Crescenta Valley View

VOLUME V, ISSUE I

Crescenta Valley Group of The Sierra Club Monthly Newsletter

January 2018

The Crescenta Valley Sierra Club

Group presents Colleen MacKay's

Whittier Narrows Nature Center,

Tuesday, January 9, at 7:30 pm at the

Los Angeles County Public Library,

2809 Foothill Blvd, La Crescenta, CA

91214.

Colleen, presiding at the Nature

Center will present several of the cen-

ters raptors: The Great Horned Owl,

"Professor Woody Owlbert," The

Red-Tailed Hawk, "Naomi," and our

Barn Owl,"Sora."

She will bring native pelts and

will discuss secondary poisoning and

threats facing our birds of prey in

Southern California. Also, important

she will talk of the potential effects

of the latest fires on local wildlife

and how a community can help.

Our program follows news of

Conservation and Outings. This is

a free event, and everyone is wel-

come. Refreshments will be

served. Please contact Wayne

Fisher, Program Chair, at 818 353-

4181, for more information.

Whittier

Narrows

1

Switzer

Falls Hike

1

Programs

& Outings

2

Jerry’s

Travel

Adventure

2,4

Brunch

pics

3

In This Issue

Colleen MacKay's: Whittier

Narrows Nature Center

Join Crescenta Valley Group Event Organizers Allison DeVera and Karen

Bueler for this easy, four-miles round-trip, 538’ gain hike. The slow-paced hike to the waterfall will be in a mostly shaded area along a cascading creek with several shallow stream crossings. There are some steep sections, some short durations of up/down sections, and some drop off sections (approximately 300’).

Meet at trail head by lower parking lot. To get to the trailhead: From the 210 Freeway in La Cañada Flintridge, take the Angeles Crest Highway (CA 2) north-west for 10 miles to the Switzer Picnic Area. Descend to the parking lot, display your adventure pass and begin hiking. If the lot at the picnic area is full, addi-tional parking is located at the top of the road.

Bring waterproof hiking shoes, snacks, and 2L of water. Adventure Pass re-quired. Rain/Fire cancels the hike. Signing Liability Waiver upon arrival required. For more information, contact: Allison De Vera adevera2699@hotmail.com (818) 913-7614 or Karen Buehler karen.buehler2@gmail.com (818) 363-6216

Switzer Falls Hike – Sunday, Jan. 21, 2018 – 7:00 a.m. (time is tentative)

Chair Fred Dong

Vice-Chair Jeffrey Wilson

Secretary Marlene Plummer

Publicity Marlene Plummer

Treasurer Jeremy Burnham

Programs Wayne Fisher

ExCom Rep

John Lajeuness

Membership Silvia Darie

Outings Silvia Darie

Newsletter Bettie Pearson

Conservation Bettie Pearson

Webmaster Chuck Gooley

Crescenta Valley Group Management Committee

Whittier Narrows

Ranger Colleen Mackey, LA County Library, 2809 Foothill Blvd., La

Crescenta, CA

Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2018 7:30 p.m.

Hike to Switzer Falls

Organized by: Allison De Vera adevera2699@hotmail.com (818) 913-

7614 and Karen Buehler karen.buehler2@gmail.com (818) 363-6216

Nature Photographer

Bonnie Lavina, Nature Photographer, LA County Library, 2809 Foot-

hill Blvd., La Crescenta, CA

Sunday, Jan 21, 2018 7:00 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 13, 2018 7:30 p.m.

Safari across two African Countries – Kenya & Tanzania

Fred Dong, 818-545-3878 madelinesdad@earthlink.net

Stephanie Gross, 818-545-3878 madelinesmother@gmail.com

Friday, May 11, 2018 to Thursday, May 24, 2018

PAGE 2 January 2018

Jerry Burnham shares his

Travel Adventure with his

son, Jon, in Zimbabwe; Au-

gust 3 – 13, 2017

In the last blog, my son Jon and I

completed a two-night stay at Imvelo’s

Jozibanini Camp in Hwange National

Park, Zimbabwe

We left Jozibanini Camp in the

morning and headed for Imvelo’s

Bomani “Living on the Plains” Lodge.

On the way, we visited the Scorpions

anti-poaching base. This is essentially a

ranger station built and funded by Imve-

lo Lodges to maintain a presence in on

otherwise unsupervised area of Hwange

National Park. The company construct-

ed two buildings with solar panels for

electric power, a borehole and a satellite

system for an Internet connection. After

three days of no Internet, Jon and I used

this opportunity to send off e-mails to

friends and relatives.

We arrived at Bomani Lodge in the

afternoon. The lodge is on concession

land in a forest preserve across the rail-

road tracks from Hwange Na-

tional Park. The main building

is open on two sides and con-

tains a long dining table, a bar

and a lounge area. Below is

the campfire area with more

seating. Our room was a tent

cabin on a raised platform.

