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Fog, Flowers and an Ingenious Spider on the Trippet Ranch Loop

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Ingenuity meets Opportunity. Photography by Gary Valle.
Ingenuity meets Opportunity

In their forecast discussion for today, the NWS Los Angeles Oxnard commented, “A long-lasting and extreme heatwave will continue across the region, and especially the interior…” The high temperature was expected to range from 105 to 115 across the interior valleys, mountains and deserts.

Indian pink, golden yarrow, and California everlasting along the Garapito Trail.
Indian pink, golden yarrow, and California everlasting.

I was doing the Trippet Ranch Loop from the Top of Reseda. The highs on the San Fernando Valley side of the Santa Monica Mountains were expected to be in the 90s. But keep in mind that’s essentially the temperature in the shade. In full sun, the temperature could be 10 to 15 degrees higher. When I reached the Hub, at 7:00 in the morning the in-the-sun temperature was already around 90 degrees.

Nearer the coast, temps were expected to be a little cooler. From the Hub, I could see why. A shallow marine layer had developed along the coast. A couple of miles later, as I neared Trippet Ranch, I descended into a bank of wonderfully cool fog. It wouldn’t last, but I enjoyed the coolness as I continued down to Trippet Ranch and around to the Musch Trail.

I hadn’t run very far on the Musch Trail when I came across a remarkable spider web. The spider had ingeniously bowed a flexible stalk of tall grass to build its web. This solution avoided having to span the web between two stalks. I also wondered if the added tension would make the web more efficient.

At Musch Camp, I topped off my water bottle and then continued working up the trail. Near a still-seeping vernal creek, a speckled-orange Humboldt lily bloomed brightly in a patch of poison oak.

Plummer's mariposa lily along the Garapito Trail. (thumbnail)
Plummer’s mariposa lily along the Garapito Trail

From the camp, the Musch Trail climbs about 400′, in a bit over a mile, to the junction of Eagle Rock and Eagle Springs Fire Roads. A left turn here leads past Eagle Rock to the top of the Garapito Trail.

Other than the Bent Arrow Trail—which remains closed—the Garapito Trail is the “End of Reseda” trail most impacted by our back-to-back wet rain seasons. At times, washouts, debris flows, slides, fallen trees, and vigorously growing chaparral plants have made the trail nearly impassable. The Santa Monica Mountains Task Force worked tirelessly over the Winter to restore the trail.

Of course, the rain that caused all the problems on the Garapito Trail has also resulted in numerous wildflowers along that trail. Today, some of the most prominent were scarlet larkspur, scarlet monkeyflower, Indian pink, and Plummer’s mariposa lily. And, Garapito Creek was still trickling in July!

This high-resolution, interactive, 3-D terrain view shows the Trippet Ranch Loop (yellow). The track of the closed Bent Arrow Trail is shown in red.

Some related posts:
– Trippet Ranch Loop, Musch and Garapito Trails – February 2024
– Trippet Ranch Loop Plus Temescal Peak and Temescal Lookout
– Fogbow Near the Top of Hell Hill in Pt. Mugu State Park

nature|insects, photography, photography|quirky, running|adventures, santa monica mountains

Apple Galls on Scrub Oak Along the Stunt High Trail

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Apple Galls on Scrub Oak Along the Stunt High Trail

The eye-catching colors of apple galls are like nothing else in chaparral and impossible to miss. These are on scrub oaks along the Stunt High Trail in the Santa Monica Mountains.

The galls are chemically induced by the larva of the California gall wasp, which uses the gall for food, protection, and to pupate. The rose color appears to result from exposure of the gall to sunlight.

I was descending the Stunt High Trail after visiting Saddle Peak while doing the Topanga Ridge Loop. As in other parts of the Santa Monica Mountains in which I’ve run following Hilary’s deluge, the trails were somewhat more eroded than usual but in OK shape.

Some related posts: Scrub Oak Apple Gall, Looking for Snow on Topanga Lookout and Saddle Peak, Topanga Lookout Loop, Plus Saddle Peak

drought, nature, nature|insects, nature|trees, photography, photography|quirky, running, running|adventures

Rivas Canyon Eucalyptus

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What is it? Photography by Gary Valle'.

These shallow channels looked like they might have been cut by a woodworker’s router. But they were cut — or I should say chewed — by Longhorned Borer beetle larvae, feeding on the cambium of a eucalyptus tree.

Fallen eucalyptus in Rivas Canyon. The grooves are from beetle larvae feeding on the cambium of the tree.
Fallen eucalyptus in Rivas Canyon. The grooves are from beetle larvae feeding on the cambium of the tree.

The tree was across the trail in Rivas Canyon. Not unlike the fallen oak on Rocky Peak, Southern California’s multi-year drought likely weakened the eucalyptus, making it susceptible to other pests.

The Rivas Canyon Trail connects Will Rogers State Park to Temescal Canyon. Today (and last weekend) I ran it as part of a long loop from the “End of Reseda” at Marvin Braude Mulholland Gateway Park.

Some related posts: Will Rogers – Temescal Loop, Will Rogers Western Ranch House, Downtown Los Angeles and San Jacinto Peak

nature, nature|botany, nature|insects, photography, photography|quirky, trails, trails|pt mugu state park

Manzanita Leaf Galls and Aphids

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Manzanita Leaf Galls and Aphids

Was running down the Chamberlain segment of the Backbone Trail Saturday, when a flash of bright red on a manzanita bush caught my eye.

Very bizarre, as nature often is. At first glance I thought the bulbous red objects on the manzanita were some kind of larvae, but on closer inspection could see it was a swelling of the leaf. My first thought was some kind of viral infection.

What they turned out to be are aphid induced leaf galls. Galls generally provide a protective habitat and enhanced food source for the inducing species and their tenants.

Related post: Scrub Oak Apple Gall

nature, nature|botany, nature|insects, nature|wildflowers, photography, photography|insects, photography|quirky, photography|wildflowers, running, trails, trails|pt mugu state park

If It Looks Like a Hummingbird and Flies Like a Hummingbird…

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hummingbird moth feeding on spreading larkspur

I was on the way back from Mugu Peak and about four hours into my run. I’d stopped at an exposure of Miocene age shale along the Upper Sycamore Trail. The gray-brown rubble is home to an intensely blue-purple wildflower called spreading larkspur (Delphinium patens ssp. hepaticoideum).


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I’d just snapped a series of bracketed exposures of one patch of the flowers when suddenly there was the bumblebee-on-steroids buzzing of a hummingbird in front of me.

At least I thought it was a hummingbird. It sounded like a hummingbird and was about the right size. Its blurred wings were shaped like a hummingbird’s. It flew with the precision of a hummingbird, darting from flower to flower, deftly feeding on each blossom’s nectar using its oddly shaped beak.


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But it wasn’t a hummingbird — it was a hummingbird moth — a white-lined sphinx (Hyles lineata). I’d read about hummingbird moths, but to have one suddenly appear and start feeding on a larkspur plant I happened to be photographing was extraordinary.

Apparently the problem of feeding on the high-energy nectar in certain types of flowers is sufficiently definitive as to have produced a very similar evolutionary solution in wildly different organisms.

The sphinx moth is described as flying like a hummingbird, but which lineage produced this elegant solution first? It may have been the moth! A trace fossil of a sphinx moth found in Early Eocene Asencio Formation of Uruguay appears to predate the earliest known Oligocene fossils of hummingbird-like birds! In any case it appears that both hovering moths and birds co-evolved with the flowering plants on which they feed and pollinate.

Related post: Hummingbird Stories