Head to Point Reyes National Seashore for a hike through a bishop pine forest that has wonderful mushrooms to explore as well as panoramic views of the Point Reyes peninsula, as well as Tomales Bay and Mount Diablo to the east and Mount Saint Helena to the north.
The 7.1-mile moderately difficult hike starts from the Muddy Hollow parking lot. Muddy Hollow Road immediately crosses a creek. A log or stepping stones help if the creek is not too high. Pussy willows are emerging on the male willow trees, and by the time you take this hike, they may have “opened” to show their yellow pollen.
The 1.1 miles to Bucklin Trail is a mix of coyote brush and coffeeberry, with some bishop pines, cypress and wax myrtle.
Turn right on the signed Bucklin Trail, which gains about 1,000 feet elevation in 2.3 miles. Unless the park service gets around to clearing the trail before this is published, expect to climb over, or scramble through, many downed trees that fell across the trail.
Signs of spring that delighted me as I ascended included red elderberries leafing out, wavy-leaf soaproot leaves emerging, strawberry flowers and the first California manroot vines, already several feet tall, with their flowers still in bud. I love February because this month we can simultaneously enjoy signs of spring and mushrooms. I encountered lovely yellow gemmed amanitas, western yellow-veiled amanitas and some picture-perfect fly agarics, the red mushroom with white dots often seen in illustrations of fairy tales. These mushrooms have an interesting history, with some evidence they were used as a psychoactive drug 6,000 years ago.
Photo by Wendy Dreskin
Fly agarics, the red and white mushrooms often seen in fairy tales, can be seen this month in Marin.In more recent history, a Polish prisoner of war in 1658 in Siberia wrote that in the Irtysh region the people became “drunk worse than on vodka.” A Swedish prisoner of war in 1730 described people making a tea from dried fly agarics when they held feasts. He noted that “the poorer sort who cannot not afford these mushrooms … watch the opportunity of the guests coming down to make water and then hold a wooden bowl to receive the urine which they drink off greedily, as having still some of the virtue of the mushrooms in it.”
As you get closer to the Inverness Ridge, the view opens up to a view of Limantour Beach. The bishop pines thin and become interspersed with California lilac and a few bay trees. There is a view of Point Reyes laid out like a map, with a distant view of the area burned in the Woodward Fire, a close view of Limantour Spit and Estero de Limantour, Drakes Estero and the graceful curve of Drakes Beach around to Chimney Rock sweeping southwest.
Go left at a white fence surrounding Federal Aviation Administration property. A bench, perfect for a lunch stop, is dedicated to Marion Stephens who “loved this place and asked to be remembered here.”
Turn right on the paved road, enjoying views of Black Mountain, named for the early settler James Black, Mount Diablo and Mount Saint Helena. The paved road ends quickly and you are back in bishop pine forest on the pine needle-carpeted Inverness Ridge Trail. Turn right at the signed junction with Drakes View Trail. The sign says 1.8 miles to Bayview Trail.
Just after crossing a wooden bridge, Drakes View meets Bayview Trail. From here, it is half a mile back to the Muddy Hollow Road, where you turn left to return to the parking lot.
Take Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and turn right on Highway 1. In about 100 yards, turn left turn on Bear Valley Road. Continue for approximately 1.3 miles, then turn left onto Limantour Road. Turn right at the signed Muddy Hollow trailhead. No dogs allowed.
Wendy Dreskin has led the College of Marin nature/hiking class Meandering in Marin since 1998, and teaches other nature classes for adults and children. To contact her, go to wendydreskin.com
Bagikan Berita Ini
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