The inside shower gets its hot

water from a “donkey boiler” just

outside. That contraption is a tall,

skinny water heater consisting of a

water tank above and a firebox be-

low lit by the staff in the evening.

On the afternoon game drive, we

saw and followed lots of birds and

Fourth of a five-part series

Yellow-Billed Hornbill. – photo by Jeremy Burnham

Programs and Outings Date & Time

See Zimbabwe Blog Page 2

January 2018

CRESCENTA VALLEY VIEW

PAGE 3

.

Christmas brunch - Standing (back row), L to R: Danny, John, Chuck, Bob, Fred, Wayne, and Mary;

standing (front row) L to R: Andrea, Gail, Pat, Bettie, Kathy, Jerry, Jeanne, Stephanie, Sue Ellen, Marlene,

and Silvia; seated (back row) L to R: Olivia, Cathy, Karen, Paul, and Jeff. Seated front: Audrey and Nadia.

Pat, Audrey, Nadia, Silvia, and Jeff Jeanne & Bob (“bobcat”)

Happy New Year from the Crescenta Valley Group

PAGE 4

January 2018

CRESCENTA VALLEY VIEW

large animals including wildebeests and

lions. As we were heading back to the

lodge, two female lions killed a wart-

hog. After eating part of it, they

stepped aside so a third lion leading

seven of their cubs could feed. Our

guide took us out again later for sun-

downer snacks and drinks. He set up a

table complete with a tablecloth on top

of the Cape Town to Cairo railroad

tracks laid out by John Rhodes back in

colonial times. This is the longest sec-

tion of straight track in the world.

There I enjoyed bourbon & Coke with

assorted cookies. Back at the lodge,

dinner was served buffet style on the

long dining table followed by conversa-

tion and beverages around the campfire.

The next morning started out with

coffee and a full hot breakfast followed by a game drive. We saw the same

lions with their cubs again relaxing

around a large tree. As we patiently

watched, the adult females climbed

the tree and encouraged the cubs to

do the same, then got some to walk

out on a long horizontal limb. After

lunch back at the lodge, we crossed

the railroad tracks, went briefly into

Hwange National Park for a game

drive.

While in that vicinity, we exited

the park and toured Imvelo’s

Camelthorn Lodge in an adjacent

forest preserve. This is their top-of-

the-line lodge for people who want

to stay in permanent buildings with

fine furniture and eat in the main

lodge dining room that is decorated

with antique furniture and artwork.

It reminded me very much of Wal-

dorf Astoria’s historic La Quinta

Resort & Club in California because

of the appearance of the main lodge

and the guest buildings being simi-

lar to La Quinta’s “Casitas.”

On the way back to Bomani, our

guild spotted a pair of male chee-

tahs. These guys were not part of any

group and spend their time growing

and developing their hunting skills un-

til the day they each can get this own

group of females. We followed then

for some time until they stopped wan-

dering and lingered in some tall grass.

As we were ready to head back to the

lodge we saw a herd of wildebeests

mixed with a herd of impalas. Those

animals separated with the impalas

ambling across an open field in the di-

rection of the cheetahs. Upon reaching

the tall grass, the cheetahs went air-

borne and had a delicious impala for

dinner. We stayed and watched this

until it got dark, then returned to the

lodge for a three-course buffet dinner.

Prior to dessert, the guides in-

formed us that a couple of male lions

had just killed a wildebeest. The

whole dinner party climbed in the safa-

ri vehicles and we went to the site

where the dominant male had his paws

on the expired prey. The females with

the cubs soon appeared but there was

no sharing at this time. The male

would eat all he wanted before the oth-

er male and the rest of the lions would

Zimbabwe Blog, From 2

Photo by Jerry Burnham

be able to get any. A jackal waited

on the sidelines in case any scraps

might be left later. We returned to

the lodge, had dessert, and ended the

evening around the campfire with

conversation and beverages. These

are good days to be a big cat, not so

much for hoofed animals.

The last morning at Bomani, af-

ter a full hot breakfast around the

campfire, we went across the tracks

to Hwange National Park’s acacia

forest area to see more wildlife in-

cluding wildebeests and elephants at

a large water hole. We also encoun-

tered the cheetahs we had observed

eating the impala the previous after-

noon. Being well fed, they were

just relaxing under a big tree.

Finally, we headed back to the

lodge to collect our belongings and

then return the railroad tracks to

catch the Elephant Express at a

whistle-stop.

Next up, we ride the Elephant

Express toward the Zambezi Sands

Lodge in the next blog.

Cheetah – photo by Jeremy Burnham