Excited that the road was open to the High Sierra, I packed sandwiches, salad, a six year old, and a sixty-eight year old into my car and headed to the Trail of a Hundred Giants. We got within two miles of the trail when we were stopped by “Road Closed” signs. A sign of spring here is the lack of these "Road Closed" signs, so we've got another week or two of "winter."
With cold sandwiches and few options, we drove about fifteen minutes down the only open road to Johnsondale and happened upon their privately-owned, timeshare-like ranch. For the cost of interest in buying into the ranch, we were able to picnic on the grounds.
It is a cowboy ranch with a shooting range, archery range, horseback riding, fishing, boating, tennis, and volleyball for members. On Saturday nights you can two-step in the saloon to the live country music. The security guard tells me that the saloon does not come complete with drunken brawls.
As we picnicked, I said, “Dad, you really need to buy into this place. Surely you could bring guests.” I discussed how reasonable the buy-in cost would be for him.
As we packed the car, we ran into the general manager: Dennis, my dad’s good friend from a whole other time in his life. Dennis gave us the skinny on the property, along with a cabin tour.
We missed the Trail and must wait longer for spring to begin officially around here, but as a nice tradeoff, I could be on horseback sooner than expected.
