One hundred degrees
A willowed stream
Late afternoon sun
And linear green.
Study of cattail leaves in afternoon sun.
From a run to Las Virgenes Creek from the Victory trailhead of Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve (formerly Ahmanson Ranch).
Update. The Mt. Hawkins lightning tree lost it’s crown over the Winter of 2019-2020.
An unusual, offset lightning scar on a Jeffrey pine in the San Gabriel Mountains, near Los Angeles. The tree is located at an elevation of about 8750′, on the ridge east of Mt. Hawkins.
The offset scar is not easily explained. Either the scar was offset when created, became offset as the tree aged, or perhaps multiple strikes have somehow created the appearance of an offset. None of these explanations seem completely satisfactory.
The lightning scar on the Mt. Hawkins tree appears to be older than the scar on the Jeffrey pine on the Three Points – Twin Peaks Saddle trail, and quite a bit older than the scar on the Jeffrey pine on Mt. Baldy’s North Backbone Trail.
There are some imperfections, but generally the unopened disk florets comprising the head of this immature sneezeweed blossom are arranged so that each floret is surrounded by six other florets. This is an example of hexagonal close packing, and is probably the most dense arrangement of florets that can be achieved in this spherical flower head.
The photograph of the Bigelow’s sneezeweed (Helenium bigelovii) was taken on an out and back run on the Pacific Crest Trail from Vincent Gap to Little Jimmy Spring during July 2007.
Related post: Bigelow’s Sneezeweed & Bee
Was that a snake on the trail ahead?
It was a snake — a pretty big one — stretched across two-thirds of the road.
I slow, stop running, and then walk carefully toward it. The snake is dead still. A confounding series of thoughts follow in quick succession.
Looks like it’s probably a gopher snake… Glance at the tail — no rattles. Check the head — where’s the head? Check the tail again — definitely no rattles. It is a gopher snake. Look for the head again — did the snake get run over, or decapitated?
At least 30 seconds have passed and the snake has not moved — not a millimeter. Very weird. Is it dead? It doesn’t look dead. There’s no blood.
Realization dawns as I comprehend the snake may be caught in the entrance to a small burrow.
Com’on, stuck? If so, it’s in a bad place. Pick your peril: Upper Las Virgenes Canyon is hiked, biked, ridden on horseback, roamed by coyotes, and hunted by hawks.
Now it’s been a couple of minutes, and the snake still has not moved. I’m beginning to think maybe it is dead. So I touch it.
Panic! The snake writhes, contorts and convulses in an attempt to free itself. No go — it continues to convulse, and then suddenly, and impossibly, slithers down the hole.
What? My guess is that the snake had found a lizard, mouse, or other prey in the hole, started to swallow it, and with its body engorged, became trapped by its meal. Or maybe it just got stuck!
A red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) shows his bright red shoulder epaulets in a territorial display called the song-spread.
From an afternoon run at Ahmanson Ranch — now Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve.
From a late afternoon trail run along Las Virgenes Creek in late November 2007.