Wildcat Canyon - Dec. 17, 2011

This was supposed to be the last hike of the year for us, since I was headed East the next day for Christmas with my family. I'd planned to make a big day of it, out to Diablo Foothills maybe, or even Sunol, but in the end decided on our old standby, to make the most of the limited sunlight.

From Alvarado staging/picnic area there's the old road running South that turns into Wildcat Creek Trail, but there are also a network of paths running East into the eucalyptus groves. Since my usual route begins with WCT, then turning East up to Bonita gate, and back North for a little ways, I wanted to find a shortcut through the woods. For a while, it looked as though I had, but in a short while, the brush became too much, and we had to head back to the fire road, albeit slightly further on. Shortly after Bonita gate, we had a surprise. Off to the right, and on the side of the next hill over (we were on a sort of a ridge), was a coyote sunning herself in the grass.



We were distant enough that she didn't seem to feel any need to get up and hide while I fired off snap after snap. Once I was sure I had a few acceptable images, we moved a little up the hill for a slightly better view, and I fired off a few more.


Allie was starting to get impatient, so I prepared to move on, only to be greeted by the face of our subject's mate, on the other side of our own hill!



Realizing that the trail ahead would likely yield a better view, we didn't linger. Further down the trail, it seemed feasible to flank around. After a short while, we found the second coyote again, at first making a rather good impression of a rock on the hillside, but then he shifted enough to be clearly visible. At this point, his mate decided that Allie and I had gotten close enough, and moved closer to her mate, before settling in to resume her doze.





Meanwhile the male (side by side, he was clearly larger) hunted rodents in their burrow, and I was thrilled to catch one of his pounces on camera:

We moved on, but paused frequently to look back. The two seemed comfortable enough even with others on the trail, and continued to hunt



before eventually drifting off out of view.

We continued up Bonita gate to Belgum. Allie was very pleased to find an abandoned tennis ball, but elected not to bring it along.

When we passed the Monte Cresto trail junction, I saw Allie favoring one foot, so we nearly turned back, but then she perked up and moved on, so we continued, but I decided to shorted the route considerably from the one I had planned. We took Belgum up the official route to San Pablo Ridge, on account of the usual, more direct route being occupied. In fact there were quite a few other hikers out; we had barely managed to secure parking, and I did have to pull Allie over a few times to let others pass. We didn't find anything particularly remarkable along the way, but I snagged a few bird shots.

(Anna's?) Hummingbird


Spotted Towhee


White-Tailed Kite

Paused briefly at the crest for a photo-op with Mt. Diablo

Allie and Mt. Diablo

then turned down Mezue. Decided on the shortcut that leads back to Belgum, to avoid most of Wildcat Creek Trail, as it was still early enough to expect crowds. In fact, it was the pretty golden hour, suggesting that we would reach the car right around sunset.



Allie stopped to hunt ground squirrels, and investigate a stock tank. It held an unexpected (i.e., non-zero) number of minnows!

But as we continued on the narrow cattle track, coyote song erupted almost directly in front of us. After debating backtracking, I collared Allie and cautiously proceeded. The singing continued and we were shortly later afforded with a good view of the singer.

Serenade

I assumed it was the same pair as before (the mate was a little behind this one, but slunk off into the woods as we came into view), but after a moment, I saw a third coyote sitting on a hillside further along our path. S/He appeared smaller, I thought perhaps an older pup, but couldn't be sure.

The singing continued as we passed this third animal. I relaxed enough to get a shot of the sunset, but fortunately remained vigilant enough to spot a fourth.

Last weekend in Briones

In the beginning of the year, when I hatched the plan to visit all the parks in the East Bay system, I intended to use this blog for trip reports. I think I wrote one and a half of them. Anyways, think I'll try again, as a way to give some narrative to my photos, especially the ones I find interesting, but not aesthetically deserving of display on Flickr.

I started off at the South-East/ Lafayette staging area on Pleasant Hill Rd, near Springhill

View Larger Map

I've started a trip from this point once before, and there's a good reason I hadn't been back since: it sucks. Not entirely: even a bad day on the trail is better than a good day in the office, right?, but it's hardly the most scenic part of the park. In fact for the first mile and a half, there is a network of unmarked trails zig-zagging their way up the hill, frequently intersecting, and almost entirely in view of the parking lot. It's a little demoralizing to trudge so far putting so little distance from your starting point. Also, it's impossible to track on the map how far you've come. In fact, according to Google Map's measuring tools, it's 3.3mi to the first real branching (other than outlets to the streets), and the first opportunity to escape views of the highway.

