Easy Mountaineering: Mt. Burdell (April 6)

The fickle Spring weather which damped us with cold showers when we hiked in the Indian Valley Open Space a week earlier had long since blown away leaving us with a marvelous day of sunny skies and temperatures near 70 degrees as we meandered our way across, up, and down the slopes of Mount Burdell.

We started out in a southeasterly direction downhill past the “Big Tank” and into the serpentine rock that courses across the lower reaches of the mountain.  There we hunted for an found Bitterroot, the State Flower of Montana, which in Marin only grows on these rocky patches of ground.

Baby Stars, Blue Dicks, Owls Clover and Poppies were among the many wildflowers blooming in the green mountain meadows.  Violet Green and Tree Swallows swooped after insects, Red-Tailed Hawks soared

overhead, jets left long white contrails across the blue sky, and songbirds sang their hearts out.
 
About an hour and half into the hike we reached the Michako Trail and were headed back uphill. We paused to inspect granary trees maintained by Acorn Woodpecker families, then turned east towards Olompali State Park and continued along the Salt Lick Fire Road before doing a sharp turn back

to the west on our way to the Middle Burdell Fire Road.

We skirted clusters of Holstein and Jersey dairy cows on the upper flanks of the mountain as we approached our lunch stop at Hidden Lake.  This time of year the lake is fairly full.  “Locals” once used it as a swimming hole; now ducks are happy to claim it as their own.
 
Although the fine weather and great scenery tempted us to lie back and take a long nap, by 1:15 pm we had re-shouldered our packs and were headed west on the fire road past hillsides dotted with oaks. Mountain Bluebirds paused from their fly catching chores long enough to sing us a farewell serenade as we turned down the San Andreas Fire Road and returned to our parked cars.