Trees, Fish, Birds, Trails, and other "Hidden" Things

December 14, 2020 - Our first time on a Pacific Coast Beach since June - this time at Bodega Dunes.

    I just completed reading The Overstory, a novel by Richard Powers that features the Timber Wars of the Pacific Northwest in the late 20th Century. It is far reaching and interconnecting of the natural world and human development and exploitation. I found the book powerful, disturbing, thought provoking and even hopeful. It has caused me to look even more deeply at the trees that surround us here at Samuel P Taylor State Park. For the most part the forested area in and around the campground is second growth redwood with only a few old growth trees remaining. When Samuel Taylor established his paper mill here on Lagunitas Creek following the California Gold Rush most of the trees were cut down, not for the paper, but to build things and to fuel the mill. I find it interesting and curious in the history that the paper Taylor made came from rags gathered in San Francisco and not from the forest all around him. Though it is sad to have few remaining old growth redwoods, it is a marvel to see the beauty, diversity and vibrancy of the second growth forest that is here - a testimony to the power of restoration. 

    Powers' book also caused me to think of trees in my own history. The first trees I recall are the pear and apple trees on the small orchard that was a part of my childhood home. We hid amongst and climbed those trees with cousins and friends, and picked fruit from them to sell when I was a small child. I remember the cedar near our back door that I climbed way up to where you could feel it move in the wind. My father instilled in me a reverence for all trees and we frequently planted new ones. When I was about 12 I brought home some acorns from a friend's nearby property, intent on planting them to grow new oak trees. My mother cautioned me that they probably wouldn't grow - perhaps she didn't want me to be too disappointed - but they did grow and we planted them in front of the house and they grew to be big enough to string a hammock from. The house my parents had for over 60 years until we sold it following their passing was originally a cabin built prior to 1849. There was probably only one room and fireplace remaining from that old cabin, but because it had been established before the massive clearcutting that followed the gold rush, there were "old growth" Ponderosa Pines in the back yard that we appreciated all our lives. When Rob and I bought our first home in Oceanside, in a climate that never shows much seasonal change, I was delighted with the Catalpa tree in the back yard that shed its leaves each fall and grew new ones each spring. Our property in Colfax is naturally wooded with pines and oak. Some of the trees are pretty good size, but I doubt that any were growing before 1850. For the past 8 years Rob and I lived in Eureka where the redwoods, old growth and new, surround the community, but weren't right where we lived. We walked frequently to Sequoia Park in town, amongst the redwood trees, and frequently camped and hiked amongst them. We arrived here November 1, and I realize this is the longest I have ever been in one location for this long this close to the redwood trees and I am amazed at how I see things differently over time. My mornings begin usually with a campfire, a cup of tea and journal writing, and a few weeks ago I began the practice of following that with a walk to a bench about a half mile from our campsite on the Pioneer Tree Trail. Though I pass and sit amongst the same trees each morning, they seem fresh and new every time.

Part of our redwood forest

A beautiful stand of second growth trees surrounding their "mother" stump

A forest view from my morning bench

More view from my bench

A close up view of the previous picture

Looking up from the bench

Redwood along the trail back to our campsite

A tree with a hole too small for me to go through, but that I'm sure my youngest granddaughters will fit through - looking forward to them visiting and going "inside." There are many trees in the park big enough for even adults to go "inside."

Another view up into the canopy

    There are of course other trees than redwood in this park, and as Powers makes the case in his novel, it takes a variety of trees and plants to make a forest. Common here amongst and near the redwoods are Big Maple, Bay Laurel, Buckeye and oak. There are also remnants of old orchards planted by Samuel P Taylor and others. The week before Thanksgiving I was walking on the South Creek Trail, a very short distance from our campsite when I passed a couple sitting on a bench eating an apple. I was wearing my volunteer vest so they asked me if I knew what kind of apple it was. I asked if they'd gotten in the park and they said, "Oh yes, just down this trail a bit." I laughed and responded that I had walked that trail many times and had not seen the apple tree, and no, I didn't know what kind of apple it was, but that I was going to go in search of the tree. I didn't find it that day, nor the next when I took Rob along. We missed seeing that tree until last week when we came upon other hikers on that trail picking up an apple they had just shook from the tree. We looked up and saw plenty of yellow apples on the tree right next to the trail - a tree we had passed many, many times, even looking for it - hidden in plain view!

The apple tree on South Creek Trail

An old pear tree across the road in the Devils Gulch area

And look at this Palm Tree right in the campground.

    It is salmon spawning season on Lagunitas Creek and we, and lots of other folks, keep looking for the salmon who return to their natal waters to spawn. They apparently wait for the rain before they leave Tomales Bay and head up stream. The first rain of the season came November 17, my birthday, and some folks saw spawning salmon following that, but we kept looking to no avail. They one day doing a minor maintenance task in a campsite by the creek I heard some commotion in the water and turned to see a VERY LARGE fish getting untangled from some log debris. I was able to get a picture of it in the shallow water before it got into a deep pool. That sighting was a couple of weeks ago and we haven't seen another one until taking a walk to a bridge across the creek about a mile downstream from our winter home. We go frequently to look for salmon at that bridge which is over the "Swimming Hole" where we saw a couple of otters several weeks ago. Since then a couple walking with their granddaughter heard loud noises in the creek and saw a family of otters devouring a very large salmon. Yesterday before seeing our second salmon there was a commotion in the water below us that we couldn't quite make out what was causing it, but whatever it was, was quite large - probably an otter.

The salmon we caught a picture of near our campsite

One day last week while looking for salmon from the bridge we saw this fish. We were pretty sure it wasn't a salmon, and I kiddingly said that it looked like a shark. We showed the picture to a couple of the rangers and they said it is probably a juvenile leopard shark that made its way up from Tomales Bay. Wow!

