On a Mission to Photograph the Dam

Another stop I made at Mission Trails here in San Diego was to see the Old Mission Dam which is a registered historic landmark.

Duck, duck, coot!

When the population of San Diego de Alcala Mission (I wrote about the Mission last year) grew during the late 18th century, so did its demand for water. The Spanish colonists solved the water shortage problem by building what is likely the first major colonial irrigation-engineering project on the Pacific Coast. 

The dam collected water near the head of Mission Gorge on the San Diego River.  Although damaged by floods, earthquakes, and human activity, the dam's stonewall continues to hold water. 

The mission’s Native American converts, who were from the Kumeyaay Nation, built the aqueduct and dam structures. The mission community started work on the dam after the drought in 1803 and completed construction of the larger irrigation system by 1817. When the laborers finished, the dam was 220 feet long, 12 feet high, and 13 feet thick.  (information courtesy NPS)

The laborers used cobblestones, bricks, and cement for the dam wall, and they laid tiles on the bed of the long aqueduct to keep water from seeping into the sandy ground. The aqueduct, which ran from the dam to the mission, was two feet wide and five miles long.

While checking out the dam I noticed an overlook but couldn't see a way across the San Diego River to access it.  I poked around and followed the trailhead until I found a bridge crossing.

On the other side of the bridge I found myself on the Canyon Trail, which ended up intersecting with even more trails.  There is also a campground in the park, but unfortunately it is only open on weekends or you would have found me snuggled up there most likely.

Along the way I ended up with a little hiking buddy who wanted me to hold his hand and loved it when I showed him that he could throw rocks in the creek.

The hill for the overlook was easy to spot and up I went, where I found another little one having her lunch on the bench with her mother.

On the way back I cut through the trees and walked out onto that side of the dam, then took off my shoes and crossed the river in a shallow spot.  It's always more fun if you get a little dirty, right?

Next time I visit San Diego I'd love to stay the weekend there and walk the rest of those trails, who knows what friends I might make with a little more time to spare?

Que Afortunado

Surprise, I'm in San Diego! To celebrate my retirement (most likely temporary) I got on a plane to visit my cousin in San Diego.  It was so relaxing when I visited last year that I decided what better way to count the days before our big move than to spend a few of them here.

South Fortuna Peak

My cousin was in Hawaii with his family having some relaxation time of his own so after I picked up my rental car I headed out to Mission Trails Regional Park. This body of mine has put on weight sitting in the car all day driving around the state of Wisconsin in the snow for work.  Time to get back in shape!

It is Spring Break here in San Diego, but I still ran into a group of kids on a field trip of some sort.  What a beautiful place to learn about the plants and wildlife of the place they call home.  It is very green here right now due to recent heavy rainfall amounts.

Visitor Center seen from the trail

The Visitor Center is a great place to start your learning, with lots of windows to entice you outside into the chaparral and sage scrub habitat.

Caterpillar Phacelia - 

Just because it is a dry climate, doesn't mean there aren't spring wildflowers to enjoy.

Sticky Monkey Flower

And though my afternoon walk was mostly clouded over, I noted there were plenty of shaded oases to rest on a sunnier day.

I wasn't ready to climb mountains yet, in fact I stumbled and twisted my ankle after 15 minutes for absolutely no reason at all.  But I walked it off and kept on going, saving loftier ambitions for another day.

No shortage of lizards to be seen dashing into the bushes as I approached.  I'm no herpetologist, but most likely a sagebrush lizard or a western fence lizard is what I photographed below.  Apparently the underside is a big help in identification so next time I'm out looking at lizards I'll have to see if I can at least get a partial view.

All of the plants here are foreign to a Northerner, I'm sure those children on their field trip learned more than I did.

Greenspot Nightshade

Around every turn - something new!

Blue Dicks

It didn't take long to shed my stress and my winter blues!

And what a joy to see more children fly past me, enjoying it as much as I was.

How fortunate (Que Afortunado!) to arrive in time to catch some California Poppies still blooming...

California Poppies

...and hopefully I'll see many more blooms as the days go on!

Only Reminder of Long Ago Days - Resettlement Part 5

From the church we entered the woods and walked the old "road" from the church to St. Leonard's.  At one time the priest even had a truck that he drove between the communities on this road!

