Stebbins Cold Canyon Hike

On Saturday afternoon I did a hike with Nancy in Stebbins Cold Canyon, the UC Davis maintained preserve to the west of Winters.  The loop trail here is one I had done many times before but I didn’t realize that this area had been hit by one of the recent wildfires.  The whole area had been decimated and all the fine work that UC Davis had done on creating a nice trail had been wiped out.  The trail is still there but not much else except for a few burned trees and a lot of ash.  It was strange to walk through this kind of landscape where earlier in the year it would have been a wooded trail, enclosed with shrubs and bushes and quite shady in many parts.  Now it is open and all the bushes are gone and only the odd burned tree stump remains.  Even the wooden steps that had been put in place to take the trail up the hillsides were burned.  It must have been quite the conflagration.

On top of the ridge line you could see the extent of the fire and how some slopes were untouched and others were simply denuded.  Of course Lake Berryessa to the north west looked all the more splendid in this landscape.

The hillsides without any ground cover are going to be a real issue if we get any rain.  They are quite steep and the ground is just loose dirt and ash with nothing to hold it in place.  The rain will just rush down the hillside cutting new channels and gorges in the path of least resistance.  

That being said, there were already a few signs of regrowth.  There were quite a few small scrub oak shoots poking through already.  My botanist friend later told me they were Quercus Berberidafolia.  

As we hiked along the ridge line, we heard the wailing of a dog in the valley below.  It didn’t sound like a coyote but it did sound very much like a dog in distress and it just went on and on.  I decided to investigate once I got back down to the road again.

A CHP helicopter flew over us and did several passes up and along the valley and around the ridge.  Obviously they were looking for something or someone but after a while they went down to the road below and landed in an adjacent field where there appeared to be some police action. 

As we made our way down, the helicopter came back and lowered a basket to pick up a hiker.  I thought at first it was the distressed dog they were retrieving but no, just someone who had sprained an ankle on the hillside.  Back down at the road there were fire trucks, an ambulance, and police cars.  All of that and a helicopter make for quite an operation just for a sprained ankle.  

I jogged back up the trail to try and find my “distressed dog” but the yelping had now stopped and I didn’t find any sign of the animal.  I am not sure what I would have done with a stressed out dog in the wilderness anyway.  Nevertheless it is the thought that counts.

A stop on the way back at Berryessa Brewing Company for a beer and steak sandwich from the Buckhorn’s food truck.  A perfect end to the day.