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nature, nature|wildfire, nature|wildlife, photography|landscape, photography|wildlife, running, trails, trails|pt mugu state park

Watch and Wonder

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Crown-sprouting laurel sumac in Pt. Mugu State Park following the Springs Fire.

Trying to understand the behavior of wildlife can be perplexing, particularly when it involves human interaction. Sometimes I just shake my head and wonder what an animal is thinking.

I was in the middle of a 13.5 mile loop in Pt. Mugu State Park, chugging up the Old Boney Trail in the Boney Mountain Wilderness, about 2.5 miles past its junction with the Blue Canyon Trail.



From time to time I’ve been checking the progress of recovery in Springs Fire burn area. Ecologically the area is very complex and as a result of the varied terrain, habitats, vegetation patterns, soil moisture and burn severity, the rate of recovery has also been varied.

The recovery has been further complicated by the season of the fire — just before Summer — and by below average rainfall. Taking into account the unusual circumstances, the sprouting of sycamore, oak, walnut, bay, red shanks, laurel sumac, toyon, mule fat and other plants has been surprisingly robust.

The stretch of the Old Boney Trail I was on now had been severely burned. It was along a steep, rocky canyon that still looked quite barren. Many chaparral plants sprout from surviving roots following a fire, but some plants such as the bigpod Ceanothus in this area must regrow from seeds which sprout following Winter rains.

With the lack of vegetation I was a little surprised to see a California Towhee land on the rocky trail a few feet ahead of me.

The California Towhee lives in the chaparral and I see them frequently on trail runs. It is about as nondescript as a bird can be — gray-brown and little smaller than a dove. They have a peculiar habit of emerging from the brush, scurrying a few feet along a trail just ahead of a hiker or runner, and then darting back into the brush.



Inexplicably this particular bird carried this behavior to the extreme, scampering along the trail just ahead of me for more than 2 minutes, eventually pausing on some rocks along the trail and watching me pass. The time from the first picture of the bird on the trail to the last was 2 minutes 14 seconds. That’s one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi, all the way up to one hundred thirty-four-Mississippi.

I often see towhees in pairs and sometimes with rabbits when both are foraging. The rabbit acts as an early warning device for the bird and vice versa. Did the towhee see me as a really big rabbit? All I could do is watch the bird and wonder.

Some related posts: Chasing Towhees and Other Rainy Day Activities, Coyote Tag, Coyote Tag II, Hawk, Bobcat and Rabbit

nature, nature|wildlife, photography, photography|wildlife, trails, trails|smmc open space

Acorn Woodpeckers at Ahmanson Ranch

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Acorn Woodpeckers at Ahmanson Ranch

The health of an ecosystem can be measured by the sounds it produces. The more full the spectrum (and the more niches filled) the healthier the habitat.



One of the spectrum-filling sounds you’ll hear at Ahmanson Ranch (now Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve) is the squawking and talking of acorn woodpeckers in the valley oaks and coast live oaks.

Acorn woodpeckers have a surprisingly complex social structure, a part of which is related to the maintenance and protection of acorn granaries within their territory.

Despite last rain season’s meager rainfall, the valley oaks at Ahmanson Ranch have managed to produce a decent crop of acorns this Fall, so much of the banter in the oaks overhead must be about that!

For more info about these birds see Cornell Lab’s All About Birds and the Forest Service’s Fire Effects Information System.

nature, nature|trees, nature|weather, nature|wildflowers, photography, photography|landscape, photography|quirky, running, running|adventures, trails, trails|san gabriels, weather

Bigcone ENSO Prediction, Poodle-dog Bush Blues, and a Surprise on Kenyon Devore

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Morning sun on the dome of the Mt. Wilson Observatory

I’d paused to rinse my arms and legs, hoping to wash away at least a little of the poison oak and Poodle-dog bush I’d been unable to avoid. I was at a small spring part way up the Kenyon Devore Trail, doing a variation of a loop that my son and I had done a year before.

Today’s run had started on the top of Mt. Wilson, descended the Rim Trail to Newcomb Pass then followed the Gabrielino Trail down to the Rincon – Red Box Road. This year instead of taking the forest road down to West Fork, I stayed on the Gabrielino Trail and descended to Devore Camp, and then worked back upstream on the Gabrielino Trail past West Fork to the Kenyon Devore Trail.



Driving up the Mt. Wilson Road I’d noticed that many of the bigcone Douglas-firs were heavily laden with cones. According to the Forest Service’s Silvics Manual bigcone Douglas-firs don’t often have bumper crops. Why now, following two subpar rain seasons, the most recent of which was unusually dry? Was the tree’s evolutionary knowledge playing the odds that a wet period of Southern California’s wet/dry ENSO cycle is a Winter or two away? At the moment La Nina or Neutral conditions look more likely this coming Winter, but the odds for El Nino could increase for the Winter of 2014-15.

