Back At The (Audubon Canyon) Ranch - February 24th

For the first time in days, sunshine greeted us as we fell out of bed, ate breakfast, packed up our gear, and drove west to Bolinas Lagoon to hike the trails surrounding Audubon Canyon Ranch. Unlike our trek up Steep Ravine a week ago, the only clouds on the horizon were light and puffy white posing no chance of raining on our parade over hill and dale. Within a half hour of starting our hike (almost precisely on the stroke of 10 am), the slight chill we'd felt during our pre-hike roundtable discussion had dissipated and we began to strip off layers of clothing as we headed up the Zumie's Loop Trail towards Bolinas Ridge.

During recent hikes we had spotted a lone Douglas Iris here and there. This week we started seeing them in groups. Turkey Vultures enjoyed the warming air as well, soaring above us as we climbed the steady, steep trail across the open chaparral land above Bolinas Lagoon. Allen's Hummingbirds that had spent the winter in Mexico joined the "TV's" in the sky overhead, heralding the arrival of the spring mating season. (Click here for Wendy's list of all flora and fauna spotted on this hike).

About an hour and a half into the hike we left the open hillsides and entered a forest of redwoods nourished by winter rains and drippy, summer fog. Here and there we found the remnants of the waning mushroom season. Now our ever upward trek turned into a down, then up, then down, then up again descent and ascent as we crossed the first of two fern and redwood lined streams that divide three ridges into parallel canyons on the Audubon preserve lands.

Two hours after setting out, we left Zumie's Loop and turned left and uphill on the Griffin Loop Trail. Before long, we were dropping down into another small watershed where sunlight filtered through the redwood canopy above onto the ferns below. We weren't the only ones enjoying the cool, fresh air in these leafy defiles --- salamanders and newts "hung out" here, too. Crossing the next stream was an exercise in "walking the plank" --- with "helpers" stationed on either side of the creak to make sure now of us went swimming with the amphibians.

For the next half hour or so we continued a fairly gentle traverse of the hillside until the forest began to give way to chaparral again. At 12:45 pm we plopped down in a clearing where the Griffin and Bourne Trails meet and enjoyed our mid-day meal in the sunshine.

Unlike the earlier part of the trek, it was literally all downhill from here. Along the way we stopped to join Silvia in singing a birthday serenade to Wendy to the tune of "Hi Lili, Hi Lo". (Click here for the lyrics to to the song sung by Leslie Caron in the movie "Lili"). After a half hour of walking, and putting 4-5 miles behind us from the outset, we were back to the preserve headquarters and the end of a fine Spring weather hike.

(This Google Earth satellite photo shows the area we hiked in on Tuesday. Click on the photo to open a larger image in your Web browser)
(Pictures of this hike are now on-line. You can view them in the mini-slideshow window in the "Meandering In Marin On Tuesdays" blog, or by clicking here to go directly to the Picasa Web album of photos from the latest hike).