The Quest for a Gem (Gem Lake)

(N37 45.195 W119 08.965)

I hope you all had a good "Black Friday" looking for shopping deals. I am proud to say that I stayed home and relaxed. Sometimes I enjoy keeping money rather than spending on a day like this. So, here is my Black Friday special offer, and it is a gem...

This is Gem Lake. It does live up to its name. This was the goal, but you can continue through behind the lake and meet up with other trails near Yosemite. To the left of me was the dam seen from the last blog way down below. This is where the tram ends.
We did go around part of the lake just to check it out. I liked the slight glow effect the reflection gives here, at least that is something like what you would get if you added one of the effects in Adobe Photoshop or Sony Vegas. This was all nature though. This is looking back at the dam after walking around part of the lake. We did continue around much more of the lake, but we decided to turn around since it did not seem like we would encounter anything more than what we already saw without going much deeper on the trail. This is another one where we were on a time schedule. There are a few smaller lakes back there and other trails to meet up with that originate in Yosemite and Agnew Meadows (outside Mammoth, near the Devils Postpile).

The Quest for a Gem (Youtube Version)

The Quest for a Gem (Vimeo Version)

The Quest for a Gem (Agnew Lake)

Happy Thanksgiving!

As we continued on past the tramway and falls I knew we were getting close to Agnew Lake. This is where you leave the sight of the June Lake area and start heading back into the canyon.
You will notice the tram tracks continue, there is a power company shed, and there is a dam below.

Up higher one can see another dam. That is where our final destination was for this one. The tram track runs beside the lake and continues up beyond the lake to where that dam is.

This is looking back down from where I was in the past three pictures.

At this point it is just a case of turning around and the quest for the gem was over. I will wrap this one up tomorrow.

The Quest for a Gem (Youtube Version)

The Quest for a Gem (Vimeo Version)

The Quest for a Gem (The Tramway)

(GPS: N37° 45.830 W119° 07.805)

Note that the above coordinates are just approximate based on Google Earth since I did not take any readings with the gps until the very end.

We continued to hike on the trail and then I saw the tracks a little more closely.
Years ago I had a friend that saw the tramway from below and was always curious about it. From what he saw he wanted to climb along it and see where it went. That was way down below and it would have been futile based on how high this is. There is a sign that warns you about crossing here. This is all part of the So. Cal Edison Company. This track goes way back to where I ended the hike.
I crossed over and turned to look down into the June Lake community area. This is about the point I took the video from two blogs back.
Looking back over to Silver Lake.
After I did this hike I told my friend about what was up with the tracks he saw all those years ago. I have since been told by one of my relatives the he knew a person that worked here. He said that taking the tram up back here was a harrowing experience. It seems cool to avoid the hike if you want to fish back there, but it looks like the angle of ascent is really intense.

Overlooking June Lake Loop (Youtube Version)

and (the whole hike in the following)

The Quest for a Gem (Youtube Version)

The Quest for a Gem (Vimeo Version)

The Quest for a Gem (Silver Lake)

(GPS: N37° 46.930 W119° 07.710)

This is the first of a few blogs that will cover what I am calling The Quest for a Gem hike. After driving along the June Lake Loop past Grant Lake we ended up at the Rush Creek trailhead. I expected this one to be a moderate hike with some elevation, but something that could be done in a few hours.

Not to far from the trailhead I passed a stream with some tree cover. Obviously, this was an autumn hike with all those leaves on the ground.

Once passed some of the homes, not too far from the trailhead, the trail rises some. SR 158, the June Lake Loop, runs right by the trail at this point. You can see part of Silver Lake.
I have seen photographers at Silver Lake early in the morning close to where we started while driving through in the past. On those days they are trying to capture the mist look it can have in the morning. As I got higher I looked back to where I started and got to see more of Silver Lake.
In the above picture, if you just continue looking to the right and just past the lake you get the following. An assortment of autumn:
Looking up ahead I could see a waterfall to the left, but a man made structure in the middle.

What is interesting about this hike is you cross into Ansel Adams Wilderness right as you start going uphill; it is not too far ahead of picture #2 above. However, of all the Eastern Sierra hikes I have done, this is the one that had many man made structures on the way that are still used. In the next blog I will mention more about this.

The Quest for a Gem (Youtube Version)

The Quest for a Gem (Vimeo Version)

Overlooking the June Lake Loop

I had this one up on Twitter a couple of days ago, so I thought I would post it here now. This is about a minute long. It is more like a "deleted scene" from my next video, or you could say it is a preview. In any case, it works on its own without being included on the next video.

