Deer Park School to Phoenix Lake Ramble

Today's hike blew hot and cold, literally. Jackets and sweaters were donned as we did our usual "pre-hike" chat in the Deer Park School parking lot before hitting the trail, and the temperature remained pretty cool as we strolled up Deer Park (fire) Road and paused to check out a couple of Duskyfooted Woodrat abodes. Things started heating up a bit as we climbed our way up to the Six Points intersection, although the abundant shade along this trail provided a good place for iris to grow.

Most of us stopped to peel off layers of outwear at Six Points before continuing on toward Phoenix Lake on the Yolanda Trail. Ample sunshine here brought out Sticky Monkey Flowers, Buckeye, and Broom. Breezes blowing from the northwest and over the hills above the lake kept us from overheating, but weren't strong enough to chill us down.

Despite many "Plant Check" stops along the way, we reached the lake in time to take our lunch break (early for a change!) almost right at high noon. Redwing Blackbirds serenaded us at lunch just below the Phoenix Log Cabin (which the Martins say was built in 1893 for the foreman of the Porteous Ranch).

We found more iris and ferns along the Shaver Grade trail leading us up from the lake to Five Points junction. Hardier (or more foolish) souls could have opted to crawl up the seemingly vertical Hidden Meadow Trail which heads east towards Six Points, but we smarter folk simply lolly-gagged our way downhill to Boy Scout Junction, traversed the hill on the Junction Trail back down to the point where we had turned left off Deer Park Road to Six Points earlier in the day.

Here's a map of the general area where we hiked. Use the "down arrow" on the map to move south towards Phoenix Lake. (Click on "View Larger Map" just below this map to access and zoom in and out, left and right, on the on-line Google map. Better yet, download a free copy of the "Google Earth" software which will let you "tilt" and rotate the area around Fairfax and view it from all angles).


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Phoenix Lake and Deer Park Hikes and Maps

The Martin's Hiking in Marin trail guide does not have a single map and directions for our hike from Deer Park School to Phoenix Lake and back, but you can use the following two maps and hikes from their book to piece together our route. Start off using the Martin's Hike "C6 - Deer Park Road - Yolanda Trail". When you reach the Six Points junction, switch to Hike "C4 - Hidden Meadow - Yolanda Trail" to get down to Phoenix Lake. Using that same hike and map, follow Shaver Grade uphill to Five Corners (switch back to the C6 hike and map) and continue straight down Deer Park Road to Boy Scout Junction, cross the fire road and take the Junction Trail back to its intersection with Deer Park Road (just where you turned off onto Six Points Trail when you were headed toward the lake).

Read this doc on Scribd: Phoenix Lake Deer Park Hikes and Maps

(Click here to view and print out the hike details and map from the Martin book. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer you can print the document. Once you see the document on the "Scribd" Web site, click on the "Download" icon and then on the "PDF" icon to open the document on your computer).

What We Saw On the Deer Park-Phoenix Lake Hike

Wendy lists these flowers and plants as the ones we found hiking from Deer Park to Phoenix Lake and back on Tuesday, April 29th:

FLOWERS (CAPS means first of the season for this class)

RED Indian paintbrush, CALIFORNIA ROSE

YELLOW cut-leaf sanicle (genus Sanicula, same as footsteps of spring), buttercups, WOODLAND MADIA, broad-leafed mule’s ears

WHITE Modesty, California manroot (aka wild cucumber or Marah, used to stun fish in streams by interfering with their uptake of oxygen), REIN ORCHID (I think Piperia unalescenis), California Phacelia, coastal mourning glory, Hooker’s fairy bells, star-flowered Solomon’s seal, branched Solomon’s seal, strawberry, woodland stars, ONE-SIDED JEWELFLOWER (aka second jewelflower, only jewelflower in Marin that is not endangered)

PURPLE/lavendar Douglas iris, Milkwort aka Polygala (increases lactation), miniature lupine, lupine sp., silver-leafed lupine, ookow, wally basket (aka Ithuriel’s spear), blue-eyed grass, blue gilia (which is purple in my opinion)

PINK Windmill pink (non-native), Clarkia sp., HONEYSUCKLE vine just getting flowers, hillside pea, PACIFIC STAR FLOWER, CHINESE HOUSES, hedge nettle

ORANGE Sticky monkeyflower, California poppies, COLUMBINE

PLANTS WITH NO FLOWERS

Mugwort (wonderful smell!), coyote mint (wonderful smell!), rock lettuce just starting to send up flower stalk, TRAIL PLANT, RED BERRY (had berries, bush), chamise (bush)

FERNS

Chain fern (aka Woodwardia), sword fern, wood fern, goldback fern, coffee fern, birdsfoot fern, maidenhair (black stems used in Miwok basketry), California polypody

GALLS

SPINY BUD GALL WASP on California rose

(Click here if you want to view and print a copy of this list. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer you can print the document. Once you see the document on the "Scribd" Web site, click on the "Download" icon and then on the "PDF" icon to open the document on your computer).

