Hi All. Had an interesting day that started around 6:00 this morning when a family of Blue Jays woke me up. They were behaving like normal Blue Jays. They were having an argument. I drove into the area around 1:00 this morning. I slept in the back of my 4X4. Nothing like roughing it I always say.

Located in southern San Benito County in the Diablo Mountains that separate the Salinas Valley from the Central Valley, Clear Creek is a 50,000-acre management area run by the Bureau of Land Management. Elevations range from about 2,200 ft. in the staging/camping areas to 5,241 ft. on San Benito Mountain, the highest point in San Benito County. Most of the accessible area is between 3,000 and 4,500 ft. elevation.

Summer is not the best time to go into the area, but if one uses a little caution and common sense they can have a fairly good time. This is because the soils throughout most of the riding area contain naturally occurring chrysotile asbestos and most OHVs prefer to ride during the rainy/wet season.

The Clear Creek Management Area historically has been a mining district because the area is heavily mineralized. In the 19th century, the area produced mercury, which was used in the California gold mines. During the 20th century, mainly in the 1950's and 1960's, the principal mineral extracted was asbestos. Two major mining operations produced asbestos. One shut down in the late 1960's and the mine site has become a EPA superfund clean-up site. The second, the KCAC mine, just recently ceased operations.

In addition to mercury and asbestos, many rare minerals are found in Clear Creek. The most notable is the semi-precious gem Benitoite, which is California's official state gem. This gem is mined on a 40-acre parcel of private property located in the middle of Clear Creek. A couple of people I know were almost shot for being “high graders.” A dim view is taken about such things. Another rare gem is the demantoid garnet. This stone is green, unlike most garnets, which are red. Demantoid garnets are only found in the Ural Mountains of Russia, Mexico Namibia and Clear Creek!

The most unique geological feature of the area is the naturally barren hills. Interspersed throughout the riding area, there are about 9,000 acres of these barren areas on which no vegetation grows. Well almost no vegetation. In the areas where serpentine can be found you will find the San Benito Prim Rose growing.

As is typical in a old mining district, there are miles and miles of roads carved into the mountains. It has been estimated that there could be up to 800 miles of roads, bulldozer paths to exploration digs, and OHV trails constructed over the years by users of the area.

After having my morning coffee I drove up to the forested area above the New Idria Mines. I went into an area knows as Spanish Lake. Don’t let the lake part fool you. It’s just about everything you want it to be, but a lake it isn’t. It can’t be more then 10 yards long and maybe 6 yards wide. Not very deep either. While there I ran into some of the locals that took an immediate exception to my being there and started getting real mean. A couple of shots in front of them made them turn however there was a near by tree that I was ready to take refuge in if that didn’t work. The species of wild boar in the area have Russian in them and they are always spring loaded to the ticked off position. Petra was scared of a coyote I hate to think how she would have been with the boars. Also saw some goats in the area. Talk about something being skittish. As soon as they saw them me they were gone and they were almost a 1000 yards from me when they spotted me. I guess they don’t like people. No one really knows for sure how they got there.

The area I was in is where one of the asbestos mines is located. Not much is there now. Just a lot of rusted out machinery that has seen better days. I looked around the area to see if there was any history I could bring home with me. I’m sorry to say the area has been picked clean.

Other then that there wasn’t much to see there. A lot of history has passed through the area. Geologically it is one of more inhospitable areas one can find. There is nothing there that says welcome, but for some reason people are drawn back to the area time after time. I’m no exception. There are a lot of stories about people going into the area that are never seen again. Maybe one day I’ll be one of them. Take Care…Don in creepy town