I thought I would take this time and say that I am probably going to delay some blogs and videos I had been telling a bunch of people by e-mail I would have up before the end of the year. I wanted to get up "The Return to Lago," "Out of the Past 2," and a few other historical hikes/places up by the end of next month. As it is, I have enough I am going to be posting about before the year ends. So, I will just delay those until 2011. I have learned the hard way that it is not the best idea to be too ambitious about what to get done during the holiday season.

On the other hand, I will be posting a short teaser early in December about the year long epic series I will be covering. I probably will not say very much about it until I begin it sometime in January. I have hinted at it a few times this past year. While it is very much like what I normally do on here it is a slightly different theme. Some will like it and some will not, but it is something I want to do. So, I hope you give it a chance when I start doing it. In any case, "the epic" will be running simultaneously with what I normally do on here each week.

Overlooking June Lake Loop (Vimeo Version)

Paladin at San Luis Rey #4 of 4

Paladin and the padre meet near the old arch.
This was in the first Zorro video I did, but this is the first picture I have shown of it. You can see the pepper tree in the episode and here where I "framed" it.

The padre tells Paladin that he wants him to find the statue that was lost and return it. That is what the episode ends up being about.

I just happened to have a picture taken in this direction. I only took a few pictures in this church of what I expected to use for the Zorro blogs. I did not take very many pictures of the sides of the church.

The statue in the middle is the same one that you see in the episode. The one on the left is different; this one is not carrying a baby. The one on the right is NOT the one Paladin gets in the episode.

Alright, that is all I wanted to show from this mission. I was not expecting a Have Gun, Will Travel episode here since I was so used to thinking Zorro filmed episodes here. I should mention that Paladin actually does say the name of the actual mission here during the episode.

Paladin at San Luis Rey #3 of 4

From the arch, Paladin took the man over to the mission.
You can see the fountain is still there.
Paladin then procedes into the cemetery to speak with the padre. This is where I had wished I had seen this episode before visiting the mission. It is another case of where watching another tv show or movie helps figure out the location. Had I seen this episode before I visited I would have been a little more certain while doing the video there for Zorro. As you can see the cemetery had a lot more tree cover and bushes covering up the area.

I used this picture a few blogs back and am more convinced after watching this episode that it was that door Zorro went through. This is about the midway point between the two doors.
Paladin then talks to the padre and we get the other direction.

This would be the other direction. I am a lot further down, but you should be able to see where they where they were. It is a little beyond the midway point from what I can tell.

One more of these tomorrow and I am done with this mission. Until then...

Paladin at San Luis Rey #2 of 4

As Paladin is filling his hat with water he notices someone being chased by a group of men.
Last time I mentioned that there is probably a gargoyle in this direction right below me. If that is the case then Paladin was filling up his hat right below me here. Again, I am going to have to go back someday and figure this out since I did not go there with this episode in mind. What I think is happening in the above picture is they are just beyond the little bridgeway you see in middle of my picture. It looks like you see a some of the brick bridge in the tv episode at the bottom of the picture. When I zoomed into my picture past the bridge it seemed to match up a little better with the two overhang structures you see see above.
Paladin then takes the young man away on horseback quickly as the group of men try to run after them.
This archway is the entrance to the Lavenderia. I am off to the side a bit.
So, like I have been saying in these last two blogs, I think I have the right ideas here to go back and fine-tune this at a later time. It is not a high priority in my list of things, but I will come back to these past two blogs and redo it with new pictures when the time comes.

Paladin at San Luis Rey #1 of 4

Over a month ago I was on my computer taking care of business and I had the Encore Westerns channel on. I was not watching it, but keeping it on as a distraction. An episode of Have Gun, Will Travel came on. It was an episode titled, "A Miracle for St. Francis". I started watching the episode and quickly realized I knew where it was filmed at. Other than what I just showed in the previous blogs I could not think of anything else filmed at this mission. Leave it to Paladin to show up there.

This is an example of watching another movie or tv episode filmed in the same areas to help confirm or disprove some of the ideas I had. Had I seen this episode before I did the videos I showed in the last few blogs I would have been a little more certain I got some things right. So, in the next few blogs I am going to continue to show a little more of Mission San Luis Rey. There will be some repetition since they did use some of the exact same areas.

The episode starts out showing this gargoyle face.
This is part of the Lavenderia or the open air laundry. In the old days, the ladies would come down here and wash their clothes in the water diverted from the river.
Paladin begins filling his hat with water.

At the time I did this, I had know no clue that I would be using this on the blog or that anything was filmed down here. Had I known this episode was filmed here then I would have spent a little more time here. So, this is not the right angle for the above.

In fact, I am not even sure if that is the same gargoyle as the one in the episode. My memory might be off here, but it seems there was another gargoyle just to the right of this picture below. Normally, I do not care too much about this, but I might go back to this mission in the next few months when I am passing through and figure this one out. It is not on the top of my list of things to do, but, after all, it is Paladin we are talking about.