Hi All. I took a nice long horseback ride today in the Diablo Mountain Range today and found some interesting things. This is about the only way I can get back into the mountains anymore as the pain in my back and legs will not allow me to climb at all and not walk much further then 100 yards without having to stop to relieve the pain in my legs.

My morning started at 5:00 on a horse going slowly up the side of the mountain range from the Panoche Valley side. I had hoped to be high enough to see the sun rising over the Sierras, but wasn’t able to get high enough without wearing out the horse.

I managed to talk him into going to some new places that I hadn’t seen before and as I felt the need for some adventure I decided this was the time to do it.

I topped the range around 9:30 a little to the south of Call Mountain. One of the first things I noted was the rock formations. Most of the rock formations were on the side of the ridges with very few actually on top of the ridges. They appeared to be basalt, but not sure. I took some pictures of them. When I get them developed I’m going to scan some to Lowell and also take them over to a friend of mine who is a retired geologist.

Up on the top of one ridge I did find some basalt, as it was the same kind I have seen at the San Luis Dam. I have found basalt at the lower elevations, but this is the first time I have found any as high as I was.

While scanning the area with my binoculars I spotted some serpentine in a canyon just below me. I got my topo map out and tried to locate the area by judging my distance from Call Mountain to the area where the Call Mountain fault is located. Once I located my position I located the same position on the fault map. I found that I was about a half a mile away from the fault, but also knew it was going to be a rough ride. I climbed off my horse and loosened his cinch strap so he could rest. We stayed there about an hour just looking around. I gave my horse of couple handful of oats and tightened the cinch strap and we were off. It was about this time that I noticed Fremont’s Peak and decided to give Petra a call on the cell phone. Talk about a bear with a toothache. That lady isn’t the most cheerful person when woken up from a sound sleep. Especially when that lady is tired and her back is hurting again. Anyway about that time my horse started dancing and nickering which to me that is not a very good sign. My feeling is that he winded a cat in the area so I gave him a loose rein and let him take the lead. Before very long we were on a dirt road that led up to the tower on Call Mountain.

I had been on this road before in my 4X4, but have never really stopped and took a look at the area. In a canyon that runs east and west there were some huge boulders and when I say huge I mean huge. One boulder starting at the up-hill end to the down-hill end was about 50 yards long, about 30 yards wide and stuck about 30 yards above the ground. There was another one about 100 yards above it that appeared to be about the same size maybe a little larger. A little further down the canyon there was another boulder that was about the same size as the other two put together. All three were a grayish/blue so I figured they all had come from the same source. They also had a smooth surface with some fractures in them.

By now it was getting late in the afternoon and I was getting a little tired. As I rode my horse down the road I had to pass an ancient lakebed that had been turned up at a 90-degree angle. You can only see about 10 feet of it so I wonder how much of it has never been seen by a human.

It’s strange that I had never noticed this before, but when you’re on top of the ridges the land appears pristine and calm, but when you get down near the base of the ridges the land takes on the appearance of great stress and turmoil a land that has been tortured many times in the past. You can see rock strata pushed up at a 45-degree angle and in some places even more. The canyons though small are very steep so as to be almost straight up and down. I wonder if this turmoil has ended, or there is yet more to come.

I hope that is some small way I have described a small area of where we live. Take Care…Don in creepy town.