Week 3: Grantville Mission Trails Entrance

Old town: where the journey begins

Every week it seems we enter a different kind of river environment.  Week 1 we crossed the delta.  Week 2 we were walking along a straightened channel, under many freeways.  Now Week 3 things begin get just a little wilder, and less straight.  The stream gradient increases by a factor of 2.  Most people who visit San Diego stay west of I-15, as that is where most of the attractions lie.  There is however a good deal of city east of I-15 and much of it turns out to be full of character.
So we began our journey as always riding the trolley up mission valley over the jungles and past the malls.  It seems a little more intimate now that we have walked here before.

Looking out toward the I-5 / I-8 maze

We were here last week

The River jungles of Ward Road

Our walk begins at Ward Road and we quickly find ourselves in a condominium complex.  With the present state of the river trail, it seems we are often in someone's back yard.  The condo complexes tend to be okay with this as do some but not all office buildings.  I wonder how things would be different if there was an actual trail and actual people wandering though.  Certainly some sort of easement and agreement to hold harmless the property owner would be needed, but why should these be so hard?  People have been walking since before people were people.
The few residents of this condoplex seem busy in their afternoon daydream as we dodge the dog turds and peer through the Oleander at what must be the river somewhere.  I am under the impression that there's a fairly thick alluvial basin here through which most of the river flow takes place.  The roots of the lush vegetation clearly reach this water table, but we don't much open water.
The neighborhood seems only dimly aware of its ties to the river, and the oleander planted along the property edge suggests a desire to keep a firm boundary.
For those of you unfamiliar with this Oleander it is a popular in landscaping around souther california.  It's drought resistant, grows fast, stays green year round and produces beautiful flowers.  It's also highly poisonous.  There are even a few places like the city of Norco that outright ban it for the protection of the horses.

Consumer culture is the new religion, Coke machines are the new missionary

One last shot of the Ward Road Bridge over the river

The Oleander wall

Depsite the oleander people do break through

The first bend in the river!

I liked this norfolk island pine

I used to have dreams of going on long bike rides that took short cuts through people's back yards.  Sometimes the residents would be a bit alarmed, other times they'd be angry, sometimes they didn't notice.  Now I feel like I am living that dream.  Anita and I are clearly not from around these parts.
So it is here ~ 11 miles upstream that we encounter the first significant bend in the river.  It may not look like much, but it is a sign of a different kind of river to come.   We continue through the grasses until we spot a bridge behind a fence and a piece of architecture that is somewhat out of place:
It turns out to be a monument commemorating a Franciscan priest who was martyred here.  It doesn't explain why anyone would want to kill him, instead describing his efforts to move the mission from presidio hill near Old town over to the present location.

A bit out of place in condoland, but glad it's here

Now that's a mission I can get behind: playing more

California's First Mission was along the San Diego River.

And across from the condos is the first Spanish Mission in California.  I could imagine this being a desirable location back in the day, a nice hilltop commanding a view of the surrounding lowlands.  The fertile plains of Grantville providing a good place for agriculture.  Also it would have afforded good sight lines over many of the travel routes people took back in the day.  And of course there was water year round.
We spent a good deal of time here looking at the reeling in the history on display at the museum, gazing in awe upon the church, and admiring the christian sculptures.  As we wandered we couldn't help but notice how cool it was inside the mission.  Despite a lack of air conditioning, the whitewashed walls, overhangs, and the adobe construction really kept the building incredibly cool on an otherwise warm day.  I admire these sorts of low tech solutions to adapting to the elements.

