California Upland — Mountain Quail guide is live · 4 cornerstones done, Pheasant Saturday
Hey from California Upland.
Thirty-six days to September 1. The high country is at its summer peak — Plumas National Forest above Quincy, the chaparral-to-conifer break at 5,500 feet, the country where mountain quail are calling males off the saddles at first light right now. Peter spent Saturday morning on a Cache Creek ridge in the Berryessa Snow Mountain country listening — a calling male every quarter mile, the kind of summer density that tells you October will be honest. Alan was on a long line, working scent through the dry buckbrush, learning to read a bird he won’t see for two more months. Watching a flushing dog work mountain quail scent at altitude is its own argument for the trip.
From the field. This morning the fourth and final cornerstone goes live: The California Mountain Quail Hunting Guide. It closes the species pillar arc we started July 7 with Valley Quail. Four pillar pages in four weeks — Valley Quail, Chukar, Dove, Mountain Quail — each one the page we’d send a new California hunter for the bird they’re chasing, each refreshed every July before opener. The work has been worth it. Bookmark the one that matches your bird. The fifth cornerstone — Pheasant — lands Saturday and kicks off the August dove sprint, when we move to a Tue/Wed/Fri/Sun cadence through the opener.
What we published this week:
→ Imperial Valley Dove: Planning a First Trip South for the Late Split — California’s best late-split dove hunting happens 600 miles south of where most of the state’s hunters live. The planning document for Peter’s and Matt’s November trip — Wister, the Sonny Bono refuge, the drive, the motel call, the weather pattern to watch. [link]
→ Spring Conditioning for California Bird Dogs — the carry-over from the heat-safety piece. The four-week ramp that turns a dog who can work twenty minutes in 70°F into one who can work an hour in 90°F by September 1. [link]
→ The California Mountain Quail Hunting Guide — the fourth cornerstone. The Trinity Alps to the Los Padres, the chaparral-conifer transition, the running flush, the carrying assembly call, and the early-season opener almost nobody hunts on purpose. [link]
What we’re working on:
· Tuesday — Planning a Carrizo Plain Valley Quail Hunt (SoCal sleeper country — BLM, public access, and the August scouting window before October opens).
· Thursday — Cow Mountain Habitat: Lake County Planning Notes (the Inner Coast Range mountain-and-valley quail belt above Ukiah).
· Saturday — The California Pheasant Hunting Guide (cornerstone #5, the last pillar — and the start of the August dove-sprint cadence: four posts a week from Aug 1 through Sept 14).
If a piece lands, hit reply.
Out the door, — Matt & Peter
californiaupland.com · @california_upland