Irrelevance Glorified

On August 15th, I took a trip to Butano State Park, again on the western slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains. This park is kinda tucked in behind Big Basin, and is much more annoying to get to. Much of the route is on winding country roads, so it took about 75-90 minutes to travel the 45 miles. The only other intrigue was the presence of a nearby wildfire, the so-called Lockheed fire. It was called the Lockheed fire because it was close to some Lockheed R & D facilities, which were in such “remote” locations so that if they exploded, they wouldn’t endanger a populated area. But that’s a different story. By my Google Maps estimates, that fire was over 10 miles and a few state parks away, so I figured I would be safe. However, the fire’s presence was definitely felt in the form of haze and the smell of smoke.

My hike was roughly 9 – 10 miles or so, and covered forests and canyons, flats and ridges. Bay Area Hiker doesn’t particularly like Butano, and I can’t disagree with her notion that Purisma Creek provides a better creekside hike. So I’ll give this hike a B+.

Flickr set here.
Slideshow below.
Pictures & descriptions after the jump.

 

For this hike, I started near the park entrance. I embarked on the Jackson Flats Trail and continued on to the Canyon Trail and Indian Trail until I hit the Olmo Fire Road. From the Olmo Fire Road I transitioned to the Doe Ridge Trail and Goat Hill Trail to get to the Ben Ries Campground. After wandering through the campsite, I got onto the Six Bridges Trail and took it back to the parking lot.

 

In physics terms, I think this tree has a left hand thread to it.

 

This huge redwood stump has certainly seen it’s share of forest fires. Just in case I didn’t understand the yearly danger that these trees face, haze from the nearby "Lockheed" forest fire surrounded me, and the smell of smoke was in the air.

 

I’m not sure what was up with this tree, but it had all sorts of strange growths on it. Can redwoods get leprosy?

 

Basically, this large leprous tree was about 5 Ranjeet’s wide.

 

Whenever I see a bench out in the woods, I become a little bit suspicious. I wonder if maybe, just maybe this time this is all some sort of prank, like they do in Japan. If I sit down, will it rocket me into the air, down the cliffside? Will a cage of hungry bears spring open 10 feet away? Will a vat of green slime come tumbling through the air? Even odder, this chair was unmemorialized and unsponsored.

 

I think this tree is doing the Robot on some sort of centurial time scale.

 

I saw a bunch of feathers scattered on the ground along the trail, a sign that some violence probably took place here recently. Could a killer be lurking in the woods nearby?

 

There wasn’t so much smoke in the air that it was hard to breathe or hard to see, but there were enough particles in the air that it made from some nice pictures of sunlight streaming between the trees. Ah, the magic of diffraction.

 

I’ve seen plenty of redwoods with holes in the trunks. They often look like they could be nice little shelters in a rainstorm (of course, it’s probably more likely that they are filled with black widows, rabid racoons, and rattlesnakes), but I don’t think I’ve seen too many with holes on either side of the tree. Maybe someday, this tree will be big enough that they could just build a road through it.

 

It’s pretty typical to see trees sawn in half along the trail, trees too big to move completely so a trail is made just for hikers. It isn’t typical to see such a cornucopia of mushrooms lining the way ahead.

 

The smoke from the Lockheed fire wasn’t making it hard to breathe or anything, but it was definitely hindering the view.

 

This madrone tree had quite a bit of peeling bark. The madrone is actually known for it’s peeling bark, but this tree seemed to have a bit of a problem.

 

About a quarter of the way through the hike, I emerged from the forest onto this ridge. Not only was the soil really gravelly, but I suddenly was out in the sun. Not my favorite part of the hike.

 

I think this is Spanish Moss. To be honest, I’m not all that great with mosses. I know that some places have greater expertise. But I’ve heard of Spanish Moss before, and the wikipedia page is encouraging, so I’m gonna assume I’m right.

 

It’s sort of disorienting to emerge from a narrow hiking trail onto a fire road. After following the Canyon and Indian Trails for probably about 5-6 miles, I emerged onto the Olmo Fire Road, which was oddly steep and gravelly. I hope that the fire trucks get enough purchase when they’re bouncing around these hills.

 

Aside from insects, the most common "wildlife" I’ve seen has been lizards. Most of the time, they’re pretty shy, and lightning fast, so I can’t take pictures of them. This small (baby?) lizard, though, thought he/she was pretty slick by blending in to the grass. Can you pick it out? (Maybe I shouldn’t have centered the picture on it…)

 

This is part million of my ongoing series : Trees Being Tall. I enjoy how the upper level of branches are intermingling up there, over a hundred feet up there.

 

Really, taking pictures of tall trees is getting old. Taking videos of tall trees is the future. The Future!!!1! I like not only the height and the straightness, but also the spacing. A nice aesthetic.

 

Every time I see an open stump like this, I feel compelled to look inside and check it out. You never know what might be in there. A pot of gold, a portal to a magical fantasy world, some gummi bears…really, it would be stupid not to check.

 

It seemed obvious when I took this picture, but of course, the picture isn’t quite as good as live. In this little grove, there was a jumble of fallen trees. In fact, it looked like a stack of fallen dominoes. I guess you just had to be there.

 

About 3/4 through my hike, I found myself near the Butano campgrounds. I was somewhat surprised to see it quite full. While I was quite willing to hike around for a few hours in the smoky part, I wouldn’t think you would want to sleep in it. According to the trail map, this was the Campfire Center. Although thinking about it, there really doesn’t seem to be a good place for the fire itself. It does seem like a really good place to do a little wildlife show, though. I can totally see someone up there, holding a hawk on their arm, and doing that thing where you show a bird flying against the wind from from a industrial fan.

 

When you name your trail the "Six Bridges" trail, you are setting yourself up for certain expectations. Namely, I expect to see six bridges. If they had consulted me, however, I would have cautioned them against naming this trail in this way, because it really gives them no flexibility in the future. What if they need to add another bridge, or the earthquake changes the creek so they need one less? Then they have to either change their maps or open themselves up to all sorts of truth-in-advertising lawsuits.

 

Well, I was somewhat prepared for "Six Bridges" to be a poetic or metaphorical title, but my fears were assuaged within a tenth of a mile, when I saw the first bridge.

 

Bridge #2

 

Bridge #3

 

Bridge #4

 

When I saw this sign, I couldn’t tell if it was a warning or an invitation. For the record, I hadn’t seen any bats at all so far. But I was cheered to see this sign, because now if I decide to become a superhero, I know exactly where to look for a cave for my hideout.

 

In case you’re wondering why the heck there are so many bridges on this trail, the path keeps on crossing the same creek. It’s not like I’m crossing the Sacramento River Delta or something.

 

I saw these leaves or whatever hanging from a tree near the "bat habitat" sign. Could it be that some near-sighted bat-lovers wandered by, saw these bat-looking leaves, and decided to put up a sign?

 

I saw this apparent bridge starting point, although the bridge appears to be missing. Obviously, they starting building this bridge, but then realized this was the Six Bridges trail and that they would be one bridge over the limit. See, they should have listened to me.

 

The final Bridge of the hike, it’s somewhat underwhelming. It does not exactly harken images of the Golden Gate, that’s for sure.

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