Father Fyme served the parish there for many years, and Wayne's mother was once even his housekeeper for a short time I learned today.  That, of course, was before she married Jim Leonard and started a family!

In Newfoundland they call Bunchberry by a different name, but the white flowers and the bright red berries are the same no matter what you call them! The "Crackerberry" plants were especially plentiful along the path, almost like a carpet rolling out alongside us as we walked.

View into the woods beside us

We kept our eyes busy looking for evidence of wildlife, but of course I also was scouting plant and lichen varieties.  "Old Man's Beard", or "maldow" as they call it here, is eaten by deer and caribou and can even be used to dye yarn.

Flower identification in Newfoundland is not as easy as it is in the States, and I give up on finding out what this little one is.  Someone please help a girl out!!  They popped up everywhere in the grass with the mosses.

It wasn't long before we were passing Chapel Pond and picking up our pace.

Chapel Pond

Of course there were still obstacles now and then!

Watch above for fallen trees, below for boggy spots!

 Before the Church of the Assumption that I featured in the previous post the church was located near Chapel Pond halfway between the two villages.  The church had a separate bell tower that is shown in the image below, complete with the pond behind it and the older cemetery on the hill which we also glimpsed on our walk but did not have time to explore.

Church bell tower - year unknown before 1921

My mother-in-law has quite a treasury of memorabilia including many of these old photos.  Others in the area tell of pieces of stone or glass from the windows that have wound up in their possession.  Would any of us save anything like that now?

Marilee Pittman in archway behind gateposts - more stones than now

Surrounding the stone church was a cemetery, posts and a gate.

same post as in photo above

The first grave I saw was the one I was looking for!  Some years back after my Nan's brother died she purchased a headstone that had her mother's name along with her two siblings' names.  Quite a few of her children (my aunts and uncles) took a boat out like we did and dragged that headstone through the woods to the grave.

Any information on Hannah Mae Whittle nee White (Whyte) of South East Bight greatly appreciated
Census shows she was born in 1908 but may be wrong as family legend has it as 1909
Due to missing church records no date of marriage found

Not one to visit graves of my deceased relatives usually, I found I was humbled and touched by this particular grave and this particular place.  I knew the stories of hardship behind the dates, of how Hannah Mae died at only 24 years of age just 3 months after birthing her third child from pulmonary tuberculosis. I cleared away the long grass, picked a few wildflowers to set atop the stone, and spent a few moments in silence contemplating how lucky we are to have photographs of our loved ones since there was none of Hannah to our knowledge and no one alive remembers her or what she looks like, not even her only living child.  My mother-in-law who will be 97 years of age in a few weeks would have probably been 11 years old when Hannah died and only remembers that her hair was brown and she was thin.

We plan to come back and clean up graveyard next year

Father Fames Walsh from Ireland was the man who erected the stone church between St. Kyran's and St. Leonard's and it was consecrated on August 15, 1859.  The dimensions of the church were approximately 79 feet long, 39 feet wide, 20 feet high at the sides and 45 feet high at the peak.  The main building material was locally quarried red granite, probably from Red Island but the sandstone was brought over from Ireland supposedly.

Stone  church remains in background - cryptic headstone with seashells embedded

The census of 1857 shows a total of just under 600 persons in the surrounding communities.  The cost of quarrying the granite, of importing the sandstone from Ireland and of hiring the stone masons must have been quite expensive.  In those times everyone pitched in and a beautiful church was something to make your community proud.

As I mentioned in the previous post the church served multiple communities, which would have had to walk from as far away as Clattice Harbour.  They would likely have left home at 7:00 am and walked over the hills to attend Mass at 10:00.  They would have met up with people from other communities as they made their way along, giving them an opportunity to socialize and catch up on local happenings. A three hour return walk saw them home at 2:00 pm in good weather, and of course they would have attended whether it was winter or summer.

Possibly Wayne's mother in front of stone church

Wayne's mother was born in 1921 and she said she had to be christened in the Priest's sister's house because the stone church had been destroyed by fire and the new church was not yet finished.

And what else did I find amongst Nell Leonard's fabulous collection of photographs? An image of the interior of the church!  Grainy and imprecise, I bet it still may be the only one due to its age.

