YOUR SUCCESS MATTERS
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The top 8 challenges service-based entrepreneurs faced during periods of rapid growth are: 1. Maintaining Consistent Quality: Service businesses must ensure a consistently high level of quality to retain clients, which can be challenging as the business scales up.[1]...
by TIM VIALL.
This week, we’ve been housesitting in Fiddletown, eight miles north of Plymouth, California, assisted by our 13-year-old grandson Jack. We’ve been exploring these lovely green and verdant Sierra foothills, on the lookout for the start of a big bloom of California wildflowers. These rolling hills, average elevation of about 2000 feet, are beautiful enough, with long views of green, rolling hills backed by the towering snowcapped Sierra, 30 to 40 miles to the east.
Various factors play into magnificent wildflower displays: adequate recent rainfall, elevation (Delta wildflowers bloom long before those in higher Sierra locations), daytime temperatures, and exposure to sunlight (flowers on river valleys facing south will bloom long before shadier locations). Depending upon your destination and springtime temperatures, you will find California poppies, lupine, blue dick, western redbug, Indian paintbrush, fiddleneck, purple vetch, and a host of other varieties. Since it is early in the season, exploratory drives in the last three days have revealed California poppies, Indian paintbrush, fiddleneck, and purple vetch, but the best is yet to come.
Here are our fresh suggestions for a wildflower and history-focused road trip, taking in likely wildflower destinations with a side helping of Native American history and Gold Rush legacy. From north to south, we’ll profile suggestions for three of our favorite foothills rivers: the Cosumnes River, the Mokelumne River, and the Calaveras River. You’ll be familiar with most of these, even if you don’t always realize it.
For a riveting dose of Native American history and the legacy of local tribes, plan a stop at Indian Grinding Rocks State Park, just off Highway 88 above Pine Grove. All the towns interlinked along Highway 49 embrace Gold Rush history.
Start with the Cosumnes River, whose branches start east of New Hogan Lake and wind through the Jenny Lind area. This river is the shortest, only about 60 miles long, and empties into the Mokelumne on the south edge of the Cosumnes River Preserve, just north of Thornton. The most accessible place to start is the Cosumnes River Preserve, just north of Thornton, offering four miles of easy walking trails along the Cosumnes and Mokelumne rivers. Here, you’ll find a large variety of waterfowl and wildflowers. Take a picnic lunch and your binoculars and languish in the peace of nature! The preserve’s trails lead you down to the Cosumnes and the Mokelumne Rivers through riparian forest teaming with birds and wildflowers in season.
Further east along theCosumnes, just above Rancho Murieta off Highway 12, follow the old Michigan Bar Road across the old bridge into gently rolling foothills and turn east on S. Shingle Road (be forewarned—a road where a high-clearance vehicle is a bonus); we found lots of wildflowers last spring.
To track the Mokelumne River options, follow Highway 26 heading east to Valley Springs, then take country roads north out of town, Paloma Road to Watertown Road to Sandretto Road to Pardee Dam Road (or dial your GPS to Pardee Dam Road), cross the old dam impounding Pardee Reservoir and head east, up one of my favorite scenic roads, Stony Creek. You’ll discover a lovely, quiet valley with wildflowers in seasonal abundance and be deposited in the town of Jackson. Explore Jackson’s Main Street, an active historic district that includes the historic National Hotel (built in 1852 and is the most extended continuously operated hotel in California). Grab a bite at the Brickhouse Brewpub, just two blocks north of the old hotel.
Then continue south on Highway 49, descend into the Mokelumne River canyon (pass the old Butte Store, once a post office and mercantile dating to 1857, on the east side of the highway), take a left on Electra Road (take caution, for road work is being done) for one of the better short wildflower exploration roads that parallels the Mokelumne upriver for several miles.
Return to Highway 49, and just after crossing the river, stop at the wayside rest area, where a short walk takes you to the frothing river and wildflowers. Continue south up the river canyon to Mokelumne City, stop and walk the four-block-long Main Street, admiring old gold rush treasures like the Leger Hotel and other buildings dating from the mid-to late-1800s. From the old town, return to Highway 26 and back to the valley, continuing your search for wildflowers along the highway.
Calaveras River branches start east of New Hogan Lake and the Jenny Lind area. The flood-control lake offers a prime destination; a visit will reveal a scenic lake with plenty of wildflowers in season. Follow the river as it winds towards Stockton; some of the best wildflower spotting can occur on the south edge of Brookside, just before the river empties into the San Joaquin River!
For your road trip, take binoculars and a camera and download two apps on your smartphone. AllTrails leads you to hiking trails in your favorite parts of the Sierra foothills, while LeafSnap allows you to take a picture of a tree, plant, or wildflower and identify its species, making you an instant horticultural expert! Also, remember the traveler’s pledge, “take only pictures, leave only footprints.”.”
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