Henry Coe Backcountry Weekend - 4/23-26/2021

I wonder what the original name for this place is...

Henry Coe is my Happy Place, so I was thrilled to hear that they were doing the Backcountry Weekend this year, since, of course, it didn't happen last April. Much more limited in scope, which meant encountering even fewer humans, which is just fine with me. Since 2/3 of the park burned, I was really interested to investigate the burn areas, and it was fascinating. When they say that it was a "patchy" burn, they are not kidding, the landscape is a patchwork of green, brown and black everywhere you look, which seems very good for regeneration. And yet so strange... How is it that one patch of chamise was blackened, while the stand right next to it was untouched? How did half of a huge Oak burn and not the other half? And so many blue Oaks that totally burned, but now are leafing back out with the Spring. Their sap runs strong. But so many will be lost, I hope we get a wet year soon to get the next generation sprouting.

My main interest was in the plants coming up in the burn areas, and a few stood out. Whispering bells (Emmenanthe penduliflora) were starting to bloom all over the place, not in every burn patch, but in many of those that were chaparral, and I've never seen those there previously (really, hardly ever seen them anywhere before.) Then there were star lilies (Toxicoscordion fremontii), not as common as whispering bells, but scattered over some very extensive burnt chaparral areas. Unfortunately, most of them were past flowering, but a couple of patches still in flower, which were wonderful to encounter. Finally, fairy lanterns (Calochortus albus), also quite numerous in burnt areas, but more with trees, less with chaparral, and I was there just a week or so too early, since almost all of them were in bud, not bloom. Too late for most star lilies, too early for fairy lanterns, yet very cool to see both of them so very numerous. As usual, funky, highly variable Claytonia were also common in burn areas, as well as very large and lush manroots.

While there were many more flowers in general than I expected in this very dry Spring (yet less than there could have been post-burn with a wet Spring), one that really stood out were Chinese Houses. Dense, large patches of these in places I've hardly noticed them before, mainly associated with trail cuts and more wooded areas.

Otherwise, it was a fairly cool weekend, so no herps this time. And hardly any water in the creeks! I set up camp near Mississippi Creek, planning to use it for my water supply, only to then find that it's not currently a creek, but a puddle. And that puddle was teeming with pollywogs and waterskaters, I just couldn't spend all weekend drinking what little water they had left, so made sure to hike past springs on Saturday, which were flowing fine, and I wish I could have brought a bunch back to the 'wog puddle. Pacheco Creek, having several springs flowing in, was at least a series of puddles toward the top, flowing a bit as you go further and further downstream. So very dry! But also so many flowers (and species of flowers) along Pacheco Creek! A lot more than in past years, that whole North Pacheco Creek trail area burned, and that plus the creek beds being available territory made for a glorious, long walk.

My big disappointment was that my phone/main iNat camera was having an entropy wave, so I rushed out to get a new one before the Backcountry Weekend, thinking that surely the latest Galaxy (S21) would be even better than my old S8, only to find out that the S21 cameras entirely suck. Over-processed, no detail, rarely sharp, overblown color and intensity, look like watercolors, hardly any depth of field, just thoroughly horrible no matter what I tried. So I ended up spending so much time and effort documenting so many plants for 3 days, only to have pretty much every photo be very sub-standard and almost embarrassing to post, it's crushing. But dammit, I'll post them anyway after all that (once I have time to process them all), and try a different phone camera, hoping to find one that's sharp and with more realistic color, like my S8 used to be. I returned the S21 and got a Pixel 5, will be testing it out tomorrow, fingers crossed. So to anyone who might be tempted, do NOT get a Galaxy S21 for iNatting, or really any type of photography, the hype is a lie. And if anyone has suggestions for a good one, let me know. Yes, I have a DSLR, but it's big and heavy and no GPS and I'd really rather use my phone, if the damn makers would stop ruining things that work perfectly well.

Posted on April 30, 2021 05:09 AM by newtpatrol