Suggested Future Hikes

Dear Students,

Thanks for a glorious last hike, and for so many wonderful hikes over the years.  You're an amazing bunch and I'm honored to have spent time in nature with you.  I'll miss you very much.

And still not sure what's on for summer, so do stay tuned and check the catalog.

If you wanted to do some hiking for the glorious Spring bloom coming up, here are some places I would recommend.

Week 1:  Return to Coal Mine Ridge off Alpine Road to catch the last of the Houndstongue and Indian Warrior.  Location details at: http://bahiker.com/southbayhikes/cmr.html

Week 2:  Roll out to Santa Teresa County Park in South San Jose  where the bloom is going to be bumping!  Check out this good resource: https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/Whats-Happening/Documents/WildflowerHikes.pdf and be sure to look for the green Serpentine rocks.  You could follow this hike or find another: http://bahiker.com/southbayhikes/santateresa.html.

Week 3:  Sunol Regional Wilderness!  Sure, it's Fremont, but it is AMAZING and since I'm not actually leading it I don't have to worry about logistics.  I've always wanted to take y'all there.  Seriously, hills just carpeted with flowers!  If you're reading this but not planning doing your own hikes, do go check out the Sunol Wildflower Festival on April 9th if you can! http://www.ebparks.org/features/Spring_Wildflower_Festival_at_Sunol_Regional_Wilderness

Week 4:  Back to Edgewood!  Take the same trails we took and catch a whole different aspect of the show.  Hopefully you'll be not too late for the delphinium and columbine in the shady places but right on time for the swaths of goldfields and tidy tips in the grasslands.  They have free docent led hikes (way too early in the AM, lol), check them out at:  http://www.friendsofedgewood.org/springtime-wildflower-walks.   Be sure to stop at the nature center and see what's blooming!

Week 5:  Wrap it up at Russian Ridge.  Look for wildflowers and butterflies, enjoy the massive oaks and the gorgeous views.  You can do the featured hike at: http://bahiker.com/southbayhikes/russianridge.html or pick your own at: http://www.openspace.org/preserves/russian-ridge.


Some helpful resources: 

• Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District:  http://www.openspace.org/ (Includes Russian Ridge, Skyline Ridge, Fremont Older, Purissima Creek)
• San Mateo County Parks:  http://parks.smcgov.org/county-parks (Includes Edgewood, Huddart)
• Santa Clara County Parks:  https://www.sccgov.org/sites/parks/parkfinder/Pages/parkfinder.aspx  (Includes Santa Teresa County Park, Uvas Creek Canyon)
• GGNRA:  https://www.nps.gov/goga/planyourvisit/maps.htm  (Includes Mori Point)
• California State Parks: https://www.parks.ca.gov/ParkIndex (Includes Castle Rock and Mt. San Bruno which we never made it to despite best intentions!)
• East Bay Regional Park District - truly an incredible wealth of resources, worth driving for!  http://www.ebparks.org/parks
• Santa Clara County Open Space Authority - Mostly South Santa Clara County, some huge and gorgeous preserves.  http://www.openspaceauthority.org/trails/

Other resources!  

• Miri's favorite field guide (It's ancient but marvelous, and truly covers almost everything.  Plant names have changed but hopefully not too much else): https://www.amazon.com/National-Audubon-Society-Field-California/dp/0679446788/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1490424339&sr=1-1&keywords=national+audubon+society+field+guide+to+california
• If you are interested in planting your yard with natives, check out http://www.larnerseeds.com/ - they sell only plants indigenous to California.
• Some highly excellent blogs are:  http://natureofaman.blogspot.com/, and http://dipperanch.blogspot.com/.  

Enjoy the wonders of the natural world, check the catalog for summer, and please keep in touch!  Xoxox!

Tomorrow: Edgewood!

Hello everyone, I'm looking forward to seeing you tomorrow for our last hike of the quarter...and for a while.

Edgewood Park is a legend for its wildflower displays.  We are a little early for most of them, as they peak around May, but we should still get to see some pretty sights.

