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Just about half way down the old stage road you could see a large two story building with a swimming pool, just off the side of the hill. This very popular spot was where Steve took his first real swimming lessons. The turn-off to get to the resort is only a couple hundred feet from an old mercury mine. The dirt road driveway winds along the side of the mountain and ends in front of the restaurant. The top floor was an eloquent bar. The name of the property was Hidden Valley and the house dressing was a well-kept secret for years. They called it Ranch. Every time Steve found himself going up, or down the mountain, the memory of those first swimming lessons and the taste of that dressing would start Steve’s mouth to water just looking at the building.
The owners of Hidden Valley were friends of Steve’s dad. He had done some kind of electrical work when the place was remodeled and a large swimming pool was built. Years later the owners of Hidden Valley decided to retire and sell the resort. The first thing they did was sell the secret house-dressing recipe to some large food corporation. They got a lot of money, sold the resort and moved to another state. Steve actually had the recipe, but he would never share it with anyone. He said he “promised.”
Today Steve watches TV commercials that show a beautiful green valley as the setting for the visual background while the voice-over tells tails of lush green growth and fertile land where this dressing was created. Now that’s funny. Except for the trees and plants that were added around the building, Hidden Valley sits on the side of a treeless mountain surrounded by scrub brush and dry ground.
The old mercury mine was on the mountain’s inside curve of the old stage road about two hundred feet away from the Hidden Valley driveway. The mine was simply a large gouge taken from the side of the mountain next to the road. It looked like the adventure of a lifetime to be able to rummage around that old mine. There was no hole or deep pit. Just dirt scooped from the side of the hill and dumped into some large wooden bin with a metal shoot sticking out the bottom. The whole thing looked high enough to drive a truck under. Maybe that was how the dirt was hauled out of there.
Outside of the brief moment the mine could be seen from the road as he passed by, Steve never got the chance to add that place to his growing list of adventures. But it was always the high point of any trip up the mountain, because the mine meant that Hidden Valley was just right up the road.
At the bottom of the stage road was a very large, old Pepper Tree. Steve learned that it used to be the site of an old stagecoach stop, stables and home, sitting on the bank of a creek, with this out-of-place Pepper Tree amongst the large Oaks and tall Pines. Steve heard that a man was hung from that old Pepper Tree, more fuel for his already over active imagination.
The road hugged the mountain and turned and dipped with the terrain. Cutting its way up the mountain, exposing valleys and fields along its sides. The corners sharp and the road flat, not banked like the roads built for speed; anyone with a Sports Car had to try his hand going up or down the mountain. Sharp nineties and even one spot that not only turned back on itself, it went up the side of a hill at almost seventy degrees before turning into another ninety-degree corner. Great for a fast bike ride going down the mountain. And later even better with a pair of skates nailed to the bottom of a piece of wood.
Steve became very familiar with the road. The school bus did not come up the hill. Steve, and later his sister Sheryl, had to walk from the house, just over a mile down the road to the bus stop next to the creek and wait for the bus; only a hundred or so feet from the big old Pepper tree.
The walk down the road was not as long as it was entertaining. Lizards, Quail, and even an occasional Roadrunner would appear around the next curve. And of course the creek itself provided entertainment not even imagined before Steve moved up on the mountain.
Each hill or mound and valley surrounding Steve’s house had to be explored. Great adventures were made even more exciting when accompanied by a great hunter like Tommy Dog.
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