St francis in 3-D

Cactus in the pepper tree

more 3-D 

Nice and cool here

Anita: I have been to Mission San Diego de Alcala many times but this time I have come away noticing things I hadn’t before.  This is a very historic site and especially interesting since it told me about the start of my home city.  There is a museum telling us about the mission’s history and I got to know about the roots of the European presence in San Diego.  This parish boasts that it is the first church in California and I remember my mom bringing me here for mass as a teen a few times.  The first explorer for Spain to arrive here after Cabrillo discovered it, Vizcaino named it San Diego as the first Christian service here was in honor of the feast day of San Diego. Shortly before leaving I read about who San Diego actually was off a board in front of his statue.  This Franciscan mission was named for the Franciscan friar who performed miraculous healings in a university infirmary in Alcala, Spain.   His uncorrupt corps was placed with the prince of Spain to miraculously bring him back from the brink of death which led the king to commission the Vatican to have San Diego canonized a saint.  It’s nice to think this whole area that I have found a lovely place to visit and live in was named for a miraculous healer, someone I imagine who devoted his life to compassion and his work to channeling a huge loving energy for healing.  I should also mention that this was the first of many missions established by Father Junipero Serra lining the California coast, bringing western civilization to California beginning in the late 18^th century.

After nearly an hour of exploring the mission we tried to figure out how to continue up river.  This turned out to be somewhat more complicated than we had hoped, with a maze of fences and other facilities behind the mission, so we returned to the street and made our way across the river.  On the other side we walked around the back side of a hospital and then were diverted onto the street by some sort of secure warehouse.  We had in a few places some stunning views across the water back toward the hill on which the mission stands.

Crossing the river again

looking back on the hills

Lovely river vistas behind the hospital.

Behind the hospital.  You can walk here, just don't loiter.

looking back toward the mission now across the waters

Not to be confused with Bill Cosby

Grantville and it's office parks, warehouses, Medical Dental professional buildings, and strip malls occupies the flood plain where several creeks converge.  The present course of the river skirts the edge of the valley and we could tell that we were entering a different kind of terrain.  This is the experience of living on an "active margin" where tectonics continue to push the land around us higher.  The Pacific / North American plate boundary is not so far to the east and some of that motion is accommodated by these mountains rising from the sea.

River jungle through the Eucalyptus

Does it go through? 

Crossing Friars we tried to make our way around the back of a strip mall.  We were almost successful until we hit a fence.  Anita remarked there is quite a defined line between those who live in the river and those who live and work near the river, the have-nots and the haves.   I have no fear of wandering the encampments, I figure the folks camped there have more to fear from me than I them, but kinda feel rude walking through a stranger's bedroom / living room.  You see a lot on the backsides of these buildings, the part of the business that they intend to hide, the smoking employees, the medical waste collection boxes, the grease / biodiesel bins.  It's clean between the building and the fence and we are afforded some views I would not want to miss.  We are however thwarted by a fence that is not designed to let people like us through, so we back track and grab lunch at a Thai place.  These fast food places are the fat of this land that we live off of.

Ah snap! Dead end!

If you owned a business here, you'd be at work right now!

Classic flame.

Past the strip malls our journey takes us up Mission Gorge Road.  We debated going to the other side and wandering Tierrasanta, which would have afforded us better views, but were not sure about the logistics of this.  A number of passages through this land have been blocked by expressions of the philosophy that letting people walk freely constitutes a security risk.  There are times and places where this may have merit, however it seems as if the tradeoff between security and liberty is not in balance here.  We can do better, I know it.

A little note about Tierrasanta neighborhood:  It's name translated means "Holy Land."  It said that the word "Sauntering" is a gift from France, dating back to an era in which people would wander from town to town begging. / crowdsourcing support for their journey to the Holy land or "Saint Terrier."  It was not clear to even those who donated how many of these people made it to the holy land, or how many just kind of wandered and checked out the scenery.  I like to think that we are seeking the holy land in our own kind of Sauntering.

Anita: Grantville was my old stomping ground in 1997 so I revisited the office space I worked in when it was a video store.  The space has since been divided into 4 to the point where I don’t even recognize it other than the façade.  We were ready for lunch so we had some Thai food at the east end of that space where I told Sasha about a very eventful and memorable 3 months I had that summer living near Zion and Mission Gorge Rd., where we were.  As we were exiting the side door, I finally recognized something from the old video store.  The wall of upper bricks and lower wood panels was still there.

Mission Gorge Road is the River trail

Admiral Baker Golf Course: We can't go there.

