Saying Goodbye, See You Again Samuel P Taylor State Park

Here we are next to the sign for our home of sixth months

    Our last two weeks at Samuel P Taylor State Park were a bit bittersweet as we savored the. place and people we had come to know and enjoy so well. I made sure to cram in lots of hikes on all our favorite trails, even doing some twice, and we exchanged contact information with folks we hope to see again when we return on November 1, 2021.

    Sunday, April 18, I decided to hike solo the longest loop hike that we had done previously, this time in reverse. The hike was just short of 11 miles and I admit to being pretty tired when I got back just in time to do campground check with Rob. The loop began by going on the Cross Marin Trail toward Lagunitas to its end near the fish observation area not far out of the park boundary. From there I hiked up the very steep Shafter Grade - it was definitely a steep climb, but I preferred going up it to going down it like we had done before. Then I hiked across the beautiful Bolinas Ridge to the Jewel Trail and back down to Cross Marin, and then back to our campsite. Unlike some of the loops that we've done, that double track part of the way from and to our campsite, this one was a true loop. I'd hoped to do the distance in 4 hours or less, but I was a little over and arrived back at 11:50, just in time to walk to the kiosk to begin our daily camp check. I of course saw beautiful scenery along the way, and I didn't encounter other hikers until I was up on the ridge. One young woman walking with a dog greeted me with her story of a tense encounter with coyotes along the trail I was to go down. I think she was partially warning me, but I felt pretty certain the coyotes had made them selves known to her because of her dog. I told her about one summer at Tahoe when coyote packs were luring domestic dogs to follow them and then they would attack and kill the dogs. I didn't want to scare her anymore than she already was, but I wanted her to know that walking her dog off leash could be a threat to her dog. I didn't see or hear any coyotes on my hike.

Part of the steep upgrade on Shafter Grade.

I keep trying to get pictures that convey the incline of some of the trails, but it is hard to capture.

Pretty outcropping of rocks on Bolinas Ridge

Looking out to Tomales Bay from Bolinas Ridge

Blue eyed grass on Bolinas Ridge

There were lots of different wild flowers on this hike, but not many captured well on my phone.

Heading down the trail

Notice the browning of the hills?

We have watched the hills turn from brown to green and now they are going back to brown.

    On Monday, April 19, we headed to Colfax for the last time before we return from travels in May. We got to spend time with Avi and Ruth, Chris and Alana, and to see what was blooming in the foothills.

Avi and I played on this playground structure in Auburn while Rob finished his lunch.

The apple trees in the Colfax front yard were in full bloom

Lilacs are probably my favorite domestic flower - this one was by a neighbor's house about a 1/2 mile from our Colfax area property.

    Our granddaughter Sophia turned 8 on April 25 and her request was to camp at Samuel P Taylor State Park for her birthday, so the and her family came for 2 nights and Ruth and Avi made it for one night. Avi and Sophia are just 6 weeks a part in age and have a special cousin bond.

Here is Avi greeting Elsie and Straus

Sophia with her birthday cake

Our youngest three grandchildren, Naomi, Sophia and Avienda.

They are putting together a Legos set that was a birthday present from Avi.

Sophia and Avi catching the misty rain drops that fell on Sunday.

Naomi and Sophia sliding down an old Redwood tree slide in one of the campsites.

    We made the decision before I retired that we would not tow a car when we traveled with the RV so we had to get our Subaru to the garage in San Bruno. We drove down there Sunday, April 15 after all the birthday party celebrators headed home so that our daughter Erin could bring us back on Monday. Monday morning I got up bright and early to take a 10 mile hike up to and along Sweeney Ridge. The top of Sweeney Ridge is about 4 miles from the San Bruno House, and again it is a steep up and up climb. It was a beautiful day for a hike, but I only had my sweatshirt off briefly as the temperature dropped considerably when the clouds covered the sun.

The sign at the beginning of the trail

One of the many bunnies seen along the way

Some paintbrush flowers. There were lots of flowers along the way, 

but my pictures of them weren't all that good.

Crystal Springs Reservoir with San Francisco Bay in the background

The water in this body of water comes by pipe form Hetch Hetchy Reservoir near Yosemite and supplies water to San Francisco. It is daunting how we have diverted water from their natural water sheds over the years, and it is even more daunting how society can find a way to "make it right" in terms of water use and divertion for the future.

I was pleased to see that "Discovery" was in quotation marks on this sign pointing the way to the place where the Portola expedition first sighted San Francisco Bay on October 28, 1769. This area had of course been the home of Indigenous peoples for thousands of years before that date.

The ocean beyond Pacifica as seen from Sweeney Ridge

    I wanted one last hike on Bill's Trail before we left Marin County, so on Wednesday, April 28, that's where I headed on my long morning hike. Bill's Trail is a truly amazing trail that climbs about 1000 feet in 3.7 miles, but with so many switchbacks that it is never too steep.

See the switchback in this picture?

I don't know how many there are, but there are a lot.

Bridge 6 of the 8 bridges. 

