The California golden trout is not the only loner that has found itself backed into the Kern River Watershed. This pocket of isolation is also inhabited by the hardy foxtail pine, but the foxtail can be found nowhere else on the Range. The only other place the foxtail pine can be found is high on the Klamath Mountains of northern California, a chain that was itself part of the Range, long ago.
Foxtail pine, Sequoia National Park — Marc Muench
At higher elevations, the foxtail is a visual testament to the despotism of its habitat. It grows twisted and tangled, its skin stripped off of its warped, red sinew by hundreds of years of punishment by bitter cold, wind, snow, thunderbolt, and ultraviolet light. Its form is reminiscent of flame, and its foliage clusters in dense clouds like smoke. Seeming like fire frozen in time, it can thrive in its solitary hell for over two thousand years.
Foxtail pines still grow hundreds of miles away in the Klamath Mountains, yet this species is strangely rare throughout the Range. It is almost exclusively found in the watershed of the Kern, where the golden trout glistens in sun-painted pools.
There was something about that gem of a fish. There was something very familiar about it; something personal. Why?, Armen wondered. Like him, the fish was isolated, an alien to the rivers that fed the ocean, and yet it shone gold in the yellow sunlight. He wanted to meet this fish.
Armen relocated himself to the reference area and opened the Rand McNally Road Atlas to the California map. He followed his finger as it landed on Bakersfield, and he spotted the blue thread leading up the lumbar of the Range. The blue thread broke into two threads that cut deep into the heart of the Range, north even of Slough City. Armen’s finger hopped over to Slough City, and followed California State Highway 198 to the Range. Then he referred to an inset that provided a little more detail. There was a road that climbed almost directly east into Sequoia National Park. Upon entering the park, the road became a trail and ascended directly into golden trout country.