pre-Hike: Long Ridge Open Space Preserve

If you are going to lead a good hike, it’s best to scope out the terrain a little before the actual hike. Today I did just that, in preparation for an upcoming group hike, and noted the following:

Construction going on along Peters Creek Trail. It should end tomorrow. The creek is nearly one hundred percent dry. In the air, there is the pervasive smell of coyote bush and bay trees.

Some things seen and heard:

• red berries hanging from vines (photo attached)
• fall leaves, colors of yellow and red
• I didn’t see any apples on trees (too early???)
• lots of bird calls/songs
• healthy ferns but moss on trees all dried up, and like the creek, in need of water
• fish (gold??) and turtles in Jikoji’s pond
• lots of freshly dropped acorns on ground
• about four rather large deer grazing under huge oak tree, a little before Stegner’s bench (photo of oak attached — how big is this?!!!)
• around mile four, I finally saw some flowers (a total of about 3 lilac colored ones) and one lone golden California poppy in the grass in front of Stegner’s bench
• trails are all dusty, but no tracks except for those of dirt bikes and horses
• no newts or salamanders seen (because creek is mostly dry — hope they migrated to the pond)
• wild rose bushes, yellow in color (is this their fall clothes?) but nary a rose! (not the time of year for flowers?? (Photo of roseless rose bushes attached).

This slideshow requires JavaScript.