Last week at Bahia it was summer. This week at China Camp the low, gray skies made it look like winter, but air temperatures in the low 60's and high humidity had us shedding layers on the uphill portions of this hike. The clouds never parted and we didn't need any sunscreen for this trip, but only a handful of rain drops
fell on our heads during the entire walk.We left our cars along San Pedro Road near the edge of the wetlands, walked eastward in the direction of the park's ranger station, then we turned south and began ascending a tree-line trail. Despite a fairly dry three week period since early November, Honey Mushrooms were abundant in this Bay and Oak forest. (Too bad we couldn't use those in the
mushroom dishes Dick posted to the blog!). The luckier among the group got to spot a Pileated Woodpecker although most, if not all of us, got a good long look at a little Brown Creeper later in the walk. (Click here to view and print Wendy's list of flora and fauna spotted on this hike).After climbing up to the ridge above the Peacock Gap housing development, we continued west to a saddle where the trail dipped down to our starting point, and plopped down there on logs, tree stumps, or along the trail for a midday lunch. Several mountain bikers passed us during the hike, and the trail we took to return to our cars was steep, rocky and rutted, probably due in part to erosion sped up by bike tires churning up the earth.
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