The Machado Postpiles

The Postpiles are more than just a hike or another earthcaching destination. They are something out of a legend.

Imagine a 24 year old worker at a lakeside camp stumbling on an ancient rock formation, bigger than Devils Postpile National Monument. He kept it a secret fearing they could be developed.  For most of his life he knew the western Sierra like few have known, but when the time came to reveal his greatest secret, few believed him. Eventually they were rediscovered, but the way there still holds its share of mystery.

The air was smoky from a forest fire to the south. There was no defined trail. We had the coordinates but intuition worked better than a GPS. Ducks (cairns) had been placed as guides, but there were so many going different places that following them was an act of faith. It was the ultimate treasure hunt. Then at the crucial moment, they seemed to disappear, until we turned from a group of trees and the postpiles emerged. It was easy to see why they remained hidden for so long. They were right in front of us, but who knew?

My Log

It was hard to believe that we were able to stand upon the Postpiles. 13 million years old. Already ancient when the Devils Postpile was formed.

We were camping and kayaking at Silver Lake and I heard the story of Jesse Machado and how he found the Postpiles.  He kept it a secret for decades to protect the area – perhaps because he loved the Sierra more than people – only to find he was not believed when he reported it to the USFS. Rangers looked but could not find them. Roger and Katherine Blaine eventually found it in 1990 and marked their route with cairns (ducks). Jesse was still alive and cried because he was at last believed. The Blaines successfully petitioned to give the postpiles Jesse’s name.

My wife agreed to come so we considered how to get there. There was cell reception up the road at Kirkwood so we could do a little research. AYouTube video by Lisa Michelle helped a great deal, although the cutoff leading to the Postpiles has somewhat changed since it was done, it made the trail much easier to follow. We should have watched it at least twice more.

It was a nice walk to the creek crossing, to follow the ducks across beautiful granite vistas. There were paths could have led anywhere. We remembered the advice to keep high. Luckily, we chose right. After the crossing the creek bed we found a path (of sorts) and followed a few more ducks that led us to an imposing granite rockface, steep and high.

We started to climb it — fortunately we found a place to sit and were able to traverse the granite from there, toward where the GPS pointed. We went down into a forested area along a slight ridge. We stood at the edge where granite and pine gave way to a rust colored formation. The postpiles finally were revealed —no wonder they remained hidden for so long.

We should have trusted the GPS at the creek rather than the ducks we found going to the left. No matter. We got here. Amazing. Unworldly, yet holding secrets of the world. We were in awe to see what Jesse found so many years ago, still part of the wild, still hidden until we were there. We had the rocks to ourselves, as if we were sharing Jesse’s secret.

After spending some time at the postpiles, I looked across to where a traditional cache had been left. I decided not to look for it — in part not to press my luck by keeping my noncaching spouse waiting; in part because I remembered what Lisa reminded us — this spot was kept secret for so long for a reason.

We were urged to leave nothing, to respect Jesse’s wishes. To me that included a container in the nearby rocks. Maybe if I had sought the cache before going to the top it might have been different but I did not have the heart to search for it after spending time here. Some places are simply meant to be experienced.

On the way back we met one couple who had just climbed up from the creek. There was another couple on the trail who had spent almost three hours to get 2/3 of the way. They were short of water after following the wrong ducks. We talked about our experience and they continued on, although I wonder if they succeeded.

It is easy to end up sidetracked here and I had not even thought about recording our tracks — we had cairns after all.  However, not all ducks are equal. We saw more than one randomly placed in the middle of nowhere. For some reason, the cairns that took us on a different route back. Then the ducks ended at an overlook. We found our own way, past a group enjoying the water, across the granite until we ending up near where we started.

A beautiful adventure, although one that took a lot out of me after smoke from the Ferguson fire filled the area and our water ran low in the afternoon heat — perhaps because we stayed longer at the Postpiles than we intended. It was hard to leave them.

You don’t have to hike all that far to discover the wild. Perhaps a little faith and determination are enough.

 

 

07/30/2018