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14 March
1999 Boots
and Saddles Like
summer camp - but for adults! SIMON WILLIS goes ranching in America's Sierra
Nevada. It is
difficult not to stare Butch Wiggs. A large, powerful man his handshake left
my fingers feeling as though they had been crushed by a bunch of steel bananas.
His subsequent laugh could be heard clear across Edison lake. But what fixes
the gaze of guests as they arrive at his Vermilion Valley Resort, is his
alarming quantity of facial hair. It looks, to all the world, as if Butch is
chewing a pair of squirrels. Only their bushy tails appear to protrude from
his lips, sweeping, flamboyantly, back across each cheek. Butch and
Peggy Wiggs own one of the many ranch style resorts which are dotted
throughout the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California, and which are starting
to attract British visitors. They're adult versions of the summer camps to
which many American parents send their youngsters during their school
vacation, offering a rustic back country experience of log cabins, camping,
fishing, sailing, hiking and riding and are quite unlike anything in Europe.
Imagine a very rustic Centreparks, drop it in the most remote corner of
Scotland, parachute in a few wild bears, and you'd be half way there. It
seems increasing numbers of British tourists, while driving around
California, are lured into the mountains by the idea of playing Davy Crocket,
and since I happened to be hiking in the area, I called in at two
neighbouring, but very different Sierra resorts. Vermilion
Valley Resort "Peggy
and me bought this place back in 1994", Butch shouted over the roar of
the doorless, roofless Wrangler Jeep which I was struggling to stay inside.
"Actually, I bought it. Then I told Peggy". Butch had been a
machine tool salesman but was sacked, he said, for having too independent an
attitude. "So we came up into the Sierras, which we love, bought this
place, and each year we fix it up a bit at a time. It's getting better and
better." Spurred on
by a brochure which locates it, "Where the pavement ends and the
wilderness begins...", visitors set out from Fresno heading down highway
168. Several hours later, having driven over one mountain range, they reach
Huntington Lake, expecting to be nearly there, only to learn they must cross
yet another mountain range on the twenty two mile long dirt track which
locals laughingly call a road. Survivors can buy a t-shirt to mark their
achievement. When
searching for a polite description of the resort's facilities, the word I
kept returning to is "basic". I stayed in a "tent cabin",
which turned out to be a big, green canvas tent on a raised wooden platform,
fitted out with metal frame beds, mattresses, table, chairs and not much
else. It would sleep at least four, and at just $35 a night for the whole
thing, is probably the best way to experience the great outdoors without
lugging around your own tent. Butch hasn't yet built any log cabins, but his
motel rooms start at $55. With lino floors these too are "basic" in
a utilitarian rather than a cosy sort of way, but then if you're wearing
dirty hiking boots, lino floors are precisely what you want. Butch is going
to work on improving these next. Basic,
too, was the menu. The restaurant was a truck-stop without the trucks, a real
pile it high place, which would have to close for the day if the frying pan
ever broke. However, this belly filling fare is perfect fuel for long
distance hikers. The biggest attraction in the place, quite literally, was
'Tiny', the cook. Along with startled diners, I stopped mid-mouthful as,
above the sound of the sizzling, rose this big man's wonderful, powerful
singing voice. I realised later he was just singing to himself, quite
oblivious to his audience in front of the counter, because when I caught his
eye he immediately stopped, and turned away, embarrassed. Incinerating slabs
of meat was far from Tiny's only talent. The
scenery is the real reason to come here. Set in a panorama of peaks, canopied
by pine trees, on the shore of a tranquil lake, this is everyone's ideal of a
back country hideaway. Average the average summer temperature is eighty
degrees with only the occasional afternoon thunderstorm to disturb the peace
and bring out the scent of the pine trees. It's a place to bring a good book,
where you feel like sitting back and doing absolutely nothing. Unless, of
course, you happen to be American. In the USA, leisure time is a highly
prized commodity, with many companies giving people just two or three weeks
off work, so a great deal must be squeezed into the annual vacation. Enjoying
yourself becomes a serious business, and for many "sportsmen" this
means fishing. Butch's
boats are looked after by James, who has caught his boss' compulsion to tell
tall stories, because according to James, Edison Lake is all but overflowing
with trout. Go out in a canoe, he reckoned, and you'd run the risk of
capsizing as the creatures leapt into your boat. Under the hull of our motor
boat, he assured me, hundreds of German Brown, Rainbow, Eastern Brook and
Golden Trout, were desperate to become dinner. "Our record catch",
James proudly revealed, "was a German Brown Trout, weighing over twenty
seven pounds!" I tried to look impressed, but another fisherman had
caught my eye. An Osprey Fish Eagle had been following our wake, and just
then had dived into the spume, emerging with its supper clenched between its
talons. As it rose, it turned the flapping fish in line with its own body,
using the unintentionally aerodynamic shape of its prey to help steer a
flight path back to its nest. Exploring
the Sierra Nevada Mountains is the other main activity, and the traditional
way is from the back of a horse. Butch's nearest neighbours at the High
Sierra Pack Station can arrange everything from a day ride to a full
expedition. Those who don't want to negotiate mountain paths from a saddle,
but shudder at the thought of shouldering a large back pack, can have all
their provisions and camping gear carried into the wilderness by a horse
train, while they stroll along unburdened. Backpacks,
however, out number both saddles and fishing rods because, quite simply, the
Sierra Nevada mountains are the best backpacking area in the world.
