out to a new site called Keyesville Special Recreation Management Area.  This gorgeous but sad parcel is located a little over an hour NE of Bakersfield, up in the Kern River Canyon.  I say 'gorgeous' because it is this really beautiful piece of property right on a pretty rigorous portion of the Kern River.  It is a pretty open space with gorgeous gray pines (Pinus sabiniana), really peaceful, serene and beautiful, but I say ‘sad’ because people have just TRASHED this poor place.  Just trashed it.  There are no fees charged here, and it is unmanned because we don’t have a large enough staff to have someone out here full-time, part-time or even much more than once a week.  It has been over-taken by OHV use (off-road vehicles, quads, dirt bikes, etc.), and people just camp here indefinitely, using it without care.  It really is just the saddest thing to explain.  And this place, while we want it to be multi-use, also needs care and to be kept in tact as it is a historically important archeological site.  Keyesville was one of the first towns to be settled in this area, and there are many mines around here, leading to the settlement, which now act as habitat for birds and bats, and in general are just a great piece of history to have in our possession for public safe-keeping.  So anyway, the OHVs are compacting the soil which basically suffocates and kills trees; they also don’t stay on the trails, but instead just make their own, adding to habitat degradation and flora loss; the campers (most of them, not all) are just carelessly trashing the place, using it for what they need and then tossing what they don’t.

The Kern River

So anyway.. we headed out there on this day to scout for plants and just get acquainted with a new site.  We saw couple species of milkweed, an Ericameria that was ready for harvesting and so we collected from; a species of gooseberry (Ribes) with the most beautiful fruits, in my opinion; a native thistle with just gorgeous flowers; oh, and a bunch of other stuff lol I could list plants forever.  For those of your more interested in the fauna, we also so a few cottontail rabbits – they are pretty common in the area of CA, we see a ton of them at the Carrizo too.

A gorgeous native thistle

The entrance to and old mining cave

This turned out to be a short field day, but a good one.  It was really nice to check out a new parcel of ours and to find more opportunities for seed collecting, since the Carrizo Plain is getting pretty spent.  Speaking of the Carrizo, Kathleen and I spent the next two days, Weds and Thurs, out there grabbing as much seed as we could.  We made an overnight trip of it so we didn’t have the make the long drive twice, and were able to spend more time out in the field this way.  There is a house on the property, an old rancher’s house, that now lends itself to housing those who come out to do work or research on the Carrizo.  While there, I was housed with the intern who works at the visitor’s center; some folks from Berkley who were doing antelope squirrel work and some other SCA interns who were studying blunt nose leopard lizards (federally endangered).  Anyway, finished up on Wednesday with a pretty good loot and then headed in for the night.  I camped outside with just my sleeping bag, next to a cute Western Spadefoot Toad.  The stars were amazing, and the next morning, the birds were quite the alarm clock!  The sunrise was spectacular and added to the beautiful ambience of one of the most peaceful places still in existence in this area.  So anyway, up at 530 am, ready by 6 and out for more collecting before the heat becomes too much.  We finished up around 12 or so, and decided to check out Painted Rock, a local attraction if you will.  This huge rock contains very old petroglyphs from Native Americans who lived on these lands for thousands of years.  This is part of the reason why the Carrizo is a National Monument.  So anyway, we stop at the visitor’s center to say hi to Adam and Jackie, and they tell us to keep an eye out for hawks, a barn owl and of course rattle snakes.  We have our eyes mostly trained to the ground looking for snakes as we make the ¾ mile jaunt to the rock.  So I come up on it and there’s kind of this circular trail around the house-sized rock and I start to make my way around.  The rock is just gorgeous with holes and crevices carved out by the wind and sand mostly.  I’m just coming around the corner and inadvertently startle the gorgeous barn owl out of one of the holes and he flies away around the corner. 

Painted Rock

Pictographs at Painted Rock

Darn, I thought, no picture, but at least I got to see the lovely creature!  Sooo beautiful, white in color and graceful as owls are.. I keep walking around the rock, admiring the nooks and crannies, looking for these darn petroglyphs but honestly being more interested in the plants on the ground.  Still walking and I come upon this ledge, that I can only see part of, from my distance and I’m like, oh cool!  What a neat carving out!  It makes a nice ledge and it – OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT??  I stop breathing as I have come upon a sleeping bobcat.  I literally stop breathing.  I have never in my life seen a creature so magnificent and my brain, my body, my diaphragm; they don’t know what to do.  I become unfrozen enough to capture a hazy photo of him (her?) sleeping and then instantly look around, searching for Kathleen.  I don’t want to leave this spot and finally she comes around the corner and I am motioning like a crazy mime.  By now the bobcat has heard my movements and awoken ( I was wondering how long it would take him.) but has now just raised his head and is looking at us with the littlest of emotions.  Not fearful, not aggressive, not even inquisitive.  If I may speak for the beautiful creature, it seems he was only a bit disturbed by us interrupting his nap, if anything.  I continue to stare in awe, screaming internally and still completely devoid of voluntary movement.  I snap to attention just enough to take several photos, hoping, praying that ONE will turn out decently.  I continue to gaze for a few more moments and then decide to bid him farewell, grateful that he gave me the minutes he did to marinate in his amazing presence.  He continued to stare lazily as I continued on, and I looked back every so often to see if his demeanor had at all changed.  It hadn’t. 
I glanced momentarily and the petroglyphs, already having viewed my treasure, and then floated back to the head of the trail, in utter disbelief.  Not only to have come upon this creature, but to find him in the most vulnerable state, taking a cooling afternoon nap, I can’t explain how much this experience means to me.  I still look at the pictures I took and have to almost convince myself that yes, you saw that, with your own eyes, from a mere 20 feet away.  My heart is racing just from recounting it.  To come upon such beauty in nature, is oh so rare, and moreover, to be able to relish in the moment, to watch it continuously without it attacking or fleeing is even more rare.  This was one of the best days of my life thus far, and I am grateful beyond words to have this experience in my eyes, in my mind and in my heart.  Thank you so much for letting me share it with you.

Love & velvet,

Rachel