Mono refers to the groups of Native Americans who lived in central California along the Sierra Nevada at elevations of 3,000 to 7,000 feet. They were primarily hunters-gatherers whose staple food was acorns.
On this trail you will pretend to accompany a ten-year-old Mono girl as she gathers acorns and other things along the way to the "grinding place."
Thistle is following the imaginary Eku'mina.
At each stop our guide explains what we see and how it is used by her peoples. In the picture you can see one type of conical house built by the Mono people. Such houses were arranged in a semi-circle around the village.
The bark of the cedar tree was used to create the conical houses.
Pitch from the Ponderosa Pine is used to seal the house against weather. Imagine helping Eku'mina pick up cones from around the tree and place them in her "burden basket," a large basket carried by a strap around her forehead.
You can recognize the Ponderosa Pine by the arrangement of its needles.
Thistle is on her trail.
She stops to point out a clump of Poison Oak and explains how to recognize and avoid it.
Leaves of three...leave them be.
We climb a little with each switchback.
Imagine helping Eku'mina pick lots of red berries that her mother will use to make cider. A type of tea made from the manzanita is also used to relieve the itch of poison oak rash.
Manzanita
It is cool in the woods.
Eku'mina didn't describe these red flowers, but I thought they were pretty.
Apparently acorns from the Black Oak tree are the best for making flour, so gather a lot of them.
I later learned that wood from the Black Oak tree was used to fuel the steam engines on the logging train...see the next blog post.
Sap from the Sugar Pine is sometimes made into candy, and seeds are roasted for eating.
The needles of the sugar pine are in clusters of five.
Keep climbing, we're almost there.
Don't worry about picking up the acorns around the Live Oaks...Eku'mina's basket is already full.
But the shady rocks under the Live Oak trees make a nice place to sit and rest.
Finally we are on top and while we can see Bass Lake below us, Eku'nima sees her people's village in the valley below. The village location is now under the lake.
But wait...Eku'nima is still talking.
I'm guessing this is the Soaproot plant.
At last we have come to the "grinding place." You can see many grinding holes where the Mono women would grind the acorns into meal. Some of the holes are filled with water.
After grinding, the acorn flour is washed on grass mats through white fir branches, then put in watertight baskets for cooking.
Thistle samples the water in a grinding hole.
From there, the trail leads back down to the parking lot.
I plan to return to Bass Lake another day for kayaking. It is located just a few miles outside Yosemite National Park off Hwy 41.
