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!