Week 12: Lindo Lake County Park

It has been an intense week at work and first part of next week is not looking much better.  Still we felt it would be good to get out to the river even if only for a short while.  Anita's cousin's grandson turned one today and we were at the party out in Lakeside.  We've been out in Lakeside a lot recently.  The town is an odd place, seemingly at the gateway to something spectacular, yet somehow still obscure.  Those who do hear of it sometimes wonder where they might find the "lake" for which Lakeside is named.  It turns out to be Lindo Lake, not more than 1/2 mile away from the river along a tributary now long dammed to form Lake Jennings.  It turns out not to be much of a lake, but such is how things are in the arid west.  Whereas east coasters might take what we call "hills" and call them "mountains", we tend to take what east coasters would call "ponds" and treat them as "lakes."  Perhaps what makes these lakes a true anomaly is that they are Naturally Occurring lakes, a rarity in this part of the world.

Lindo Lake, on the side of which you will find Lakeside.

Lots of ducks.  Do you like to feed the ducks?  A lot of people here do.

We parked on the northwest corner of the lake.  Upon exiting the car, the first thing we noticed were signs everywhere reading "No Rodeo Parking."  The rodeo is one of Lakeside's big draws these days.  I have not yet been, but I will admit my curiosity is piqued.  The other thing we noticed was the abundance of ducks and geese and the number of people feeding said ducks and geese despite signs explaining why this is a bad idea.  I have fed the ducks a bit in my time,  but now a days recognize the ecological issues.  Here they seem rather unafraid of us and thus the pictures you see were pretty easy to get.

Yeah, you go ducks!

Trying to record our progress around the lakeshore.

There are also geese.

A little creek forms a little delta.

 The entire trail encircling the lake is ~ 1.25 miles, perhaps 1.5 or 1.75 if you do a "figure 8" loop as we did across the divider between the upper and lower lake.  So it was not long before we came upon a bridge over a little creek that seemed to form a delta in the lake.  I always love looking at self similar morphologies and watching them evolve over short time frames, replicating what happens in the larger world over long timescales.  Perhaps this is why I am in the line of work I am in.

A different kind of duck.

Momma duck and Baby ducks!

 Anita, meanwhile spotted something else of interest: So I finally visited the lake for which Lakeside is named.  The water foul here were variant and wonderful to see as we meandered about.  Being a week after Easter, it was a pleasant surprise to see ducklings, a sign of Spring.  I had never seen ducklings before in the wild and they were walking with Mother and Father following closely behind them.  Just adorable!  They walked across the grass into the water and paddled around in there then back on shore.  Such a treat to witness this mallard family.

Going for a swim.

Awww!

Anita looks on at the wild life.

Thirsty Goose.  Sounds like the name of a bar.

You lookin' at me?

Looking back at the birdlife on the delta.

 Lindo Lake is divided into two segments, an upper one and a lower one.  Whereas the lower lake is full of water, the upper segment is presently a mud puddle.  A divider trail runs between the two.  We crossed over and soon found ourselves surrounded by a bunch of little blue birds, I think sparrows, but not sure.  For maybe 100 feet of trail they were everywhere.  This backside of the lake seems less travelled.  I always picture this being where the sketchy characters would hang out, but there really weren't any and I really do try not to judge people generally.  Anita: The blue birds Sasha described were flying around in an interesting way as they would curve up and down and around.  This was a new way for me to see birds fly.  They were small birds that had arched wings, birds shaped much like the common sparrow tattoos I've seen, guessing that's what they were.  It was amazing to see these birds all around us fly like this.  But capturing them on camera proved to be very difficult.

Continuing east.

Verdant greens from the rain.

It all has the feel of a park forgotten, undeveloped, except for the occasional visit by the high weed mower.  We had a storm last night that brought more wind than rain, but has successfully greened things up here.  The little bit of forest has a lonely, neglected feel, the trees not so tall, they stand not so thick, but this is the forest we are given and so I go with it.

These trees appear to be talking to each other.

Like a pond without the water.

We rested for a bit watching the clouds and lack of water in the lake and then got up and continued onward.  I suspect the dry upper lake is a result of the drought.  Perhaps before the damming of Lake Jennings, a mile upstream there was more water here.  Now its just the storm drains of Lakeside keeping upper Lindo Lake blue.   We were surprised how nice it was here and kept remarking that we would love to have a place like this where we lived.

Going back toward the sun.

The dry side of Lindo Lake.

Back on the divide.

This delta really captivated me. 

This goose is on guard.

These little sparrows were quite numerous along certain parts of the shore.

 We were rapidly approaching the final quarter of the walk when we crossed the divider once more and passed birthday parties and pizza boxes.  For a moment I thought there was another lake over the rise and then I looked ahead and understood that we were actually on a peninsula.  At the end was a gazebo jealously guarded by some nesting Canadian geese.  While some continued past the nests, we decided to leave the geese be.  I've had enough with the locals being cheesed off at me for some presumed indiscretion over land.  That and a park service sign asked me nicely.  There is a lot to be said for asking nicely.

This guy was really aggressive and argumentative.

This is why he was aggressive.

Here's the nest!

Duck tails. Woo-hoo!

Classic American Lakeside.

Cool!  A fitness course.

Perhaps the highlight of our journey was coming across the Greenfield outdoor fitness park.  Since our trip up the El Monte Park trail, I have been trying to do more exercise, especially with my upper body.  As part of this effort I have sought out "par courses" and outdoor fitness circuits, where various pieces of abstract art looking metal and wood sculptures are designed to give you what some medical researcher calls the "ultimate workout."  Of all of the ones I have explored so far, the Greenfield outdoor fitness circuit is by far the most awesome.  For one, the pieces of abstract art actually move with you.  Also I don't get lost trying to find my way around the course (The Morley field one can be a bit of a challenge to navigate).  Perhaps though my favorite was this Nordic skiing simulator.  This thing had me feeling the ground move beneath me long after I dismounted.   I did feel the burn in my muscles pretty quickly indicating that I was activating the target muscle groups as well as other parts of my body supposed to gain benefit from the workout.  I am still out of shape, however.  I saw this guy with two daughters go all out on stations where I had barely been able to move.  It was fun to watch people interact with this and I hope they do all gain something.  I want one of these where I live.

I swear I saw something like this in LA story.

This is the Nordic skiing simulator.  It was incredibly fun, especially when we used it together.  

Lights going down on Lakeside town.

Time for reflection.

 We were entering the golden hour and I was growing tired.  I've been working too hard as of late and can feel the synaptic burn from the previous day still (a rather substantial computer fail did not help my morale either, even after the data was recovered).  As I write this now I know I need rest and I see progress returning.  We lingered just a little longer.

The Eucalyptus in the golden hour.

A postcard waiting to happen.