jwarnert's Journal
For the first time we hiked to the San Joaquin River from Boling Gap at the McKenzie Preserve - 11.5 miles round trip. It was a challenging hike. There are 32 switchbacks from the top of the gap to the riverbank.
We had a good group of experience hikers. No one lagged behind, expect one of the docents who felt an asthma attack coming on. She waited for the group at the top of Boling Gap.
I was only able to make two iNat observations.
The warm fall weekend gave us perfect weather for camping at Calaveras Big Trees State Park this weekend. We presented the iNaturalist class for a new class of California Naturalists, but all in all probably learned more than them. Several of the CalNat students were docents at Calaveras Big Trees, so they knew all the details about the Giant Sequioas in the park, and a lot of information about the other trees and plants found there. It was a wonderful experience.
I went by the Kings River today because I heard that the water level is very low due to the drought. It was indeed low, but still a small stream was flowing down the middle of the riverbed.
I observed some plants on the banks that are usually covered with water. One I recognized as cocklebur because we had spent a lot of time roguing out the cocklebur around a spring at the McKenzie Preserve. Cocklebur is native, but it is poisonous to livestock so it is unwelcome at the McKenzie, where cattle are used for land management.
I was fascinated by large groupings of plants with tiny white and pink flowers. There were dozens of pollinators of different shapes, sizes and colors.
There was 30 percent chance of rain, but none materialized. Tom, Reina, Scott and I hiked from the gate to the San Joaquin River, which was really low. It was mostly downhill to the river, so the hike back up was the challenging part.
We spoke to a woman who had a key to the gate. She said her grandmother owns land in the area, but that construction of the proposed Temperance Flat Dam would flood them out.
Spent the day at McKenzie Preserve, where it was unseasonably hot, but still comfortable in the shade. The purpose was the second day of a two-day instructors' workshop hosted by UC's California Naturalist program.
I wasn't able to make many observations because of the class, but wanted to post one to see how it connects to the journal post.
