Brown Canyon and Pomona Mine

I wasted too much time in the morning reading up on Frankenstorm Sandy hitting the Mid Atlantic. This hurricane is expected to touch land in NJ Monday morning as it meets a cold front coming from the West. I have a soft spot for New Jersey and any other area I've lived in, but this storm may be the storm of the century. But what can I do here? Nothing. I only hope all my friends back there are prepared and suffer no damage.

So off I went with Sadie and Minnie after 1pm, toward Brown Canyon off Ramsey Canyon Road. There was one car in the parking lot. I drove further on the trail and parked up and off the dirt road and walked into the canyon by 1:40pm. This way if there are any other hikers or bikers coming, the dogs wouldn't be in their way. It looked so dry everywhere in the canyon. It had been over six weeks since I was last here with Beth in September. Seedheads are everywhere. The flowers are gone. I was hoping to see some fall foliage, but other than a few yellow-orange-brown on the sycamores, there wasn't much color, even as we made it to the Miller Peak Wilderness boundary at the horse trough. What we needed for better fall color was a drenching rain two weeks ago. Instead, we are so dry we could face another fire season.

The trail was rather void of people. One woman went ahead of me at the start. Only one biker came down the other way and I was able to get the dogs off the trail for him without much ruckus. Both dogs stayed close to me. Sadie was the perfect hiking dog and stayed right behind me. Even a few deer that jumped across the trail didn't get her running. I had packed plenty of water and food for the dogs. There was some water in a few areas and I stopped to let them drink. But even higher up the colors were rather bland. What a let-down! I also may have left the house too late. The sun was already setting low in the west, preventing sun rays from getting inbetween the leaves. That would have added contrast to my photos. Instead the shade was a relief for the dogs.

On our way back I decided to hike up the Pomona Mine trail. It had been years since I was here, perhaps more like ten years? I remember it was steep, followed a ridge, and there was some mining equipment on top. I underestimated how long it would take me to get up there, though. The mines are long buried shut. They once were just below rocky cliffs on the north side of the canyon, an area full of illegal ridge trails made by illegals coming over from Mexico. It was after 4:15pm when we made it to the mines, and an illegal trail I don't remember being here took hikers further into the deep and steep hillside. This was perfect hawk habitat with the nearby cliffs. I saw one adult fly away as I approached, but I turned around here when I realized the trail was fading.

I was now playing with the last of today's rays. I didn't want to be too far up the trail when it got too dark. I'll have to come back up there and explore some of those illegal trails. I took a few photos and hiked back down again, arriving back on the main Brown Cyn trail at 5:15pm Fifteen minutes later I had the dog's collar lights on; a few minutes later the first hunters got into the canyon. The hunting couple left their two daughters alone at the pick-up a mile up the road. I don't think that was too smart of them, not with smugglers coming through this area after dark. The girls seemed not to care. The full moon was already high in the sky when I got back to the truck, the dogs' blue collar lights now an aid for maneuvering. I got home after 6pm, with a dinner of meatloaf waiting for me. The dogs were hungry, too.