Hiking on Mount Burdell to Hidden Lake

To reach the trailhead for our hike on Mount Burdell, we exited from Highway 101 and drove west on San Marin Drive until we reached its intersection with San Andreas Drive. Access to the open-space lands is near the end of San Andreas. We made an easterly traverse across the mountain, passing below the water tank (visible in the Google Map below), then headed uphill towards the summit, crossing a large drainage, then then veering back to the west along the Middle Burdell Fire Road until we reached "Hidden Lake" (which was just a meadow today due to the lack of rain since March.

The grass on the mountain was still quite green, but the skies overhead were mostly gray and periodically gusting winds made the day seem more winter than spring-like especially after the 80-plus degree temperates we'd enjoyed only a week or so ago.

As usual, lunch didn't come until long after the dinner bells in our stomachs began ringing around noon and we reached the lake. Silvia serenaded us with a tune she'd written to commemorate Earth Day. A light misty rain began, but quickly ended, just as we finished lunch and started back down the mountain to our cars.

We came across a "wingless wasp" (spider-looking critter) on the trail and found a tree frog at the lake. One of the "neat" little plants we saw (again) were "Tidy Tips". (I'll post Wendy's "What We Saw" list later in the week).

Here's the map of the general area where we hiked. (Click on "View Larger Map" just below this map to access and zoom in and out, left and right, on the on-line Google sap. Better yet, download a free copy of the "Google Earth" software which will let you "tilt" and rotate Mount Burdell and view it from all angles).


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Mount Burdell Hike and Map

We hiked the lower half of the "E13" hike in Don and Kay Martin's book "Hiking Marin", turning left (west) at trail junction #2 on the map and walking to Hidden Lake along the Middle Burdell Fire Road rather than continuing uphill to the top of the mountain. (Click here to view and print out the hike details and map from the Martin book. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer you can print the document. Once you see the document on the "Scribd" Web site, click on the "Download" icon and then on the "PDF" icon to open the document on your computer).

Read this doc on Scribd: Mount Burdell Hike Description and Map

What We Saw On Our Hike To Hidden Lake On Mt. Burdell

Here's Wendy's list of what we saw when we hiked on Mt. Burdell last Tuesday (April 22nd). (In case you want to do the hike again on your own, Wendy says that these are the trails we took: San Marin Fire Road to San Carlos Fire Road, right on Salt Lick Fire Road, left on Middle Burdell Fire Road past 2 Brick Springs, left on San Andreas Fire Road).

FLOWERS

WHITE

popcorn flower, OWL'S CLOVER (look closely and use imagination

to see the little owl sitting there), subterranean clover (non-native, quail birth control in bad years), baby stars, water cress (non-native), Douglas iris (cream color), cottontops (non-native), yarrow

YELLOW

CREAM CUPS (yellow and cream, poppy family so no sepals), seep spring monkeyflower (red dots on yellow flower), buttercups, suncups, Pacific snakeroot, narrow-leaf mules ears, tidy tips, GOLDEN BANNERS, MOTH MULLEIN (that one by the stream I said was non-native but I forgot the name)

PINK

checkerbloom, BITTERROOT (AKA Lewisia) at the only place it grows in Marin, storksbill (5 petal flower, spiral seeds stick in your socks, several species in the genus Erodium), tomcat clover, WINDMILL PINK (not native)

PURPLE

blue dicks (actually purple), OOKOW, blue-eyed grass (six petals, yellow center, grass-like narrow leaves), purple sanicle, larkspur, BLUE-HEADED GILIA (but it’s purple!), WALLY BASKET aka ITHURIEL'S SPEAR, lupine, wooly vetch (not native), SALSIFY (aka oyster root, non-native, edible root)

ORANGE

poppies, scarlet pimpernel (salmon color, introduced from Europe), fiddleneck

GONE TO SEED

SHINING PEPPERGRASS

BUTTERFLIES

California ringlet (pale "mothish looking" with tiny ring on hind wings, weak flyer), PAINTED LADY

BIRDS

Acorn woodpecker, dark-eyed junco, violet-green swallows, mockingbirds, female BULLOCK’S ORIOLE

Heard: spotted towhee (to-wheeeee), Pacific slope flycatcher, Hutton’s vireo (repeats, “water torture bird”), mourning dove

Dead Townsend’s warbler, dead oak titmouse.