Admiral Baker Golf course is a bit of a barrier to our journey, it's run by the Navy and presents logistical difficulties to accessing the hills of Tierrasanta from Grantville and the river.  A darn shame really.  Instead we make our way along the Mission Gorge road and "The industrial river"

To be developed soon

This used to be a trailer park

This is an environment and a city in flux.  Though exactly how is not clear.  One apartment complex appeared to be a fortress with not a single window facing the street, but when we peered through its gates to the courtyards it was another world.  It is the only complex on the North side of the road for a good distance in either direction.  An outliner.  Further up our study of google maps revealed what had once been a mobile home park, replete with a swimming pool and nice approach to the river.  Now it was in  total upheaval, though the nature of the development seemed unclear to us at the time.

probably not the best place for picnic unless you want to discuss
the means of production.

This old house

The mountains of Mission Trails

So we reached the part of the river that is given to industry.  There's not much for sidewalks, or views, unless you're into machine shops, quarries, a tow truck yard.  I am sure many have come here to retrieve a towed car.  We are tantalized now by views toward the hills of Mission Trails and Tierrasanta and keep going.

The means of production in 3-D

Some early machine

The quarry

Past the quarry entrance we began our first real climb.  the flood plain has been slowly narrowing around us and for the first time we leave it in earnest.  Through the trees we can see the piles of gravel and rubble that define the active quarry as well as the machines that work it.  The Congolmerate layer is thick here and produces nice gravels of many sizes and shapes all of which get sorted into various piles.  It's neat to look at though a bummer that we can't actually go down there.  The river has now switched from depositional to erosional, though I wonder how much erosion is actually taking place with the low flows etc  . . .

We are on the shoulder of a very busy street here and the sun is really beating down upon us.  There also seems to be more dust than normal and overall we are getting tired and dehydrated, but it does feel like we are finally headed into new terrain.

This section kinda dragged

View from the subdivision

We finally reach the entrance to a subdivision and break for water.  The western end of the subdivision is condos meaning we can wander around back.  The views into Mission Gorge and the quarry are truly stunning.  The geology on the other side of the gorge is well exposed by the recent action.  We can see the many layers of sediments cut with faults, evidence of fluid flow and then switching to much older volcanics and metamorphics as we head further east. We will see more lithologic change as this as we proceed.

Looking back from where we came

Animal tracks now fossilized

An Apex suburban predator!

Up the valley it grows wild

Colors in the riverbottom!

The climb continues through the subdivision

Cowles above the subdivision

Back to Mission Gorge Road

Catching our breath

Looking out at the rockface of the quarry

So we have finally made it: the entrance to Mission Trails regional Park, the largest municipal park in California.  We catch our breath on a bench and contemplate our remaining journey.  There is a loop here that affords a view of the river that I'd like to do, but the day is late and we have been walking for quite awhile,  Instead we decide to come back the next day and do the loop, and begin making our way to bus stop for now.  This is still over a mile away and all uphill into the highlands of San Carlos.  As the sun lowers we are assured we have chosen wisely by the sight of sweeping vistas to the west.  From Navajo and Jackson Drive we ride the bus to SDSU and then from SDSU we catch the trolley.  It has been an exhausting day, but we take comfort knowing that more beauty lies ahead.

Lots of artwork like this 

We made it!

Now to catch the bus

Looking at the way ahead

Kwayy-Paay and Fortuna below the sky

It was quite a climb to the bus stop

Another perspective on Mission Gorge

Mission Gorge road goes over a different kind of saddle.

We have climbed far.

Anita: This was a very steep hill to climb.  I had to walk backwards to do it comfortably but it was great that there were horizontal grooves to grip our shoes on to help us in our ascent.  The view of course was spectacular.  Another part of San Diego I got familiar with that I have only been through mainly traveling Mission Gorge between the city and Santee.  When we reached the top, I had a familiar site with the first house on the right.  It is the house where I learned an energy work modality for healing and wellness 3 years ago this time of year.  That was a pleasant surprise. 

This trip has been one of revisiting the past and getting some needed perspective on it.  I used to take long walks alone with my thoughts to keep me company but Sasha listens to everything I want to tell him and he is an amazing reflector for me.