Uphill, Downhill at Samuel P. Taylor (September 23)

(Dick was driving down Highway 97 from Oregon when we did this hike, so here's Theresa Fisher's recap of the trek; more of Theresa's photos are in the on-line album and the mini-slide show on the blog):

It was lovely and a perfect temperature when we started the hike. The trail up was nicely shady with a gradual grade and we didn't have to peel layers until about half an hour into the hike.

People in the front of the pack got to see a glimpse of a bobcat! I didn't see it.

After popping out into the sun, we found a shady spot along the the trail about 500' below Mt. Barnabe's peak for lunch. When we started back Wendy said, "The good news is that it's all downhill. The bad news is that it's in the sun." And it was a bit steep.

I got so warm a couple of times that I could feel and hear my heart beating in my ears. Glad that didn't last too long. The short stop we made at Samuel P. Taylor's graveside was a good rest and we all managed to huddle under the trees to benefit from the shade.

When we made it back to the road, lo and behold, Sylvia (who hadn't made it to the hike) met us at the parking lot with a cooler full of ice and some lemonade, served up with a mint sprig in each cup. Lemonade has never tasted so good!!

Here's Wendy's list of the critters and plants we saw:

WHAT WE SAW AT DEVIL'S GULCH, SAMUEL P TAYLOR STATE PARK
September 23, 2008?

[CAPS MEANS FIRST TIME WE’VE SEEN IT THIS SEASON]

BERRIES

GOOSEBERRIES - spiny plant, dark berries.
Native blackberry (aka dewberry), not berries at present, finer thorns than Armenian berry
coffeeberry – some berries black, some still red
honeysuckle berries getting red
elk clover berries now black

TREES
big leaf maple, male and female California torreya tree, buckeye trees with buckeyes, bay trees with nuts, hazel trees with male catkins and nuts, maul oak (AKA canyon live oak, gold cup oak, Canyon Oak, Goldcup Oak, Gold cup Live oak)

FERNS
Lady fern - tapers at both ends to make a diamond shape
Chain fern - likes creeksides, grows 5' tall, not so lacy
Bracken - can grow in drier areas
Wood fern - likes shade, triangular shape overall
Sword fern - look for the "hilt"
maidenhair

OTHER PLANTS
Coyote bush (females are fuzzy), willow herb (in Evening primrose family, pink, 4 2-lobed petals)

BIRDS Seen: RED-BREASTED SAPSUCKER, hairy woodpecker, CA quail, dark-eyed juncos
Heard: spotted towhee, Stellar’s jay

GALLS
BEAKED SPINDLE GALL made by Cynipid wasp on Canyon live oak (maul oak)
Parthanogenic females emerge in April and May and oviposit on the undersides of leaves. The resulting bisexual generation galls look much different and are usually wine red to purple. Some galls will hatch out males, others females. These will mate in June and make the gall we saw.

MAMMALS/TRACKS
Raccoon tracks (front foot next to back foot), deer tracks, BOBCAT (Stan, Barbara, Wendy) and bobcat tracks, Sonoma chipmunk (2 broods/yr with 3-5 per litter)

(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).