Update June 25, 2018. El Nino conditions did emerge in late Fall 2014 and continued until the Spring of 2016. However, the drought in Southern California persisted and below average precipitation was recorded in both 2014-15 and 2015-16. It wasn’t until the 2016-17 rain season (during a weak La Nina) that Southern California received above average precipitation.



Like last year there was plenty of poison oak and Poodle-dog bush along the Rim and Gabrielino Trails. The poison oak was about the same as last year — mostly but not entirely avoidable — but the Poodle-dog seemed worse. I’d hoped that this year’s much lower than average rainfall would suppress the growth of Poodle-dog bush, but if anything it seemed more robust. Poodle-dog had overgrown the trail in several spots, its long stalks and sticky leaves overlapping the trail like a gauntlet of pikes. Contact was unavoidable.



It had been interesting to visit Devore Camp. The last time I’d been there was in March 2003 when Gary Gunder and I paddled from the West Fork San Gabriel River from West Fork to Hwy 39. We had been fortunate to be able to paddle the reach with few portages. With all the downed trees from the Station Fire it may be many years before big storms flush the river channel to point it can be paddled without logs being a constant problem.



In addition to the expanses of Poodle-dog bush blossoms, a number of other wildflowers were in bloom, including Grinnell’s beardtongue, rose snapdragon, blackberry, pink, paintbrush, bush poppy, buckwheat, gilia, Keckiella and others. Along the West Fork the blossoms of spotted Humboldt’s lilies had beamed like yellow-orange paper lanterns scattered throughout an immense garden.

I cannot ascend the Kenyon Devore Trail without thinking about the Mt. Disappointment 50K/50M. During those races the little spring I was at now had always been a welcome source of “extra” water on the final climb to Mt. Wilson. The 2013 races have been cancelled, but are expected to return in 2014. We all know how tough R.D. Gary Hilliard is and look forward to next year’s race!

“Hey, are you on a trail?”

The voice seemed to come from nowhere. I looked to my left and right, but the trail was empty.

“Hey, up here!”



What the… I scanned the STEEP slopes above the creek, but still had a hard time locating the voice. After a moment of rustling, a helmeted figure emerged from the trees, carrying an orange mountain bike.

If you’ve done the Kenyon Devore Trail as part of the Mt. Disappointment races or at another time you probably recall the slippery stream crossing with the chain. The MTBer had apparently missed a switchback about a mile up the trail and descended directly down a ridge to the spring.

Update Friday, June 21, 2013. Lucked out with the Poodle-dog bush* and poison oak! Just one small spot of irritation on the top of an ankle, and it’s already almost gone.

*The taxonomic name for Turricula parryi (Poodle-dog bush) has changed to Eriodictyon parryi. The Jepson Manual: Vascular Plants of California, Second Edition (2012) has returned Turricula to the genus Eriodictyon, as originally described by Gray. According to the Wikipedia entry for Turricula (April 11, 2012), “… molecular phylogenetic analysis carried out by Ferguson (1998) confirms that Turricula should be treated as a separate genus within a clade (Ferguson does not use the term “subfamily”) that includes Eriodictyon, and also the genera Nama and Wigandia; Eriodictyon is the genus to which Turricula is closest in molecular terms, and is its sister taxon.” I use “Turricula” and “Poodle-dog bush” interchangeably as a common name.

Some related posts: Mt. Wilson Rim Trail – Kenyon Devore Trail Loop, GSU Mt. Wilson CHARA Telescope Array, Why Won’t My Smart Key Work?

nature, nature|trees, photography, photography|landscape, trails, trails|bay area

Coast Redwoods Along the French Trail in Redwood Regional Park

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Coast redwoods along the French Trail in Oakland's Redwood Regional Park.

Coast redwoods are spectacular trees, often growing to more than 200 feet tall. They can attain phenomenal size. According to Famous Redwoods, the tallest is the Hyperion tree in Redwood National Park, with a height over 380 feet. The 2021 National Register of Big Trees lists the Lost Monarch in Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park as the Champion coast redwood. It has a circumference of 950 inches (79.2 feet). There are reports of even larger coast redwoods.

Here’s a Calflora/Google Maps image and live link of the distribution of coast redwoods in California. The southernmost naturally-occurring coast redwoods are in Monterey County, in the Southern Redwood Botanical Area of Los Padres National Forest.

The title photo is of coast redwoods along the French Trail in Oakland’s Redwood Regional Park and is from a hike in mid-May.

Related post: Malibu Creek State Park Coast Redwoods

nature, nature|wildfire, photography, photography|landscape, running, running|adventures, trails, trails|pt mugu state park, weather, weather|southern california

After the Springs Fire: Checking on the Chamberlain Trail

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Rock formations on Boney Mountain from the Chamberlain Trail

It had only been a week since I’d run here, but it was still easy to see recovery in Pt. Mugu State Park was continuing at a steady pace. Along the Hidden Pond, Sin Nombre and Blue Canyon Trails daubs of brilliant green contrasted sharply with the somber tones of black, gray and white left by the Springs Fire.