VELVET ANT (which is a wingless wasp)

(Click here if you want to view and print a copy of this list. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer you can print the document. Once you see the document on the "Scribd" Web site, click on the "Download" icon and then on the "PDF" icon to open the document on your computer).

Silvia Lange's "Random Readings"

Silvia Lange kindly gave our Tuesday group the following list of books and videos on hiking in Marin (and elsewhere) available through the Marin County Library System which she had compiled.

Read this doc on Scribd: Silvia's "Random Readings"

Click here if you would like to print out Silvia's list. (If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer you can print the document. Once you see the document on the "Scribd" Web site, click on the "Download" icon and then on the "PDF" icon to open the document on your computer).

Getting Blown Around Chimney Rock

Dick Jordan missed our April 15th hike at Chimney Rock at Point Reyes National Seashore. He was home sick, but heard later on that we were blown hither and yon by blustery winds swirling around "The Point." Weather records for that day show that winds at the Point Reyes Lighthouse were blowing out of the northwest at between 24 and 33 mph with an air temperature of 44 degrees (36 when the "Wind Chill Factor" is figured in) when the hike started around 10 am, without much of a let up (16-32 mph, temperature of 47 degrees, 41 with the windchill) when the outing was scheduled to wind up around 2 pm.

Lacking a layer of thick blubber like the Elephant Seals we spotted, our only option was to pull up the hoods on our parkas and tough it out. Luckily, the sun was shining brightly, giving us the illusion of warmth, and there were many wildflowers blooming. (Thanks to Theresa Fisher for these photos of the hike which also appear in the slideshow at the top of the blog along with other pictures Theresa took on this hike).

Here's a Google Map satellite view of Point Reyes. Use the arrows to move up, down, left and right; move the slider towards the "Plus (+)" symbol to zoom in and toward the "Minus (-)" symbol to zoom out. (Click on "View Larger Map" just below this map to access and zoom in and out, left and right, on the on-line Google map. Better yet, download a free copy of the "Google Earth" software which will let you "tilt" and rotate the area around the Point Reyes penisula and view it from all angles).


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Hike and Map for The Chimney Rock Area

Here are three hikes (Point Reyes Lighthouse, Elephant Seal Overlook, and Chimney Rock) from the Martin's book Hiking Marin and a map showing the roads and trails in this part of the Point Reyes National Seashore.

Read this doc on Scribd: Chimney Rock Hike and Map

(Click here to view and print out the hike details and map from the Martin book. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer you can print the document. Once you see the document on the "Scribd" Web site, click on the "Download" icon and then on the "PDF" icon to open the document on your computer).

What We Saw at Chimney Rock

Here's Wendy's list of the plants, birds and critters that we saw on our Chimney Rock outing:

FLOWERS

RED Franciscan paintbrush, sheep sorrel (non-native, edible leaves)

YELLOW WIGHT’S PAINTBRUSH, buttercups, suncups, footsteps-of-spring, GOLDFIELDS, TIDY TIPS, narrow-leaf mule-ears, SEEP-SPRING MONKEYFLOWER, YELLOW BUSH LUPINE

BLUE FLAX (non-native), CREEPING BLUE BLOSSOM (Ceanothus)

PURPLE SEASIDE DAISY, lupine, CALIFORNIA PHACELIA (caterpillar-like coils of flowers), Douglas iris, blue-eyed grass, COASTAL PRAIRIE LARKSPUR, BLUE VIOLET (even though it’s purple!)

PINK Hottentot fig (aka ice plant, non-native), checkerbloom (aka checkermallow), ROCK CRESS (List 4, plants of limited distribution), COW CLOVER, hedge nettle, SEA THRIFT

WHITE Cow parsnip, CELERY LEAFED LOVAGE, yarrow, COASTAL WALLFLOWER, SPRING SNOW (aka field chickweed), COASTAL MOURNING GLORY, manroot, BEACH STRAWBERRY

ORANGE California poppies (more yellow than orange at the coast)

NOT IN BLOOM

SEA LETTUCE (succulent)

BIRDS

SURF SCOTERS (sea ducks), COMMON LOON, white-crowned sparrows, ravens, PIGEON GUILLOMOTS, Western grebes

MAMMALS

ELEPHANT SEALS, HARBOR SEAL, AXIS DEER (non-native), gopher

Tadpoles by life-saving station

(Click here if you want to view and print a copy of this list. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer you can print the document. Once you see the document on the "Scribd" Web site, click on the "Download" icon and then on the "PDF" icon to open the document on your computer).