Trail Map (PDF)

This time was equally frustrating. Add to that we started off the same time as a large family with a yappy Aussie who seemed to take especial offense to Allie. I hoped to outdistance them, but at one of the early branchings, I picked a longer route that, along with a long pause to examine a partial deer skeleton Allie found, allowed them to catch up. When we met again, I took a side route that turned out to just leave the park, so had to backtrack. They were still where I left them, apparently having lost a member of their group (not the yappy one). I selfishly continued on without inquiring into the problem, and eventually traversed Lafayette Ridge to Springhill trail. Springhill drops abruptly, losing most of the 1200 feet of elevation gained over the past three miles in just three quarters of a mile.


Deer Bones

At the base of Springhill is another outlet into a neighborhood, but a more bucolic one. Buckeye Ranch trail starts up there, and for a ways parallels a streambed and out next throughway: Sunrise trail. I unwisely passed up on a shortcut over to Sunrise; unwisely because once we started on Sunrise, we found our way blocked by two cows and their calves. This section of trail is fire-road wide, but with a steep embankment on either side, and a barbed wire fence on the downhill, so there was no easy way of going around. I attempted to send Allie around on the uphill side, but it proved too steep even for her, and the protective mothers were not budging, so we ended up backtracking to the shortcut in order to bypass them.



Sunrise eventually dead-ends on a fire road outside the park, then picks up again on the same road probably about 50 feet later. Seeing what appeared to be a use trail next to the fence line, I opted to stay inside the park boundaries, against Allie's recommendation. As usual in navigational matters, she was correct. The use path petered out near a gash in the hillside the involved some clambering. But it was all worthwhile, because serendipitous timing let me witness something truly cool.


cute frolicsome calf

Looking down the hillside to the North of the trail, I saw a flock of about fifty turkeys. Joining them, at speed, was a group of maybe two dozen more. And behind them:


coyote!

S/he ran right through them, scattering a few into the trees, but most stayed grounded. Their frantic calls sound less to me like "gobble, gobble", and more like bubbles popping, in front of a microphone.



He stopped at one point, to look up at me, but seemed to soon decide that I was no threat, and returned to harassing the flock.



He disappeared all too soon behind a thicket of oak trees, so I don't know if he ever caught one, but from the looks of it, he was chasing them as much for the joy of it as anything. If so, that might explain/ be explained by the largely uneaten cow carcass I found near the start of Buckeye trail (pictures omitted for the squeamish). Though the hindquarters were mostly gone, the shoulders and legs had yet to be touched. Interestingly, Allie did not sniff the carcass itself, but did seem very interested in the ground maybe eight feet away. I couldn't find anything visible there, but it could very well have been a predator scent marking.

Joy:


After a few more shots of the turkeys (there were still more on the other side of the trail), I called it quits for the dark and put the camera away. Still had a ways to go to Briones Crest and back to Lafayette. It was at least an hour in the dark, but I'll admit that showed Lafayette Ridge to better advantage. Total mileage, according to fitbit: 12.09.

all-fruit bread

Tinkering with recipes again. Started with Honey-Banana Bread, but realized as soon as I had mashed the bananas that I would have to make some changes. First off, 2 1/2 bananas =/= 2 1/3 c. mashed banana. So I turned to my fridge to see what else was blackening in the fruit drawer, and found a pear. That made up for most of the extra bulk, but I also had a couple of lemons Allie had knocked off the tree, so I decided to chop up one a la' Whole Lemon Bars. In the processor it went, along with the chunks and skin of the pear that my trusty Ikea potato masher had missed, until it resembled, well, let's say applesauce - and Allie was hiding under the table. I also wanted to use up the last little bit of blackstrap molasses, and left the bottle inverted over the quarter-cup measure while greasing the pan/ melting the butter, but then it occurred to me that the last batch of banana bread I ruined had used the molasses, so I decided to cut it with some agave syrup. At the last minute, decided to add some cranberries from the freezer.

Pictures and taste report to follow.

Update:
tastes delicious! Unfortunately, like all recent b-bread attempts, the recommended hour at 350F does not seem sufficient to fully cook the inside, though the outside formed a nice golden chewy crust. I left it in at a lower temperature for an extra 40 min, but it's still soggy in the center.

Briones - trip report from Saturday, 26 March

Went out for a slog in the mud after weeks of rain and high winds.  As usual started in the Bear Creek staging area.  Route was Abrigo Valley (0.94) -> Mott Peak (0.49 + 0.36) -> Briones Crest (0.34) -> Lagoon (0.41 +0.79 )-> Lagoon/Toyon Canyon (0.63) -> Briones Crest (0.25) -> Old Briones Road (0.10 + 0.64 + 0.36 + 0.54 + 0.17).  To reconstruct, see official trail map:  http://www.ebparks.org/parks/briones

This was more or less the route taken on our first visit, but that time there was little in the way of water.  Not so this time! 


