Lockwood Valley 2014
Weds AM, after restful sleep and vivid dreams at peaceful Dry Creek, I decide to take another look at Lockwood Valley property. I am on a quest. First stop, a new listing on Tecayu, off Lockwood Blvd (Boulevard... a narrow dirt road so named with a sense of humor). It's a level quarter acre, listed c 25-29K. It has attractive Pinion Pines, scrub oaks, sage and more. There is a nice view to the west of an open plain and distant, pine-dotted hills. I survey the surrounding neighborhood on foot. Appears to have been subdivided 50 or more years ago, into 25X100 foot lots, now combined into 100X100. Many ramshackle homes and trailers; some appear abandoned. - People seek a get-away, but seldom get away. Man is more social than reclusive. -Yet the area has charm, at least for me. Elevation is about 1 mile, dotted with scrub oak, pinion pine, sage, etc. Vegetation is blue-green, soil is sandy beige. LA Astronomical Society is located nearby for ideal star gazing conditions.
The Lockwood Valley side, (south) of Mt. Pinos, seems sunnier and drier than the Cuddy Valley (north) side. The vegetation is greener, taller and thicker in CV; more stunted, sparse and bluish, like high desert, in LV. Mt. Pinos is nearer and more imposing in Cuddy Valley; less so in LV, which appears interspersed and ringed by lower foothills. Both areas have appealing similarities and distinctions.
While surveying the Teyuca neighborhood, I meet Bill Hennings, who owns "Hennning's (near) acre" across from subject property. He's the only person I've seen or heard during my 30-minute walk. 70-something Bill walks from his 100+ foot-distant back porch to his back fence in response to my wave and hello. While leaning on Henning's steel gate, I suddenly hear distant pop of gun fire. I ask if there's shooting around there. He says, yes, occasionally. He points to a deep trench in his yard and says that's where he target shoots. I say I don't mind guns, matter of fact, I do some target practice myself.
Then I hear a burst of gunfire, that could only be full auto. Someone has a machine gun! Disturbing, but it seems far enough away to not be of concern. However, while amiably conversing with Bill, pops and bursts of gunfire erupt periodically over the next few minutes. Meanwhile, I'm trying to figure out where it's coming from, and wondering if I really want to move into this neighborhood.
Finally, I let go of the gate, and hear the final round of gunfire. Damn, it wasn't gunfire, it was just a noisy steel gate. Well, we both got a laugh out of that... and agreed sometimes a sound nearby can be mistaken for something else, far away. Like the time I thought I heard a mountain lion at my Toro Canyon ranch, when it was just the wind whistling up my nose.