(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



The Daily Bucket. Up and around, over and down. A hike on Radio Hill, Quincy, CA [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-07-01  

What is “The Q”, you might ask. It’s just a big letter “Q” up on the side of the hill that has the Quincy High School snuggled down at its feet. Here, I took a photo of it yesterday:

At lower left in this photo is the high school.

Closer….

OK, close enough.

Yes, you can hike right up to it and that’s the meat of this diary.

There’s more than one way you can get there though. You can take the easy, gentle, switchback trail up from the high school, maybe ten minutes at a slow pace, or you can go way around the back and come down on the Q from the top. Which is what I did, for the hopes of nature photography opportunity and to get a good walk/hike in. From Google Earth, that hike maps out like this:

You can see the loop I made. It’s all a very gradual ascent and descent except for a short part just above the Q. The complex of buildings at the center left of the photo, at the foot of the hill, is Quincy High School. By the way, in case you hadn’t figured it out, “Q” stands for Quincy.

Some detail of the hike:

Again, that’s Quincy High School at lower left. Actually, it’s Quincy Junior-Senior High School as it runs grades 7 through 12.

I measured this hike to be about 2.7 miles.

Now, on occasion I have been asked by people I meet while I’m out taking photos, just what am I taking photos of? I tell them “Mainly birds, because they’re the most numerous and available of wildlife, but any other wildlife or nature that catches my attention, or anything interesting at all, for that matter.” So, I rather came home with all three of those categories in my bag from this hike. In the order in which I encountered them:

Gray Squirrel

The Daily Bucket is a nature refuge. We amicably discuss animals, weather, climate, soil, plants, waters and note life’s patterns. We invite you to note what you are seeing around you in your own part of the world, and to share your observations in the comments below. Each note is a record that we can refer to in the future as we try to understand the phenological patterns that are quietly unwinding around us. To have the Daily Bucket in your Activity Stream, visit Backyard Science’s profile page and click on Follow. California Mule Deer

Mourning Dove

Red-breasted Nuthatch

If you go back to the Google Earth map of the hike you’ll see a large bare patch right on the very tippy-top of the hill. This radio/microwave/cell phone antenna complex is what is up there. Ya know, for a hick mountain town we’re actually rather well-connected. Or so it would seem. Anyway, this also marks a four hundred foot elevation gain from my house, and an hour and twenty minutes into the hike. I had stopped several times for short-short breaks and the foregoing photos by the time I got here. It’s at about the 1.5 mile mark of the hike so I’m averaging about one mile an hour. Way fast enough for an old geezer like me.

There were, as usual, lots and lots and lots of birds singing but not all that many flying about and showing themselves. So when this American Robin flew into the top of a Douglas Fir tree about fifty yards off I grabbed the opportunity.

Heh heh, then of course it wasn’t two more minutes before I spied this Downy Woodpecker searching for grub in a manky old Oak tree about ten yards away. I snapped several frames, here are the better ones. It seems the bird was more concerned with grooming than feeding.

Down past the hilltop antenna complex are the remains of the antenna station that was here when I first moved to Quincy back in 1960. I can actually remember hiking up here as a kid, probably seven years old the very first time. It was straight up the hill from the high school, daunting, being about a thirty degree slope all the way except for the last tenth of a mile or so. Whew! We kids sure felt like we were intrepid and audacious explorers back in the day. These days what boggles my mind is that someone, or undoubtedly several someones over many visits over many years, would go to the intentional deed of carrying along spray paint cans, varied colors, just to tag this difficult-to-get-to location. People… ya can’t figure ‘em.

But even WAY more mind-boggling is that someone, many years ago but definitely after I graduated high school here in Quincy in 1972, tried to drive their car straight down the hill, on that thirty degree rough and rocky track. They only made it about eighty yards after the steep part started. This photo does not show the steepness, but the next photo does.

OK, my camera is being held pretty much perpendicular to the growth of the trees which go straight up; therefore my camera is being held level and you can see the car matches the angle of the hill slope. I’d say this is even steeper than thirty degrees; approaching forty-five.

I’ve never been able to find anyone who can tell me the full story of how this car came to be here and upside down at that, but I’ll bet any amount of money that young adult males and alcohol were involved. Also, I recollect that none of the occupants were injured.

After getting past the car and doing some side-stepping down the remaining hundred yards, at an hour and fifty minutes into the hike I’m at the Q. When I was in school this block letter was composed of large chunks of quartz rock that was gathered from close by rock outcroppings. I actually have a documented reference for its construction:

[Then there came] the addition of a giant “Q” on the hillside above the school. Built by the sophomore boys during the 1934-35 school year, the addition of the large hillside “Q” was a trend that was sweeping the West during the 1920s and 30s. The “Q” as it is now called, was probably originally built as a class project to identify the town and not necessarily the school –as the high school at this time was still known

as P.C.H.S. [Plumas County High School] or simply, Plumas High. Volume 41 No. 1 Plumas County Museum Association, Inc. May 2015

www.plumasmuseum.org

The very first rocks were simply hand-stacked into place and not cemented together. Later they were bonded together with concrete to stop rival high schools from sneaking up the hill and changing the letter to that of their own town or team. Greenville, CA (yes, the town that was destroyed by the Dixie Fire of 2021) was a frequent culprit, it being relatively easy to change a “Q” into a “G.” As you can see, these days it’s a monolithic form.

All good hikes must come to an end, as this one did after a couple of hours of leisurely trekking. One final denizen of the wooly wild deigned to allow me its photograph.

California Ground Squirrel

Back at the house it was breakfast followed by a sturdy nap. Guess I just ain’t a kid no more.

Now it’s your turn. What’s been happening in your nature-wise neck of the woods? Please let us know in the comments, and include your location and any photographs you may have that you’d like to share.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/7/1/2249766/-The-Daily-Bucket-Up-and-around-over-and-down-A-hike-on-Radio-Hill-Quincy-CA?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=community_groups_Backyard+Science&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/