Hopefully recovery will continue at this pace. Most Southern California fires occur in Autumn, when there is a higher likelihood of rain in the weeks and months following the fire. The Springs Fire started May 2. A late season storm moved through the area May 6, helping firefighters to control the fire. The weather station at Circle X recorded about 0.4 inch of rain that day, but the area might not see that amount of rain again for 6-7 months.

In the coastal mountains the marine layer is also a source of moisture. Many of the area’s plants supplement rainfall by extracting water from the moist air. For example, the scalloped shape and surface of coast live oak leaves, and their spine-toothed margin promote condensation and collection of water. On a foggy day you’ll sometimes see a rain-like pattern on the ground under a live oak tree.



This morning the marine layer was in, and skies were partly to mostly cloudy. This was a good thing. Yesterday (June 1) Pierce College in Woodland Hills set a new high temperature record for the date of 104degF. With the hot weather and low humidity the Powerhouse Fire near Lake Hughes had tripled in size. The switch to an onshore flow would cool temps, increase the humidity, and help firefighters to control that blaze.

Today, in addition to checking on the progress of recovery, I wanted to check on the condition of Chamberlain Trail. The Chamberlain Trail is part of the Backbone Trail and the descent from Boney Mountain one of the best in the Santa Monica Mountains.



Last week, on the way to Serrano Valley, we’d seen that the fire had burned up to trail signs at the junction of the Chamberlain Trail and Old Boney Trail. It had been a close call. Brush at the base of the Chamberlain Trail had been scorched and burned, but the fire had not progressed upslope.

But what you can’t see from the junction is that the fire made a serious run up from Serrano Valley on the south side of Boney Mountain. This can be seen on this Google Earth snapshot of a NASA Landsat Satellite Burn Severity image, but from the image it’s hard to tell if the Chamberlain Trail was overrun or not.

Fortunately only a very short section of the Chamberlain Trail about a 0.4 mile from the Old Boney junction was burned.

Some related posts: A Run Through Pt. Mugu State Park, Springs Fire Burn Severity

nature, nature|wildflowers, photography, photography|landscape, photography|wildflowers, running, running|adventures, trails, trails|los padres, trails|santa barbara, weather, weather|southern california

Cold Spring – Romero Loop

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Forbush Canyon Trail in the Santa Barbara Back Country

This is an adventurous loop that starts and ends at the Cold Spring trailhead, low on the slopes of the Santa Ynez Mountains in the Santa Barbara Front Country. The route climbs the Cold Spring Trail to Camino Cielo on the crest of the range, and then descends to Forbush Flat and Blue Canyon in the Santa Barbara Back Country.

The Front Country views on the Cold Spring Trail are spectacular, and the Back Country segment from Forbush to Blue Canyon has a classic, isolated character, accentuated by grassy flats, sprawling oaks, gurgling springs and unique geology. Montecito Peak (3214′) can be climbed on the way up the Cold Spring Trail and depending on how much time you spend on the summit, adds about 15 minutes.



I was running with Kevin Young, whom I’d met during the Backbone Ultra. Kevin is long-time resident of Santa Barbara and this is just one of the challenging routes in his backyard. As is the case with many trail runs, the mileage of this loop — about 22 miles — isn’t the best indicator of its difficulty. Many variations of the loop are possible, but one thing they all have in common is lots of elevation gain.

Thanks to the marine layer it was cool along the immediate coast, but inland temps were hot. When we started the run the temperature at the Montecito RAWS was 60°F. A few hours later when we were climbing out of Blue Canyon on the memorably steep Romero Trail the in-the-sun temperature at nearby Los Prietos was around 100°F.



Having done this loop a number of times, Kevin knew it was longer than it looked, and had stashed some goodies at the Romero trailhead. You might think 100 oz. of water would be plenty for 16 miles. On a different day it might be, but today we both ran out of water part way down the Romero Trail. Neither one of us had particularly fresh legs. Kevin was training for a 100 miler later in May and had run 20 miles the day before.

The PB & J sandwich at Romero hit the spot, but after drinking a 16 oz. recovery drink, half of a large bottle of water, and some Gatorade, I wondered if I had overdone the fluids. Nope — it actually helped a lot and my running attitude improved considerably.

Kevin’s route back to the Cold Spring trailhead from Romero initially followed the Nine Trails course on the Edison Catway, but after reaching the Buena Vista Trail continued down to Park Lane. Here we picked up the Old Pueblo Trail, and then worked across to the McMenemy Trail. We followed the McMenemy Trail to the Hot Springs Trail, which we took down to Mountain Drive. From the Hot Springs trailhead it was about a mile on Mountain Drive back to the Cold Spring trailhead. Even though it had a lot of up and down, this part of the run turned out to be surprisingly cool and enjoyable.

For maps of the area see the Santa Barbara Hikes web sites.

Here’s a slideshow with a few photos from the run. We did this run last Sunday, April 28.