A chilly but clear morning greeted our hiking group of six. And, luckily, the ditch section of Trail 58 contained no standing water, just a little mud! Because of the recent rainstorms, Middle Creek’s waterfall (about a mile into the hike) was gushing lots of water.
Virtually all of the landscape we walked through was severely burned in last year’s Carr Fire, but some plants are recovering very nicely. This is especially true for the toyon and the California snowdrop bushes. Many black oaks, as well as interior and canyon live oaks, are sprouting from the bases of burned-out trees. The horseweed seems to have really liked the ash-enriched soil as we saw several of these plants that had grown to over six feet in height. We also saw many gray pines and white-leaf manzanita seedlings thriving in the burned over area.
Very few plants bloom during this time of the year, but we did spot a few specimens of tarweed, moth mullein, woolly sunflower, and Sierra milkwort in flower.
What with the sound of Middle Creek flowing in the canyon, a gradually warming morning, and great walking companions, the morning was well spent on the Trail 58 Loop! -Chris Harvey