Some how I spaced out on noticing when I crossed bridges 2 through 5!

This is the view at the top of Bill's Trail looking into the forested trail.

This picture is taken from the exact same spot as the last one, but I just turned around to get the dramatic other view. Here you can see the shadow from the forest.

The view after I stepped out of the shadow.

Looking up to, and saying goodbye, see you again, to Barnabe Peak

There were lots of beautiful flowers along my way down including this Paintbrush.

    One day last week I went for the 2 1/2 mile hike along the Pioneer Tree Trail. Shortly after leaving our campsite I encountered a couple of men who were looking at something along the trail and I greeted them, but proceeded on my morning walk. Later on the way back I ran into them again only about a 1/4 mile from where I'd seen them before. I commented that they hadn't made much progress, and their response was, "Well, that's part of being a birder." They had begun looking and listening for birds about two hours earlier near the park entrance and now, a little over a 1/2 mile later, they had a list of 34 different birds they had identified by sight or sound! 34! I'm pretty sure I haven't been aware of half that many in six months. Maybe my desire to eventually be a birder is unrealistic! There are no pictures of birds in this blog, but here are some of the other creatures I've seen in the past couple of weeks:

A caterpillar crawling on the bottom of a fence railing.

 

This very large salamander greeted me on the Pioneer Trail one morning. It's the largest salamander I have ever seen. I'm a little ashamed to admit that this critter intimidated me a bit - notice from the direction of my foot that I am behind it, not in its way forward.

Finally, I got a picture of a chipmunk - they have just appeared in the last month or so.

This one has its mouth full of what looks like nesting material.

A quail on the Devil's Gulch Trail - I have seen a number of coveys of quail in the past few weeks, but they all look like fully grown birds - no little babies.

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly

I was surprised to get this picture with my phone. These butterflies seem to rarely be still, and actually this picture was taken while this one was in flight.

One morning walking to Devil's Gulch along the North Creekside Trail I surprised three does on the trail and they went into the brush to let me pass by.

Later on the same hike, but on the way down the fire trail toward the Madrone Group Site I spotted these three bucks. They acted like Yosemite wild life, pretty unconcerned about people.

Here is one of the bucks

    Our last evening in camp we were outside saying goodbye to one of the rangers when 5 fully loaded Cal Poly San Luis Obispo University vans drove by headed to the campground. The ranger said, "I saw nothing, I'm going off duty." A large group like that could mean an unauthorized large organized group event, and it is understandable that the rangers don't want to have to play the "heavy" and tell them they might have needed a permit, or other wise enforce some unclear guidelines around gatherings of large groups. After the ranger left I walked up to the campground just out of curiosity. The group was a field botany class who planned to look at some plants at Samuel P Taylor the next day before heading north to do more field studies in Mendocino County. I enjoyed visiting with the students and a professor for awhile, and of course sharing that our son Shawn is a graduate of Cal Poly.

Cal Poly  students looking in the creek for an Otter their professor had sighted earlier.

    

One of the Cal Poly teaching assistants identified this as Redwood Ivy.

It apparently has a very pretty, but tiny blossom, but we will be gone before it blooms.

The teaching assistant also identified this tree as Hazelnut.

There are lots of these trees in the park, and one right next to our campsite.

A blossoming tree on Orchard Hill.

There are quite a variety of orchard trees that have been blooming - remnants of the 19th century orchards planted by the Taylor family.

I identified this little flower as Modesty

Another view of Modesty

I had noticed these green leaves appearing for some time, and they have finally started to show their flowers - a pretty little six petalled Western Star Flower.

Star Flowers up closer

There are lots of these wild iris on the trails.

The apple tree that still had apples in December has finally opened its blossoms just in time for us to see them before leaving the park.

I think this is the last remaining blooming white Trillium on the Samuel P Taylor trails

Here is a Trillium turning purple before it dries up.

And here is one fully purple.

Friend Angela told me she thinks they start turning pink or purple after they have been pollinated.

    

    We truly enjoyed our time as camp hosts for six months in the beautiful Marin County Redwood State Park, Samuel P Taylor. Thursday afternoon, April 29, after packing up most of LesThora in preparation for departure on Friday we sat in our camp chairs in the sunny afternoon thinking about our time here. Rob commented that it was kind of a sad day as we prepared to leave, even though we were looking forward to new adventures and to returning in the fall. I asked him what surprised him most about our first camp host "gig." His reply, "That I wasn't bored. There was always something to do." I think the most surprising thing to me was the people - the regular day use folks we had come to know, the staff and other volunteers, and even the meaningful encounters with folks we'd probably never see more than one time. Camp hosting at Samuel P Taylor State Park was a good and rewarding experience.

Saying goodbye to the picturesque Lagunitas Creek until we return in November

The view from "my" bench the last morning we were in Camp Taylor, April 30, 2021

The view looking up from the bench.

Straus and Elsie found the sun that just started to reach the back window at our campsite, but now we're on the road again and they will have to find the sunny spots where ever they may be.