This year’s expansive mustard bloom continues to draw hikers to the Victory Trailhead of Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve (Ahmanson Ranch). Even though it’s an invasive weed and fire hazard, when it’s in widespread bloom it highlights the terrain as only mustard can.

Two of the three mariposa lilies that are found in Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve (Ahmanson Ranch) are blooming at the moment. The Catalina mariposa lily is especially prevalent along the first half-mile of East Las Virgenes Canyon fire road, near the Victory Trailhead. The yellow mariposa lily isn’t as easily found. It generally blooms after the Catalina mariposa lily, and occurs in widely scattered, small patches. Its yellow is so vivid as to be nearly incandescent. Even less common is Plummer’s mariposa lily, which typically blooms during the heat of summer.

Near the beginning of a run from the Victory Trailhead the other day, a passing mountain biker commented that the fire road in East Las Virgenes Canyon was “really chopped up.” It had rained a few days before, on the Saturday of a busy Spring weekend (April 26). Following the storm, the multitude of shoe imprints and clumps of mud hardened into an irregular, scraggy, concrete-like surface. The footing is the worst near the Victory Trailhead, but gradually gets better the farther west you go on East Las Virgenes Canyon fire road.