With rain predicted all day, turnout was expected to be low for the Waters Gulch field trip, but Ashton Smith, Spencer Henderson, and walk leader David Ledger forged ahead, with the help of umbrellas, to check out this trail with its amazing diversity of plant life.
The first ~½ mile of trail follows a creek downstream on a north-facing slope in a damp, cool microclimate. Here we found a vast diversity of plants, a few of which included milkmaids, Oregon grape, Brewer’s oak, and black oak under a mixed conifer overstory. Some of the ferns on this short section were: fragile fern, Shasta maidenhair, narrow-leaved sword fern, lace lip fern, and gold-backed fern; the banks were thick with intermediate polypody. The rare and protected Shasta snow-wreath is also found on this section of the trail.
As the trail reached the stream edge, umbrella plants were flowering nicely—their huge leaves will overtop them later in spring. At this point there were California bay, white alder, big-leaved maple, Douglas-fir, Oregon ash, and black oak trees, which keep this part of the trail cool in the summer.
Photo taken March 16, 2024, by David Ledger.
Leaving the creek, there is one section with some wet, slippery rocks and a steep cliff to fall off if you lose your footing. Sporting alumroot, checkered fritillary, Pacific hound’s-tongue, several lomatiums and various delphiniums, this west-facing section of the trail is fairly level. Under a sparse canopy were foothill ash, buckbrush, buckeye, mountain mahogany, and more. We only walked a little over 1½ miles before we began to get too wet, despite the umbrellas. On the way back, we noticed many plants we hadn’t seen on the downhill trip. This is a highly recommended trail to hike all year except for the hottest summer months.
~David Ledger