There was even a bit of a waterfall towards the junction of Lagoon and Toyon Canyon trails (if I recall correctly)




The rushing water created some funny formations in the dirt:


and also made a quagmire of the trails:

here the water is pouring into a squirrel hole and rushing along some ways below the trail.  It was a little eerie to realize how porous the seemingly solid roadway actually is.  Somewhere along Old Briones Road there was apparently a collapse and the whole system filled in with a homogeneous mass of slop


it doesn't really look too horrid here, but that slight depression is from where I stepped and got sucked in almost to my knees.  Had a moment of wondering whether I should regard this as quicksand, but was able to step backwards on to solid ground, not without effort and fear of losing my boots.  Though I tried to stomp and shake the mud as I went, and to rinse it off once I reached the parking area, there were still wet gobs up to 3/8" thick on my pant legs the next day (yay for zip-offs and not having to deal with them right away!). 

There was one last major obstacle, though.  A large group of rather boisterous calves (weaners?) mobbed the gate too densely to get Allie through.

Fortunately a pair of hikers who had apparently turned back when they encountered my mud pit came up and were able to clear the way.

Parks & Recreation: Intro

For New Years, we resolved to visit each park in the East Bay Regional Park District.  Shortly thereafter, it occurred to one of us to see how many parks were involved.  65.  Oops, that's 13 more than just barely possible.  Even discounting the ones we've already visited, we'd still have to prioritize.  Typically for me, I created a spreadsheet to keep track of salient features: dog regulations, acreage, distance, etc.  Equally typical of me, I gave up transferring data from the individual park pages to my spreadsheet after only 16 entries. 

Even accounting for several revisions to the resolution, we've done pretty well this year, visiting at least one park each weekend, aside from the one I spent in Texas for my Uncle's funeral.  Rather than relying solely on memory, I've decided to start a journal to keep track of the treks, and due to the capability of attaching images, I've decided to do it in blog form instead of written. 

I'll backtrack and write entries (at least, I hope I will) for previous trips, but for the moment I'll leave a list for a placeholder.

Parks visited prior to 2011:

• Tilden
• Wildcat Canyon
• Claremont Canyon
• Point Isabel
• Redwood
• Anthony Chabot
• East Shore State Park
• Briones
• Temescal

New (to us) this year:

• Sibley
• Las Trampas
• Diablo Foothills / Walnut Creek's Shell Ridge Open Space
• Del Valle
• Ohlone Wilderness
• Black Diamond Mines (yesterday)

 Eventually, I'd like to start putting up trail maps, or at least routes with mileage and elevation (something like Bay Area Hiker except less useful), but for now it'll mainly be a collection of personal anecdotes that only my mother will find interesting.

Lens Dithering

Trying to decide on a new lens. Took some of Allie at the lake the other day with the 24-50 f/3.3 and was pretty disappointed. Even when the lighting was ok, the focus in the right spot, it still looked soft:

A quick peek over on ebay showed the fast mid-range zoom options to be 24-85 mm f/2.8-4, 18-55 f/2.8 and the 24-70mm f/2.8. I wanted a bit more length than 55, so skipped over it, though on second though ay have to go back for a longer look. The 24-85 puzzled me, because in te detailed specs, it said tht the maximum aperature was f/2.8 at 24mm. So what about away from 24? Took a while, but eventually found that the "4" meant a maximum aperature of f/4 at 85mm. Oh. So that, along with a few amazon an flickr reviews of not being teribly sharp lost it its top spot on my list.

At some point I got side-tracked, and had to restart my search. This time I just went on mid-range zooms, and noticed the 16-85mm f/3.5-5.6 VR. I've heard all sorts of nice things about VR for low-light, which is definitely an issue at Lake Anza (forrested, and in a deep valley running North-South). The problem is, my lens-to-be needs to be able to handle action shots. So, a dilemma: go for VR, or wide aperature. Any wider than 2.8, and I need a prime lens. Fine, I've been looking at the 85mm/1.8 for a while. Then again, it may be too narrow of a view; Allie won't be that far away.

So I decided to make a (highly unscientific) test. Here's one taken with my 70-300mm f/4 VR (according to the exif data, it was actually at f/4.4 here)

Although the VR is supposed to be very helpful for panning, its real purpose is to stabilize the lens to allow for longer shutter times. Fine for low-light, but not necessarily great for action shots. Here's another one, same lens, but about an hour later, with lower light.

Actually, I'm pretty happy with this one. Although static, this was right in the instant between my throwing the ball, and her jumping for it. Here's another one, where she is visibly moving. Exposure time 1/200s. Still at 70mm f/4.4.

Her legs are burry, but that doesn't really bother me.

Then I moved on to my 50mm f/1.4. This is a beautifully sharp lens for stationary subjects

but, it's an old manual, so extremely challenging for focusing and tracking, especially when using the same hand to throw the ball.

So, it was a fairly illuminating test actually. What I really need is a fast autofocus. A bit of zoom might be nice, but for the right length I might be able to get away without it. Key, though, is the actual speed of the autofocus mechanism, on which I've done zero research, except to know that it has been measured.

And appropos of nothing, crab people: