When I was a kid people always said the same thing: “I hate the desert. It is so ugly. It’s all just a bunch of dirt, no color at all.”
And I was no different; I made the same claims. Now that I’m back I intend to prove myself totally wrong, and what better time to disprove the myth of the brown desert than during what should be the most naturally colorful time of year: the fall. After doing a lil googlin’ I decided to take a trip to Silverwood Lake and take a lil stroll down the Miller Canyon Trail.
If you’re not familiar with Silverwood Lake, it is pretty easy to get to. Whether you are coming from the 15 freeway or from the high desert, all you need to do is make your way to the 138. Once on the 138 you head east. Soon you will find yourself once more in the San Bernardino National Forest.
Once you have passed the sign, it’s not far to our starting point. After about ten minutes of driving you will see the exit for Silverwood Lake. DON’T TAKE IT! For our purposes we are actually going to pass by the main entrance and drive out to the eastern most entrance to the lake - roughly four miles from the main entrance to Silverwood. The signs that you are looking for are for the Miller Canyon group area.
To be honest I’m not really sure when the campground is open to the public and when it is not. On the day I went it was not, but that’s the funny part about smaller national parks - being closed really just means no one is there to greet or help you, but on the other hand no one is there to stop you from enjoying the trail. Just park outside the fence. I entered through this fence here, which is right off the main road you enter from.
After entering the fence you pretty much stay on a paved path down to and through the group camping area. Along the way you get some great pines towering above the trail.
Almost immediately we are hit with our first explosion of fall color. BAM
At the western-most end of the group camp you will see this little guy. Time to get on the trail
Let the color quest begin!
While it’s true that there aren’t any trees bursting into different colors, there are a lot of really beautiful color variations going on.
The trail splits in two directions; one goes down toward what I assume is the creek that is supposed to be here but unfortunately is not. I decide to go down and see what the dried creek has to offer my eye balls.
The answer is plenty.
I love rocks!
Here is an acorn
But there are still miles to go so I head back to the trail.
I find a nice chunk of quartz on the trail. I’ve seen bigger.
The hike overall is relatively short - 5 miles roundtrip. I’m about a mile into it when I start to notice that the trial is a bit more overgrown than I expected. this is not all that troubling but it does prompt me to pay a little bit more attention to the story that the trial is telling me.
There are a lot of things to look for when reading a trail. Like when solving a mystery, all the clues are there - you just have to know how to interpret them.The first clue is the soil. Underfoot the soil is soft and loose, and it gives about a half inch under the weight of my feet. It hasn’t rained recently in this area and the creek is almost entirely dried, which tells me that the moisture that’s in the soil (which is helping it to expand) is coming from underground. All these clues tell me that this part of the trail has not been traveled on in some time.
A little further down the trial my suspicions are verified. The trail is cut off by a pair of fallen trees, their branches strewn here and there, with no clear path around. When climbing over fallen branches I always give it a real good kick - if it seems stable, I find some good hand holds and give it a real good shake. Once satisfied that the fallen tree will not move, I take great care in climbing over.
Once over the logs I see an awesome grove of alder trees off to the left. My focus returns to the trail where I notice something interesting. Its scat! AKA doody.
Based on the size of the doody I can feel pretty confident that it is either from a bobcat or coyote. While I am no doody expert my guess is that it’s from a coyote. Although both animals are primarily nocturnal, they can often be seen in the daylight in the later winter months.
My hope is that what I think is a coyote still is able to find enough food to sleep the day away and is not trolling the trail looking for a snack. I really hope that I’m not totally wrong and that it’s a bobcat that is frequenting this trial.
If I were to say that the thought of being on a trail not recently traveled by anything except animals with teeth didn’t make me nervous I’d be lying, so I do what I always do when i’m feeling uncertain - I sing
You’re a rich girl, and you gone too far,
‘Cause you know it don’t matter anyway.
You can rely on the old man’s money,
You can rely on the old mans money.
It’s a bitch girl, but it’s gone too far,
‘Cause you know it doesn’t matter anyway.
You can say money money
Won’t get you too far
Get you too far.
I come upon a second set of fallen logs. My nerves are a little fried and to be honest I’m kinda doin’ the chubby guy jog at this point.
A few yards after I come to the Silverwood Lake bike trail. I know from my research that I am close to the lake.
I reach the trail’s end at a bike lockup. I could continue on and follow that bike path around the lake, but to be honest I’m pretty well freaked out and less sure that the animal evidence I found is not from a bobcat.
I stop by the lake for a few minutes to have a snack and let the waves calm me down. I haven’t seen anyone all day. Now it’s just me and the ducks
On the way back I decide to try the road veering off to the left of the bike lockup, and it turns out that it runs parallel to the trail and leads me right back to the car. Now it seems more understandable why no one is using the trail and why the park is not making an effort to maintain it.
Perhaps in the spring they will make it more accessible or perhaps they will simply let the forest reclaim it. For me the trail was not what I thought it would be. If anything, this trail was a reminder to never assume that something will be easy, a real no brainer, because when you go in with that mentality that’s when you get tested in ways you didn't anticipate. But I digress - this post is getting away from itself, so let me bring it back round: if you should choose to go to Miller Canyon you will find two roads diverging to silver wood, one paved and one, less traveled. Given what you now know, which will you choose?
The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost
Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted If I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
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