Kule Loklo Trail

Kule Loklo Trail
.8 miles
1 hour
Start: Bear Valley Visitor Center
End: Bear Valley Visitor Center
Includes: Bear Valley Visitor Center, Kule Loklo Trail, Kule Loklo, Morgan Trail, Morgan Horse Ranch

Hike 53 December 9, 2013

I usually walk the Kule Loklo Trail with Desmond, but today I headed out on my own. I had a number of short trails to get to before the end of the year, which was fast approaching. A fallen tree created a natural gateway to the recreated Miwok village.

The eucalyptus were beautiful, but out of place; surely they were not here when this was a Native American village.

At the end of the Kule Loklo Trail, the Miwok community building stood padlocked. I peeped through the gap between doors. The dusky interior looked mysterious and holy. I vowed to return when it was open for a school group or other special event.

I passed the granary where they stored umpa (acorns). We made acorn mush once in a class on local plants. The mush was bland but satisfying.

The ceremonial circle was to my right. We saw Miwok dancers during a Big Time Festival they have every year at Kule Loklo. It is a hallowed place under a giant bay tree.

I stooped into a tepee. It was cozy. I have often longed to live in a place like this. In my imaginings it's late, the fire has burned to orange embers and I lie naked under a bear skin cover with... Okay, you get the idea.

The sweat lodge was subterranean. I climbed in and sat down, remembering a sweat I participated in once at a lodge in New York state. It was intensely hot. We took breaks in the cool evening air before going back to sweat, sit and sing with seven generations of ancestors. Sitting in the semi-darkness of this lodge, I felt them with me, still.

I headed out of Kule Loklo and onto the Morgan Trail. It went to the Morgan Horse Ranch where the National Park Service keeps Morgan horses.

One of the horses stood drinking water in the corral. He was very patient with me.

I admired his brown, furry ears. I wanted to touch them, but refrained; he might not be patient with a strange finger stuck in his ear.

I made friends with the black, barnyard cat. He had an enormous head! Not really, it was an optical illusion. He looked annoyed by my joke.

I was soon on the road and back at the visitor center.

Deer grazed in the field by the parking lot.

This was a short hike, but there was a lot to see. It was an interesting montage of cultures: Native American, Early American and contemporary Park Service surrounded by natural landscape.