Another beautiful day in the Santa Monica Mountains.
BB12
Tag: hiking
Eriodictyon crassifolium
Yerba santa (“holy herb”) is a hairy perennial shrub that‘s found in chaparral and coastal sage scrub, most often at higher elevations. The very aromatic leaves are lance-ovate to oval, 5 to 15 cm (2 to 6 inches) long, with a scalloped margin. Soft woolly hairs grow on both sides. In traditional medicine, it has been used to treat respiratory infections. I don’t often hike in the highest parts of the Santa Monica Mountains, so it was a treat to get up there and encounter this plant growing in profusion along the trail yesterday.
Lost Cabin Trail
I created this page a few weeks ago for our Park docents’ newsletter. Now that it’s been published, I can post it here. A rattlesnake and a mountain lion on the same hike, that was pretty exciting!
Backbone #10
Lovely day out on the trails. Still plenty of water in the creeks and waterfalls, and the wildflowers are really starting to pop. Feeling very grateful to live in these beautiful mountains.
Nicholas Flat
Vic’s sister and brother-in-law are visiting from Australia, so we took a leisurely hike to introduce them to the SM Mountains. It was lovely to meet them; I hope that we can meet up again next time I’m Downunder.
creek/paddle
There’s so much water flowing in our mountains at the moment. It’s such a joy to poke around in it and get a little (or a lot!) wet.
stolon
Annette noticed that these two cliff-aster-y looking plants were joined by a runner, the way strawberry or spider plants propagate. (A bit of googling led me to the botanical name for this joining structure: it’s called a stolon). I’ve seen a lot of cliff asters and other related Asteraceae but have never observed this growth habit. I don’t have a positive ID on the plant, but I’ll certainly be looking for other examples while I’m out on the trails.
Backbone #7
Section 7 is in the books. Most of this trail was new to us, and we enjoyed it a lot. The steep uphill sections and exposed ridge might not be fun on a hot summer today, but right now they’re just lovely.
boot care
I’ve been hiking in these boots for at least 25 years, and I don’t think I’ve ever conditioned them. But this winter, my socks have been getting soaked, so it was time to apply some waterproofing. I found an ancient can of Nikwax under the bathroom sink; it had separated into a sticky thick orange wax, and a light creamy grease. Hopefully the grease will do the trick, because that’s what I rubbed into the leather. 🥾
Backbone #6
Easy section this time, in one of my favourite parts of Malibu Creek State Park. It was fun to see thousands of acorns sprouting on the forest floor, even knowing that only the slimmest fraction of them will grow into trees.
hashiworks 