Everything is right. The climate is perfect, the trails are excellent and the
mountain scenery is utterly awe inspiring. Many good hikes, from one day to
one week in length, start and finish at Vermilion Valley Resort and, for
those who fancy a real challenge, the two and a half thousand mile long
Pacific Crest Trail passes close by. I was hiking the most spectacular section
of that trail, a 220 mile route called the John Muir Trail. I stayed with
Butch and Peggy for just two nights, and felt like lingering much longer, but
I had to hit the trail and hike South to the next Sierra secret.. Muir
Trail Ranch If Butch's
resort sits at the back of beyond, the Muir Trail Ranch must lies a good deal
further down the trail. Guests first drive over a nine thousand foot pass,
park at Florence Lake, and then either hike or ride a horse eleven miles into
the John Muir Wilderness, but what they find makes it all worthwhile. This
ranch is very, very special. It is a serene retreat; an oasis of comfort in a
land of granite; a sweet spot of the Sierra. The ice
clinked against the pitcher as eighty three year old Adeline Smith poured
another glass of home made lemonade, and offered to show me around. A world
away from the parched heat of the high mountains, a cool dappled light
filtered through the trees, shooting sparkles from a silver river that curved
around the log cabins. Horses grazed quietly in the meadow, or stood around
their coral, leather saddles quietly creaking in the shade. Natural hot
springs had been diverted into luxuriously tiled outdoor hot tubs in which I
later soaked away the aches of the trail. All the buildings are log cabins,
with walls built the old fashioned way by lying one log ontop of another.
With wooden floors, long, solid tables and well stuffed sofas this wasn't a
ranch, it was interior designer heaven. Ralph Lauren had been let loose in
the woods to create a colour spread for Homes and Cabin. Guest
rooms are individual log cabins, with three rough timber walls and a glass
front looking out over the river and, on the other bank, a beautiful meadow.
Inside they're furnished simply but comfortably, with a toilet and wash basin
which is all that's needed when the hot springs are so close. From here the
hiking is superb, but horse riding is what the ranch is really about, and I
find the Western saddles, with their curved shape and long stirrups are
relatively comfortable. A horse costs $50 a day, but a guide is compulsory,
which adds another $100, although he can look after up to five guests. Until
recently, getting a reservation at the Muir Trail Ranch was not easy. Deep
snow keeps it inaccessible for nine months of the year and, to limit the
environmental impact, guest numbers are restricted to just twenty at a time.
For the last forty years, Adeline has only taken group bookings, usually
between fifteen and twenty people, but this summer (1999) that will change.
Individual cabins can now be booked just like hotel rooms, day by day, for
$95 per person including three good meals. Since the death of her husband
Karl in 1981, Adeline's family have helped her to run the ranch and I
gathered that they'd persuaded her to introduce the new system, and bookings
are already being taken for the year 2002. However, as we strolled together
around her ranch, I could tell that Adeline was not at all convinced. While
walking, Adeline told me how her late husband had stumbled across the ranch
and instantly fell in love with it, body and soul. Karl Smith was a trombone
player with a Dallas orchestra, and had been hiking mountains with a friend,
a young Sam Peckinpah, long before he became a film director, when Sam
slipped and cut his hand quite badly. The pair searched for the fastest way
down and came upon the Diamond D guest ranch, a cluster of timber cabins
beside a river in a magically beautiful place called Blaney Meadow. A hot
spring bubbled out of the ground and, while Sam soaked, soothed and cleaned
his injury, Karl explored and became entranced. His problem was, the ranch
had just been sold to new owners, but Karl was not going to give up. He and
Adeline bought a boathouse a few miles away on Florence Lake, determined to
be next in line for the ranch should it ever come up for sale, and in 1953
they bought their dream home, renaming it the Muir Trail Ranch. "Now we
live in Yosemite during the winter, and here at the ranch through the
summer", said Adeline, finishing both her drink and a story she'd
obviously told time and again. Since the
log cabins were full, Adeline found me a place in another tent cabin, similar
to that at Vermilion Valley resort. The rest of the ranch had been booked by
one, large family who were regular guests and used the visit as their annual
get together. They welcomed me to the communal dinner table and wanted to
hear all about my long distance walk, while all I wanted to do was tuck into
the excellent spread of fresh salad, corn cobs, and stir fried chicken. I
doubt Tiny would have been impressed, but after too many days eating freeze
dried dinners, I ached to sink my teeth into a fresh tomato. This well
heeled hiking does not come cheap. Hiring the ranch for fifteen people, with
food, costs more than ten thousand dollars. But the new 'one night stay'
policy will make it possible for British tourists who're visiting California
to spend some time at a ranch with a unique place in American history, and to
relax and unwind in a very special part of the Sierras. While
Vermilion Valley Resort is a boisterous, lively place, with fast food and
instant friendship from the good people who run it, Muir Trail Ranch exudes a
deeper, soul touching warmth. The folks may be slower to accept, but their
memories will perhaps last longer. At Vermilion, I felt I was among friends;
at the Ranch, it was like being with family. Simon
Willis flew from London to San Francisco as a guest of Virgin Atlantic. Travel
Brief Vermilion
Valley Resort - Tel: 001 559 259 4000 (seasonal) 559 855
6558 (office) Muir Trail Ranch - Tel:001
559 966-3195 |
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