Mountain trail

What is that at the very top ? A fire tower ?

No, an assortment of communications stuff, some having to do with the airport. If my dad was alive he would know exactly what it all is. ;-)

Great picture Diane,eddie,

Hello, Eddie! Thank you.

The street to nowhere ...

Exactly! Thank you, Heidi!

Is it on private land? I'd figure the ATVs and dirt bikes would be thick if it were publicly accessible.

"The majority of Hogback is privately owned, but open to hikers. Fence tampering and all-terrain vehicle (ATV) use is strictly prohibited..." I think that's an FCC microwave antenna at the top. It happens that my brother owns some acreage on the other side, but I've no idea why and I've never been there. It is steeper than it looks in photos.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hogback_Mountain_(Klamath_County,_Oregon)

It looks a great place! Coyotes and mountain lions would probably leave your alone during daylight.

Yes, especially coyotes. Mtn lions can and do attack in the daytime, but that is a very rare event. When it happens, there is a lot of publicity about it, so it seems more dangerous than it is.

However, when I lived in the woods next to my son & family, there were many sightings of a large male in yards near us. This went on for about 3 years. A trapper working for the state tried to live-trap it for relocation, but no success. On the third year, it was seen on a hill behind the school watching kids on the playground!!! Then it was seen in our yard twice and growled at my son one night when he went out for firewood. (Nate said he almost peed his pants!) Another night it was on the back deck. The trapper was given permission by the state to turn into a hunter and within 24 hrs. had shot the lion on a rocky hillside near us. We had very mixed feelings about it, because that is such a beautiful animal, but by this time it was deemed a danger to the community - especially because of the school incident!

And, then there were the bears! And, last year, the new pack of wolves in the same area after they were reintroduced in a neighboring state. ;-o

That sounds pretty threatening, I can understand they would shoot a mountain lion watching kids!
I'd also be very wary of bears... I don't know about wolves, they have been reintroduced in Germany and so far have helped themselves to sheep mainly (farmers get compensated), there are no reports that they have threatened humans.

A few weeks back our neighborhood newsletter had a note from some people about some coyotes acting scarily aggressive in the local state park, when they were out walking their dogs. The coyotes lured their big Lab out and then one attacked him. They (the people) finally drove it away, and the dog didn't have life-threatening injuries, but still-- Part of the problem is the coyotes have gotten bold in the park because they don't get shot at!

I like ** this serie describing an unknown part of the world, which I thougt to know from adventure films about the Wild West.
:-)

Rapi, this area looks very much like old western movies. Most of it looks like the above landscape, but there are also large areas of tall pine trees - called ponderosa pines, by the way. ;-b

Sure they're not Jeffrey pines? ;)

No, I'm not. I know there are some in the counties west of us, but I've never heard of them east of Jackson County. Maybe they're young ponderosa pines (there are couple of older ones further up), but to me they look like junipers before they get that ugly, scraggly look. If I think of it I'll try to find out.

Years ago a forester friend told us the mnemonic they learn: "You can play catch with Jeff." The spikes on the outside of the Jeffrey's cones point inward, while on the ponderosa they point outward. Mature Jeffrey pines also have a distinct vanilla odor, from all the volatiles in their sap. In fact, their sap contains a very pure gasoline, n-heptane IIRC. This gave the old-timers an incentive to tell the trees apart, because if you try to distill turpentine from Jeffrey sap you get an explosion!

Anyway, the trees _are_ very similar... ;) We have mostly Jeffrey pines in the Sierra foothills here, which is not surprising as they can tolerate a bit drier conditions than the ponderosas.

I don't recall any vanilla odor, anywhere around here or out in the more wooded areas. Cones with inward spikes...that doesn't ring a bell, either. Well', the Jeff sounds like a dangerous tree! All the maps show the same thing - no Jeffreys east of Jackson Co.
nwconifers.com/m/sw/jeffreymap.gif

I've probably seen them in the Lake Almanor area, where my son used to live.

Excellent shot! (Apologies for cut and paste but it's difficult to comment individually on 2 week's worth of missed photos!!)