What, another 8-mile-or-so hike, with hills, the day after Pinnacles?
Well, yes. Normally I lead the Coe hike on the first weekend day after the vernal equinox. This year, the equinox came in the wee hours of a Sunday morning; alas, no-one bothered to tell the weather, so my March 20th hike had much rain and few wildflowers, and we turned back early.
After seeing the flowers at Pacheco last weekend, I figured this was the right time to try Coe again. I had five takers (two fewer than on the rainy equinox, go figure).
I guess the rest of the world had noticed the fine spring weather; it was overflow-parking time again, adding a bonus mile going from and to the overflow lot. Up on the unprotected ridge, it was cool and windy, but once we got downwind of the ridge it was fine hiking weather.
A fine clear day.
As usual, click for larger images.
One of the other hikers identified this as a female acorn woodpecker.
Yes, it was flower season, though the globe lilies are more of a later-spring flower - we passed a lot of these that weren't open yet.
Apparently this is gilia, not to be confused with blue dicks.
The irises were definitely in season.
Shooting stars, on the other hand, were past their time. There were a few clumps with flowers still on them, but most had gone to seed.
A checker lily.
The first time I encountered clematis, a few years back, I ducked - the foliage looks, at first glance, a bit poison-oaky. The flowers, though, are distinctive.
Ah, and here's the fabled Frog Lake. Many's the time I've passed the Flat Frog Trail, but this was the first time I actually followed it.
We didn't see any frogs, flat or otherwise (maybe they aren't out at midday?), but there were many bluegills and some bass. Something was feeding on near-surface bugs around these plants.
An isolated white blue-eyed grass. If it's an albino, shouldn't it have pink eyes? All the rest of the blue-eyed grass we saw was the usual purplish color.
Fun fact: botanically speaking, owl's clover isn't a clover at all, but a figwort.
Ornithologically, it's not an owl, but a finch.
This hillside appears a bit pigotilled.
About this time, I realized that the chocolate truffles in my pack might attract the unwelcome attentions of a chocolate boar, if there happened to be any around.
One last lonely little fungus. It's amazing how fast things dry out once the spring rains stop.
Blue dicks, not to be confused with gilia.
A nice mini-waterfall on the way up the Fish Trail. I was lagging far behind the group by this point, as the trail was (predictably enough) decidedly uphill, and I'd used up most of my uphill for the weekend going up the first trail Saturday.
Shame that only 5 others joined you for this hike. You would think with the decent weather you would get twice that number. Nice pictures. Beware, if you like irises - I may send a few pictures of my own..........
Posted by: Tom | Thursday, 21 April 2005 at 02:23