Future Field Trips:
June 2024

David Ledger at Caldwell Lake. B. Robertson.
David Ledger having lunch at Upper Caldwell Lake, while being entertained by dragonflies. Photo by Brigitte Robertson.

No field trips are slated for the month of June, which underlines an important fact: Shasta Chapter CNPS needs more field trip leaders!

Do you have a good basic knowledge of our native plants? You don’t have to be an expert, but if you know the more common plants and have the ability to say you don’t know what a plant is if you are not certain, you can be a field trip leader! You can even focus more on hiking than identifying plants if you wish.

Crystal Creek Ditch Trail catwalk. D. Ledger.
Field trip participants on the catwalk section of Crystal Creek Ditch Trail, Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, which follows the elevated flume for quite a distance. Photo taken February 11, 2023, by David Ledger.

An experienced walk leader would accompany you on your first hike to go over the basics, such as signing people in, explaining where you will be going and the difficulty of the hike, making sure people have plenty of water, and keeping track of everyone so you end the field trip with the same number you started with. If you are interested in giving it a try, contact David Ledger at dsledger49@gmail.com or Shasta Chapter CNPS at shastacnps@gmail.com to let us know. Give it a try! You don’t have to be a botanist, and it becomes much easier after your first few walks! ~David Ledger

Caren on the trail.
Caren Guo on the trail that runs through blue oak woodland, in and out of drainages, before opening up onto a floriferous plateau high above Paynes Creek. Sacramento River Bend Recreation Area, April 11, 2021. Photo by Don Burk.