A Hike Along the Ridge

 

My friend Kris and I often walk or hike together in our regional parks. Dogs are allowed here, so she can bring Zoey who is a very well behaved older dog. This morning we decided to hike in Sonoma Valley Park, but instead of taking the popular shady paved path we opted for Cougar Trail up the ridge.

That trail starts right at the parking lot and meanders among trees up the hill. In October 2017 the park heavily burned in the Nuns Fire. It had been closed for weeks after that, but when we hiked there in April 2018, it was already far into its way to recovery. You can read about that here.

Most of the old trees were left in the park. They offer a great habitat for wildlife. Especially the once almost completely burned parts were now heavily populated by Acorn Woodpeckers.

Can you see the deer next to the trail?

Halfway up close to the "cranberry pond" we enjoyed the fantastic view over this area. This was the first time on our hike that Kris and I said to each other how lucky we are to live in such a beautiful place (we said that several more times this morning).

We stopped every now and then just to take in the trees and the green of the hill. That color will vanish soon when it will get warmer and there won't be anymore rain until the fall.

We hiked up to the ridge - it was warming up, but thankfully most of the trail is in the shade of the trees.

Up at the ridge the trail evens out - a very pleasant hike. Of course there are crooked trees - always a favorite photo subject of mine. Darling Zoey agreed to show her face after I told her about Nicole's Friday Face Off.

We found a bench where we stopped for a few minutes to give Zoey some water and we had a refreshing drink ourselves as well as some apple slices - and we enjoyed the view.

In this area there were a lot of dead and burnt trees. Fascinating!

I especially liked the Lace Lichen - isn't it very decorative? Beside the smaller holes, this tree had a big hole.

Of course I had to check whether anything was in there. You bet!

Some fungi that looked like dried up Turkey Tails were at the lower part of the stump and there were acorns in the holes as well.

Kris discovered this tree:

Interesting and fascinating bark:

And I couldn't help it, I had to take a photo through this tree. It was definitely calling out to me.

A week before when I was here with the park's birding group there were way more wildflowers to see. Most of them were already gone by now. We could still see a few Blue Dicks (Dipterostemom capitatus) and also some Sky Lupines (no picture).

But we saw this little guy, a California Ringlet (Coenonympha tullia california).

Eventually we stopped to eat our sandwiches and give Zoey a well deserved treat until we decided to go back the same trail and not hike down to the paved path in the valley. It was the right decision - the trail through the forest was so beautiful.

This tree seemd to give us a wink as a goodbye when we finally descended to the parking lot.