Category Archives: Chaparral and Sage Scrub

Music and Mountain Lions

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Some of us collect anecdotes of stupid hikers at Whiting:

I met him just as he was coming off the Edison Trail in Whiting Ranch, a small, spindly man with no hair, shorts, a short-sleeved plaid shirt, and a pair of earbuds blasting Beethoven as loud as he could stand it. A few months before I had met a mountain lion on this very trail, so I stopped him.

“There’s deer up there at the end of the trail,” he said, waving his arm in the general direction of nowhere in particular. I have to admit that I was surprised that he saw them.

“There’s also mountain lion up there,” I said, motioning to his earbuds.

“Oh yes,” he shouted with a smile and went on his way.

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The Native Seed Farm

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I’ve been working on the Irvine Ranch Conservancy’s Native Seed Farm where they grow plants for rehabilitating the lands burned by the 2008 Santiago Fire. Our recent tasks have involved harvesting seeds from various species endemic to the local coastal sage scrub biome.

The same fire opened the land for use. The farm exists on a plot that once grew avocados. Encroaching flames torched the grove before they turned to the east and threatened my home.

Volunteers and paid staff perform most of the chores. Idle farm workers with wages paid by the Irvine Ranch join for a few months every spring. This keeps them on hand while cash crops grow and there is little to do elsewhere.

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Cave Rock

Cave Rock

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Prickly Pear at Sunset

Prickly Pear at Sunset

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Chaparro with Boulders

Chaparro with Boulders

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Bland Country

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Peaceful Valley

Peaceful Valley with Camp Pendleton in the background

“You’re the first person we’ve seen on this trail this afternoon,” I said to the mountain biker riding toward me.

“There’s a woman hiking alone back there,” he said.

“That’s my wife,” I said. “We’re turning back.” I put my walkie talkie to my mouth and gave Lynn the news. We’d done enough of this trail. The sun was beginning to come down and there was just more of the empty sage scrub and dead meadows that had accompanied our footsteps from the start of our walk in the back country portion of San Onofre State Beach.

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The Summer Desert of Santiago Oaks

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Walking Grasshopper Ridge

Walking Grasshopper Ridge

We’d never been to Santiago Oaks Regional Park even though we’d lived only half an hour away, so we laded ourselves with plenty of water and drove down Santiago Canyon Road to find it. After nearly missing the turn, we followed a confusing set of bends through a wealthy neighborhood that brought us to the main gate and the parking lot.

Eucalyptuses dominated the forest. Pines and a couple of exotics that I did not recognize filled much of the space. Laurels and sycamores thronged the wash. Oaks seemed scarce aside from a few oft-photographed trees along the Santiago Creek Trail and a few youngsters planted as part of a restoration project.

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Portola Hills

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Portola Hills

Portola Hills, June 13, 2014

Spring was well over by the time that this was taken but you wouldn’t know it by the calendar.

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Going in Circles in Black Star Canyon

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Rocks along Silverado Creek Trail

Rocks Along the Silverado Creek Trail, July 12, 2014

It was my intention to arrive early before other hikers obliterated the tracks of the previous night, but my punctuality didn’t help: at least one docent preceded me and other walkers passed me so there was nothing to see other than scat by the time I scanned the trail. Saturday offered another open access day on which the general public could explore the lands to the east of Black Star Canyon Road. We picked up our lime green passes at the registration table, walked up the road, and started our journey into the dry forest of Baker Canyon. Eucalyptus gave way to live oaks and sycamores as we marched further in. Baker Meadow was lovely even with the dead grass. Coyotes were eating some kind of pitted fruit — the cactus hadn’t ripened yet so it wasn’t that — and leaving purplish mounds in the middle of the path. We lost the forest canopy and trudged up the Hall Canyon Trail — a hard climb that led to a mercy of switchbacks and a crest over which we passed to get to the flood plain of Silverado Creek.

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Mountains with Chaparral

Mountains with Chaparral, Cleveland National Forest, January 16, 2011

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