So unlike some of our other parks, Edgewood has a bathroom, drinking water, and a wonderful little nature center.  The parking lot is liable to be PACKED, so be patient, and carpool if you can.  Learn more here:  http://parks.smcgov.org/edgewood-park-natural-preserve

Wonderful Coal Mine Ridge Recap + Resources

Hi everyone!  First of all, please be SURE to check out Kathryn's amazing photos from our hikes at: http://bit.ly/2lsS1dF

She's so incredibly talented!  There are some really great pictures of Houndstongue, Indian Warrior, False Turkey Tails, and of course Poison Oak!  :)

So we talked in the last class about the Ba-Hiker site, which is a wonderful site.  Especially since I will not be offering the class next quarter, if you want to keep hiking, I highly recommend it.  You can look at it here: http://bahiker.com/.  Here is their write-up of Coal Mine Ridge, it's one of the few descriptions of that preserve available:  http://bahiker.com/southbayhikes/cmr.html

You can find trail maps of Portola Valley at: http://www.portolavalley.net/for-residents/portola-valley-trails.

Some ways to find other places to hike if you are interested:

Go to maps.google.com and find your house.  Slowly scroll the mouse outwards until you see a green splotch that indicates park or open space.  Hover over it to find its name, and Google it if it looks interesting to find trail maps and hours of operation.  Some green splotches will be golf courses, but others may be parks you didn't know about!

You can also go to the website for your city or county.  Use the search function to find parks, or open space, or trails and to learn more about them.

Also, go to Yelp, enter your zip code or have it locate you where you are, and search for "hiking" or "hiking trails."

The Dipper Ranch Blog has a great write-up of wildflower hot spots, check out one entry at: http://dipperanch.blogspot.com/2013/03/santa-teresa-county-park-wildflower.html.

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District offers an incredible suite of guided hikes.  Check them out at:  http://www.openspace.org/.

Saturday - Let's do it!

Hi everyone, looks like mostly just light showers tomorrow, so I think we should be fine.  Please wear boots and raincoats.  I'll see you at the intersection of Alpine Road and Willowbrook at 1 PM!  Remember there is no drinking water or restrooms at this preserve.  But there will be wildflowers and lots of crazy mushrooms!  :)

Miriam

Saturday, 2/11/17 - Monte Bello Open Space

Hi everyone!  I'm sorry so many of you didn't make it to our last hike at Castle Rock.  There was a ton of gorgeous scenery, it's always a stunning park.  And the waterfall was bumping!  I was really sad to hear that people had car trouble and/or couldn't get through on the roads.  This weather has been so crazy!  Here are just a couple of pics.  Mostly we reveled in the scenery and chatted, although we did see a really cool kind of oak gall.  Oak galls are growths on a tree where a parasitic wasp oviposited eggs, forcing a chemical reaction in the tree which creates a nursery structure for the wasp larva.  These structures can take on all kinds of shapes and forms and are called galls.  We saw one that was essentially swollen twigs on some sort of live oak tree.  To learn more about oak galls, read: https://ww2.kqed.org/science/2014/11/18/what-gall-the-crazy-cribs-of-parasitic-wasps/.  

Now, for our next hike, the weather has been so crazy and roads everywhere so bad, that I'd like us to stick a little closer to home.  We were supposed to go to either Mori Point or Monte Bello, let's go to the latter.  It's a straight shot up Page Mill to Skyline, and I can't find anything about trails or roads being closed.  Check here for driving directions: http://www.openspace.org/preserves/monte-bello (click on the directions tab).  Email me if you cannot make it.  I look forward to hiking with you soon!

Los Trancos Recap + Looking forward to Castle Rock!

Hi everyone!  Thanks for a really fantastic first hike.  I am so excited about this group, which feels like one of the most vibrant and welcoming we've had yet!  Yay, us!

Here's some details about Castle Rock which is where we'll be meeting Saturday, and then scroll down for pics and details from last hike.

CASTLE ROCK
So Castle Rock is actually a challenging place to lead hiking class because:  signage sucks and it's impossible to know what trail you are on, parking sucks (more so in summer), it's $10 to get in, and it's kind of far from everyone.  And yet, I know from last hike that you people are UP FOR ADVENTURES!

Castle Rock is also amazing.  It has one of the biggest waterfalls around, which is sure to be thunderously glorious right now!  It has a variety of ecosystems; grassland, chaparral, and woodland.  And it's got these bizarre sandstone formations called Tafoni, which are SO COOL!  Seriously, bring your camera.  If you have a walking stick or pole, bring that, bring your most rugged shoes.  Bring extra layers.  When San Jose is hot, Castle Rock is hotter.  When San Jose is cold, Castle Rock is colder.  There are intermittent bathrooms and drinking water, it's best to be prepared.  I know it sounds stressful but trust me, it's going to be just gorgeous!!!

