Lake Isabella

11/06/08
Late October now and I was running out of options. I figured I had one more card to play, a return to Kings Canyon. I drove back up over Tioga Pass and down through Yosemite toward Fresno, but the weather gave out on me. I stayed dry in my tent at Nedel Grove for two very rainy nights, one of them Halloween, commuting into Fresno during the day. But the forecast called for harder rains accompanied by high winds so I bailed and took a motel room in Fresno for my first night indoors since I left Seattle in mid-July. I checked a calendar and determined I had camped out 115 straight nights (Ok, I spent half of one night in the car). Almost four straight months. That’s a lot.


Sunday morning and daylight savings was now over. Part of me wanted to just stay in the motel and go out for library books now and then, but I decided to seek cover in the rain shadow of  the Great Western Divide instead. So I drove south and around to the dispersed camping along the Upper Kern River, where it was not only dry but warm enough for me to sit out reading a couple of hours after dark, dark coming an hour earlier than the night before. I was much happier back outside.


I spent most of the next day at Lake Isabella, using the car as windbreak from the maritime gusts blowing in across the reservoir. Camping is free on the north side of the lake and I was hoping the wind would die down, but it never did. As dark descended after some lovely sunset clouds I realized I'd be crazy to spend the night there,  so I found my previous night's camp in the dark and spent the night there. A modest, peaceful rain fell overnight and the morning sky was about 50-50 clear, with nice storm-in-the-mountains visuals. Election day.

Just me and the outhouse at Lake Isabella

windy?

The Army Corps of Engineers built Isabella Dam to create Lake Isabella in 1953, making one of the largest reservoirs in southern California. Much of it was dry here in November 2008.

Lake Isabella

Lake Isabella

I found an ad for the 19th Annual Lake Isabella Fishing Derby. $108,000 in cash and prizes. "On March 13th we will begin planting over 15,000 trout grown in Isabella Lake since November". 1000 fish will be tagged - worth anywhere from $20 to $10,000. $15 to register, $35 for a whole family. "Feeding ceases about a week before the fish are planted, making them hungry and just waiting for your line to hit the water"


I also read that one of the most extensive riparian woodlands remaining in California was located where South Fork, the lesser of the Kern River forks, enters Lake Isabella. Fremont's cottonwood and willow, interspersed with dense stands of mule fat, stinging nettle, and rabbit brush. Cattails, tules and wild celery abound in wet areas. Over 315 bird species have been observed. So I set off to explore that. I didn't get all that far, kicking around more than progressing in basically trailless I don't know, mule fat? Beautiful day though. I wanted to see the river, of course, and turned around when I realized I wasn't going to. I drove up and down the road a bit and concluded that the South Fork of the Kern River wasn't actually running at this time of year.

riparian woodlands

The south side of the lake was as cold and windy as the north. Storm clouds gathered though not much rain fell. The forecast for the mountains for the next week was pretty good, so I decided to head up in that direction the next day. Back to my tent site, where it is colder and windier than it had been. The sheriff drives through my little dirt-packed cul de sac, hopefully not looking for murderers. Dark, windy, and cold.


At 6:00PM an SUV with a trailer pulled with great difficulty into a nearby space, way too close I thought given how empty the place was. They turned out all right though. A guy came over to let me know they'd be running the generator for about an hour, considerate of him I thought, as otherwise I'd have been fuming. The night was frosty but dry and clear. Morning was cold and nice. I set out for a long day on the road to Kings Canyon, stopping for a coffee break at the Trail of 100 Giants Picnic Area, sunny with wet pines and cedars.