The trees were growing up so thick and time was so short that I didn't have time to pace out the entire length of the church, but I did go around the side a bit and could hear a roaring creek behind all the tumbled stones and trees toppled by storms.

The graves were shot through with trees, but also overrun with Columbine and other wildflowers which was glorious. The title of this post is a reference to another Newfoundland song called "West Moon" by Pat and Joe Byrne and the YouTube video someone uploaded that I have here includes more old black and white images of those fishing villages which were disassembled and floated across the bay from the 1954-1975.

Al Pittman wrote a play called "West Moon" as well which is available through most booksellers.

If you missed my previous posts in this series here are the links:

Crossing the Bay - Resettlement Part 1

The Whittles Lived Here - Resettlement Part 2

Cod Fishing Grounds - Resettlement Part 3

Take Me Back to St. Kyran's - Resettlement Part 4

Any comments or corrections on the information presented here about the area are appreciated!

Blooms From May to July

Milwaukee in May provided raindrops on tulips...

Early June brought the poppies to my flower bed...

Echinacea may be fading fast, but all the rain we got in June means the Hydrangea are happy as can be! Milkweed is blooming right now, along with Butterfly Weed so wings are fluttering in meadows.

Speaking of things that grow, of course the news that Canada will be legally growing marijuana has been out awhile now.  Will the United States be far behind, at least officially making it not illegal federally but a state decision wholly?  Forbes has an article that has given this topic some thought.  I'm sure in the meantime that Canada will welcome the revenue it brings, even from American visitors. Overnight visits by Americans are forecasted to rise 3.4 percent this year, though that is less than what it is expected from other countries. Vancouver is expected to have the strongest growth in overnight visits this year at 4.3 percent, to 8 million tourists. Toronto should experience a 3.5 percent increase, to an estimated 14.8 million tourists in 2018, while Montreal should see, the Conference Board said.

According to a Nanos Research survey commissioned by CTV News and The Globe and Mail, nearly three in four Canadians are considering alternate summer plans from their usual trips to the United States. The survey shows 74 percent of Canadians are likely to stop traveling to the U.S. in response to the trade war.

Here's the Globe and Mail's perspective at how the trade war should be handled. But of course our plans to visit Newfoundland go forward, with Wayne and Cory leaving with the RV...TODAY!  I will follow a week later by plane, so I'll get the Newfie outlook on Trump and even on Trudeau in person soon.

High Cliff Spring Wildflower Show

Last week the weather was unbelievable, and the spring wildflower show just exploded in Central Wisconsin.

Cloud of Rue Anemone on forest floor

I stayed a night at High Cliff State Park, and even scored the Group Camp all to myself when I mentioned my asthma and my need to avoid campfires if possible.

I wasted no time getting out of my work clothes and getting out onto the trails.

The sun was shining, the sky was blue, and I felt like I could walk for hours.

Say "Sunshine"!

There was a small hitch though...somehow when I was rearranging things while packing my yoga pants and running shorts got left out of the bag.  Oh, well, as you might imagine that didn't stop me.  I had pajama pants packed which was better than hiking in dress trousers, right?

Pajama pants tucked in socks just in case but no ticks yet!

The park was crowded with folks out to get some exercise, but for some reason they were all on the paved road and not in the woods which has plenty of trails with most of them quite wide.

No matter, that meant I didn't have to worry about being in anyone's way as I crawled on the ground to get eye level with those stunning wildflowers.

 I don't think I've ever seen such thick groupings of Dutchman's Breeches before!  They do love a rocky slope in the woods so not a surprise to see them at High Cliff though.

I know my more recent posts mentioning High Cliff involved Halloween decorations, fireworks on the 4th of July and the mound effigys in the park, but the park is actually situated on the Niagara Escarpment high above Lake Winnebago and part of it also used to be a quarry.

Dicentra cucullaria

I never would have thought the first time that Wayne and I stayed here in 2010 that I would end up coming back again and again to see it at so many different times of year.

Erythronium americanum - Yellow Trout Lily

I even found clusters of Yellow Trout Lily, which I often have trouble catching in bloom. And the large Trillium in the campground were just starting their bloom as well.

The evening ended with a glorious sunset over Lake Winnebago, and not a single drop of rain!  Nearby was a large cluster of Purple Martin gourds so if you're a fan of them High Cliff is the place to come camping this summer before they leave in late August.