Here's a great write-up about the park which includes detailed driving directions:  http://baynature.org/article/climbing-the-waves-at-castle-rock-state-park/.  Here's the park website:  https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=538.   Email me if you're not going to make it, text me if you're running late and want us to wait (hopefully I'll get it, it's kind of far out of range.)  See you at 1 PM Saturday!

LOS TRANCOS RECAP
We were blessed with great weather on the Los Trancos Earthquake hike.  Check out this wonderful photo taken by Kathryne Morton, and see others at:  
https://photos.google.com/u/0/share/AF1QipN3WnBoomZyTRXs2I9hI5zpSIJemrbKRMAjH4oMk4nZ80gJYHgqABtlws62PciK-A?key=bUdlWWY1ZGFvMWtOUmpyREJNRVZhQldwV1o4dmlB)

So, as often happens, we saw lots of cool stuff.  :)  We saw many big trees, some devastated by Sudden Oak Death (abbreviated SOD), scientific name is Phytophthora ramorum.  This invasive oomecyte (water mold) is spread in our area by the California Bay Laurel tree.  Bay Laurels are native and valuable parts of our habitat but they now occur in greater than historical numbers due to SOD.  Here below is a cool pic (taken by Doug) of Sylvie walking under a large lovely oak that is fortunately healthy.  :)  To learn more about SOD, visit: http://www.suddenoakdeath.org/.









We were lucky enough to catch one of the earliest wildflowers of Spring, milkmaids (Cardimine californica.)  This lovely lady actually has a sweet scent.  Milkmaids are also called toothwort, and are in the same genus as an irritating little native plant that most people call popweed - Cardimine oligosperma.  It's more official common name is Western Bittercress.  It only gets about 6 inches tall and its seeds explode all over the place when touched, that's why everyone hates it.  But everyone loves milkweed, as do we!  Learn more about it at:  http://www.calfloranursery.com/plants/cardamine-californica.  Sometimes you can buy seeds on Amazon.  Thanks Doug for this photo.




This is a great photo taken by Kathryne, it should be called "Essence of Jesse."  He's holding humus, which is kind of "essence of soil" - the perfectly draining, nutrient rich, highly decomposed soil organic matter.

 And then of course we spent some time geeking out on dusky footed woodrat (Neotoma fuscipes) nests, which we will do every time we see them.  These clever little engineers build complex multi-roomed apartment complexes, often lined with bay leaves to keep down parasites.  They are nocturnal and very tiny if you consider the size and complexity of their houses.  Thanks to Kathryne for this great photo.  Learn more about DFWR here:  http://www.nwf.org/wildlife/wildlife-library/mammals/dusky-footed-woodrat.aspx.

Hike Schedule

Hi everyone!  Here are my thoughts on hikes for this quarter.  Please check this site before each class, because hike locations may change based on weather.  Also, prior to each hike I'll post some information about the park and what to expect, and a quick recap from the previous hike.

This Saturday, 1/28/16
Castle Rock State Park (see next post for details)

2/11/17
Mori Point if the weather is fine, Monte Bello if it's less than. (http://www.parksconservancy.org/visit/park-sites/mori-point.html), or (http://www.openspace.org/preserves/monte-bello)

2/25/17
Coal Mine Ridge (no official page but BA Hiker has a good write up at:  http://bahiker.com/southbayhikes/cmr.html)

3/11/17
Edgewood Park
(http://parks.smcgov.org/edgewood-park-natural-preserve)

Welcome to Winter, 2017!

Hello everyone!  I'm looking forward to another wonderful quarter hiking together, checking out the beauty and wonder of the natural world.

I'll post announcements for newbies and a hike schedule here shortly, but for now I wanted to mention that on our first hike this Saturday, we'll be heading to Los Trancos Open Space Preserve to check out their San Andreas Fault Trail!

Here's a printout that you can, well, print out.  http://www.openspace.org/sites/default/files/San_Andreas_Fault_Trail.pdf

Here's a trail map:  http://www.openspace.org/sites/default/files/map_LT.pdf

Here's the preserve website, click on the directions tab to get directions.  http://www.openspace.org/preserves/los-trancos

Like all Midpen preserves, there's a port-a-potty but no drinking water, so bring extra.

We'll see some gorgeous old oaks, learn about earthquakes, meet our new folks, and have a lovely time I'm sure!  Trails will be soggy so wear your sturdy shoes if you have any.

Can't wait to see you!