Hiking Lake to Lake: Alpine to Bon Tempe

As we met for this first post-holiday hike were joined by two "surprise" guests:  Karen Thorsen who had not been meandering with us in ages, and Earl The Pup, who came along for part of the hike with Walter and Janet.  After our rendezvous at Bon Tempe Dam, we engaged in a version of the Abbott & Costello "Who's On First?" routine trying to figure out who was driving to the trailhead and who could take drivers back to their cars at the end of the hike since at first blush it appeared that we were one car short of the necessary vehicles.  (Click here to view a You Tube video clip of us milling about).

After finally getting the logistics sorted, we headed west, crossed over Alpine Dam, and parked at the foot of the Cataract Trail.  From there it was all up, up, and up, through the bay forest on the steep, fern lined trail, climbing step after step made from railroad ties until we a level spot along the creek after half an hour and could take a break and do our usual "roundtable" recap of our activities since mid-December.  Then it was back uphill for another fifteen to twenty minutes until we crossed Cataract Creek and turned northeast onto the Helen Markt Trail.

We traversed the slopes above Alpine Lake, heading downhill, then uphill, until reaching our lunch spot on a small rocky beach just before 12:30 p.m.  Last year when we did this hike, it never got much above 40 degrees and small patches snow that had fallen a day or two before still lingered in the shaded areas along the trail.  This time the temperate was probably below 50 degrees when we set out, but quickly climbed into the mid to upper 50's and the sun was starting to shine when we stopped to eat.  After a half-hour of loafing, we were back on the trail, skirting the edge of Alpine Lake and finally, and hour an fifteen minutes later we were walking across the top of the dam at Bon Tempe Lake enjoy a fine winter afternoon.

Among the way we saw:  A rough-skinned newt, banana slugs, cormorants, widgeons, hawks (probably two kinds), more fungi than you could throw a stick at, and some milkmaids (flowers, not the kind that sit on three-legged stools and milk cows).  Click here for Wendy's complete list of flora and fauna spotted.