After 90° + weather yesterday and a forecast of only slightly cooler inland today, we headed Bay Side for a short walk at Albany Bulb. Six of us enjoyed cool breezes, imaginative art, an interesting bit of restoration planting and celebrating Lee's birthday. About 1 3/4 miles.
Phred
reminded me that we hadn't been to Ring Mountain in quite a
while (last time was 2018), so we set out to remedy that
shortcoming! After several blustery cool days the air was
clear and the views expansive. We started from Westward Dr and
walked up to the petroglyph rock, then over to the east bluff;
we retraced our steps to the Loop Trail and returned that way.
The drought is very evident here and lots of the trails were
as hard as concrete. Many plants were stunted even if they
tried to flower. We were late for some and a bit early for
others, but all agreed it was a lovely day. About 2.7 miles
tho the up, and especially the down, made it feel longer.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/momcat_ksw/b972Ek
It was forecast to be very warm inland today, so we headed Bay side to catch some cooler breezes. We walked CCW from the Atlas Rd entrance parking lot out to the pier and then back, mostly through the eucalyptus "forest". There is a new paved path down to Bay level to the east of the fishing pier; nice to explore since the tide was out.
There were not many flowers (no sign of the Calochortus luteus), but good walking and good company. About 3 miles.
A very small group (7) was rewarded with perfect weather and an excellent flower display.
We expect lots of Triteleia laxa , but today there were thousands! We have usually seen the Mt Diablo Fairy Lantern along Hetherrington Tr. Today there were so may (100's) that we almost quit noticing them. And then there were the brilliant Wind Poppies, the Mt Diablo Jewel flower, the masses of Leptosiphon (Linanthus), the Cream Sacs, etc., etc. etc.
Thank you to Shirley who introduced us to this loop!!
Just under 3.7 miles
https://www.flickr.com/gp/momcat_ksw/1Ezj10
It has been almost a year since we visited Skyline Gardens. There is
always so much to look at in this botanically rich area. We walked down
from the Steam Train parking and, at the end ,shuttled drivers back up.
It is a bit more than 2.5 miles; the distance from the Fish Ranch Rd
crossing to the parking area is just over a mile.
I apologize for the odd colors in some of the images. I was having
camera issues (turns out the memory card was locked), so used my phone
for a good deal of the walk and somehow managed to touch something that
turned on color enhancement. Without my old version of Photoshop I was
unable to adjust the color once I got the images onto the computer.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/momcat_ksw/R930fx
This was a repeat of a walk Elaine led last May. The Vaca Creek trail at Stonegate was the first of the properties protected by the (then) Martinez Regional Land Trust. Almond Ranch on the ridge is one of the more recent John Muir Land Trust (current name) acquisitions. It was good to connect the two. One of the few other people we met was a mountain biker who said she loved being able to ride clear from Martinez into Briones.
We had a good sized group today...13 hikers and 3 dogs. We started from the Briones-Pine Tree Trail parking lot on Alhambra Valley Rd and followed Vaca Creek Tr to Hal Olson Tr and up to the ridge which is part of Almond Ranch. Marvelous views, beautiful clouds and even a few flowers. 4 miles
It was a small group today, just 7 of us. We made a CCW loop, first up the hill and then across and down to Perkins Tr. We took the single track cut off which Elaine, Polly and I explored last year. There were cookies at the rest stop by the lower dam to celebrate Ed Peters' 82nd birthday. It was a short hike, about 1.5 miles, but just right for today. Car thermometers said 76 when we got back, thank goodness there was a breeze.