Among "The Dead" and The Living at Olompali

Dick Jordan was on a Southwest Airlines jet headed back to the Bay Area from Phoenix when we took this hike, but by looking at Wendy's hike description (below) and the Martin's book Hiking Marin, he's pretty sure that we went on the trail that he and his wife have hiked in Olompali State Historic Park in the past. Here's how Wendy described the park and the hike plan:

"This site was a Miwok settlement inhabited from about 500 A.D., a ranch given to Mary Black when she married James Burdell, a home for 'The Grateful Dead' and a gathering place for rock musicians, and finally a State Historic Park. We'll take a loop trail for the natural history and then check out the historical buildings.' (Click here for a May 2006 Marin I-J article on the history of the piece of land that ultimately became the park. Wikipedia also has a entry on the history of the area and the Burdell family).

Here's a satellite view of Olompali . (Click on "View Larger Map" just below this map to access and zoom in and out, left and right, on the on-line Google map. Better yet, download a free copy of the "Google Earth" software which will let you "tilt" and rotate the area around the park and view it from all angles).


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Olompali State Park Hike Description and Map

Here's the trail information and a map for hiking in Olompali State Park taken from the Martin's book Hiking Marin:

Read this doc on Scribd: Olompali Hike and Map

(Click here to view and print out the hike details and map from the Martin book. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer you can print the document. Once you see the document on the "Scribd" Web site, click on the "Download" icon and then on the "PDF" icon to open the document on your computer).

What We Saw At Olompali

Here's Wendy list of all the flora and fauna we saw on our hike in Olompali State Park:

WHAT DID WE SEE AT OLOMPALI ON April 1, 2008?

TREES

Black oak, buckeye, bay, blue oak, madrone, live oak

FLOWERS (New for this session CAPS)

YELLOW lace-leaf sanicle (aka cut-leaf sanicle), buttercups

RED Indian paintbrush

BROWN mission bells

WHITE milkmaids, California saxifrage, woodland star, hill woodland star, fairy bells, small flowered nemophila, STRIPED CORALROOT (white with red strips, native orchid)

PINK/LAVENDER shooting stars

PURPLE blue-eyed grass, ground iris, purple sanicle, blue dicks

FERNS – a nine fern day!

Goldback, sword, maidenhair, wood, chain, coffee, polypody, shield, lady

MISC PLANTS

Ocean spray (host plant for Lorquin’s admiral butterfly), mock locust (host plant for California dogface), SHEPARD’S PURSE (non-native in mustard family with heart-shaped seed pods)

BIRDS

Acorn woodpecker (white windows in wings as it flew), lots of wild turkeys, black phoebe, red-tailed hawk

Heard: Lots of orange crowned warblers, dark-eyed juncos, warbling vireos

BUTTERFLIES

veined white, spring azure

FUNGI

I still think that was Springtime Amanita even though it didn’t have the striate margin.

MAMMALS

Grey squirrel

MIWOK FOOD

Buttercups (seeds for pinole), bay nuts, hazel nuts, acorns, buckeyes (in time of famine), manzanita (berries), madrone (berries), miner’s lettuce (salad greens), fiddleneck (new leaves for salad), soaproot (tips of leaves eaten)

Edible bulbs/roots: soaproot, milkmaids

MEDICINE CABINET

GI trouble: tea from woodland stars, tea from madrone bark

Fever: yarrow, pineapple weed

Burns: roots of hound’s tongue

Poultice for swelling: honeysuckle

Poultice for arthritic joints: hedge nettle

Urinary/kidney problems: sticky monkeyflower

Respiratory ailments: tea from madrone bark and leaves, tea of hedge nettle flowers and leaves, bay leaves in nostrils

Warts: poison oak

Loss of appetite: juice of miner’s lettuce

Headache: bay leaves bound on forehead

Insect repellant: bay

OTHER USES

Soap: soaproot

Glue: soaproot

Brushes: soaproot

Flutes and clappers: elderberry

Rope: ground iris, hedge nettle

Fish traps: rushes

Basketry: stems of maidenhair ferns

Diapers: lichens

(Click here if you want to view and print a copy of this list. If you have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer you can print the document. Once you see the document on the "Scribd" Web site, click on the "Download" icon and then on the "PDF" icon to open the document on your computer).