A view upstream from the bridge over the swimming hole

A view downstream from the bridge. 

The Salmon we saw yesterday was swimming up the channel on the left. 

It disappeared as soon as it got to the deeper water.

    We of course continue to hike the trails here and beyond. We have hiked the same trails connecting them in different ways and going further on some and driving to others. Last week we decided we wanted to go to the end of, or at least further on, the Devils Gulch Trail that begins about a mile from camp. On the All Trails App I have on my phone the trail looks like it never ends and connects to other trails, but 3 miles up the trail we came to an abrupt STOP at private property. It was a lovely walk along Devils Gulch Creek, but shorter than we were preparing for.

Part of Devils Gulch Trail that is not next to the creek

The abrupt STOP

    There is still some fall color around, but it is quickly going away and last night's rain took down the remaining yellow leaves on a nearby Big Leaf Maple tree on the South Creek Trail. In the several months before moving from Eureka I engaged in a practice of driving to the Samoa Beach each morning for a short 1 mile round trip walk on the beach. Because of changing tides, rearrangement of driftwood, different weather and different birds, the view was always changing. Here in the forest it doesn't change as quickly, but I am amazed at how I see things for the first time that have been there all along.

Just a hint of the remaining yellow Maple leaves a few days ago

Big Leaf Maple leaves now on the ground

    As of December 4 the campground here is closed due to the spike in COVID, but the park is still open for day use. We still have our spot here until the end of January as the state parks really see the value of having eyes and ears living in the campground. Our light volunteer work is even lighter now and consists primarily of talking with day use visitors to the park. We still take Monday and Tuesday as our days off and this Monday we drove up Highway 1 to the Russian River and through Guerneville before heading back through Petaluma to camp. We stopped at Bodega Head and enjoyed a beautiful hike on top of the bluffs and were delighted with the view and the birds. Then we went to the beach at Bodega Dunes for our picnic lunch and out first walk on a California Pacific beach since June. We were hoping to go to Armstrong Woods near Guerneville, but found it is closed due to fires earlier this year. Rob's grandmother had a cabin, the Cozy Nest, on Lover's Lane in Guernewood Park that was part of his childhood summers. We drove by the cabin that looked the same from the outside and walked across the old bridge in Guerneville.

The ocean from Bodega Head

Another view from Bodega Head

Part of the trail at Bodega Head

The Old Bridge in Guerneville

    One of the things I've thought I'd like to do since retiring is identify the birds I see. Sitting by my morning campfires I hear a variety of them, but can only identity by sound the woodpeckers which I have yet to see. I suspect they are much further away than they sound, and I'm betting they are on the "other side" of the trees! I have seen Stellar Jays, but not too many, and some small birds that move too quickly to see much detail. We have seen crows and ravens in and near the park and I saw a Red Tail Hawk a couple of miles away near the Bolinas Ridge Trail. But the most exciting view of raptors came at Bodega Head, and with the help of Merlyn, a bird identification app on my phone, I was able to identify a Ferruginous Hawk and a Peregrine Falcon. The Hawk was truly magnificent flying above us.

A Ferruginous Hawk at Bodega Head

A Peregrine Falcon sitting on a tree at Bodega Head

Two Ravens on a picnic table near our lunch spot at Bodega Dunes

    On Tuesday this week we drove through the little town of Nicasio to a trail head on the Lucas Valley Road about 15 miles from camp. The trail is part of over 500 miles of the Bay Area Ridge Trail. Another part of the Bay Area Ridge Trail is the Cross Marin Trail that is directly in front of where we are camped. We have been on other parts of this wide ranging trail in the past at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park near Santa Rosa, Anthony Chabot Regional Park near Oakland, walking from our son's house in Richmond to the Wild Cat Canyon area of Tilden Park and on Sweeney Ridge which is couple of miles above Rob's childhood home in San Bruno. It is fun to imagine our connectedness to all those places on this one long trail that has many unfinished sections. No, I have no desire to hike the whole thing in a thru hike, but it's neat to know that it is being built.

    The trail we walk on Tuesday began next to a very big rock, thus it was named The Big Rock Trail. It was a truly beautiful trail leading through grasslands and Oak forests, up and up. I had thought we would hike out about 1 mile and then back, but the trail was just too beautiful and the up was not too steep so we kept going making it a 5 mile afternoon hike in beautiful weather with stunning views.

Old St. Mary's Catholic Church in Nicasio

    We stopped by the church so I could look close at the Nativity Scene set up on the front steps, blocking the entrance to the church that is obviously following COVID guidelines. We are definitely living in an altered Christmas season. Our gatherings with family this year will be with individuals and probably mostly outside. We are enjoying lighting Advent candles each morning while we read Advent devotionals written by a different person each day from the Eureka First United Methodist Church.

    

The beginning of Big Rock Trail

Big Rock Trail

Notice the new green grass finally appearing after the first rains. 

From a distance the hills still look pretty brown, but it is definitely changing

Some of the woods on Big Rock Trail

A beautiful old tree on Big Rock Trail

Another old tree

A view looking down on part of the trail

Going up the trail

The view towards Mount Tamalpais and San Francisco

You can't see it in the picture, but we could see the Richmond San Rafael Bridge and  San Francisco.

A hawk, probably a Red Tail, perched on the big rock when we completed the trail

A Banana Slug back in camp. We have only seen a few of these.

A log with beautiful fungus next to the trail I walk each morning - it took me several days to notice this.

More fungus on another log

Can you see the trees growing out of the dead log? In Canada dead trees are called Wild Life Trees because of all the life they nurture.

Elsie

Straus