Sandstone Peak 12-2-13

Back in December I traveled to southern California for a work project in Calabasas, an affluent enclave tucked into a corner on the fringe of Los Angeles County between the placid Simi Hills and the more rugged Santa Monica Mountains.  It's the home of the Kardashians among others.

This was going to be one of those work trips with benefits as sometimes happens when the moon is in the Seventh House and Jupiter aligns with Mars.  I could fly into Bob Hope arriving Sunday morning, go for a hike, then be ready for my appointment in Calabasas first thing Monday morning.  Staying with family in bucolic Simi Valley was the other benefit.

To thwart perfection, rain was in the forecast.  Descending through misty skies, breaking into the clear, the pilot brought the sleek CRJ700 to a feather-light touchdown onto the wet runway.  This was followed immediately by the lurching panic slow down as the reverse thrust powered up to stop the plane before the end of the all too short runway at Bob Hope.  Bob Hope is one of the few remaining airports where you actually deplane to the outside on air stairs.  It had obviously recently rained but looked to be clearing out.  The air was warm compared to what I had just left in Seattle.

My plan was to hike the short 1.5 mile trail to the top of Sandstone Peak.  At 3,111 feet (948 meters) it is the highest point in the Santa Monica Mountains.  For all the first 35 years of my life that I lived in southern California, I had never explored the Santa Monicas.  I lived way out on the eastern side of the LA Basin where my boyhood was spent roaming the Puente Hills and later hiking the San Gabriels and the Sierras.  The Santa Monicas were never a convenient destination.  I'd driven by the Santa Monicas by way of the the Ventura Freeway US 101 on many occasions over the years when I lived in California and so my curiosity was aroused for the future file.  The future finally became convenient.

I had programmed trailhead coordinates into Mr. Tom Tom so the course was set.  Getting to the trailhead required navigating several miles of narrow winding roads.  The recent rains caused small rock falls onto the road surface that I slalomed around.  Clouds shrouded and then revealed the higher ridges and mountaintops in a mystical fashion.  Occasional sprinkles prompted intermittent wiper action on the drive and the threat of rain was in the air.

Arriving at the trailhead there was but one car parked in the lot.  And this was a Sunday when you'd expect an overflowing trailhead parking lot.  These southern Californians are weather weenies.  The weather was overcast and a little breezy with some occasional sprinkles.  But nothing to dissuade me after 22 years of living in western Washington.

Equipped with a Marmot Precip jacket as my only protection against the raging elements, I started up the trail.  The trail up to Sandstone Peak is a wide fire road, closed to motor vehicles, and no longer really maintained as a fire road as far as I could tell; just a wide trail.  The rains had left the trail muddy in places, caking my boot soles with raw adobe brick material.  Adobe was a favored building material in the early days of Spanish California as seen in the string of missions they established along coastal California. 

The trail gently climbed, contouring upward.  Clouds drifted in and out with the wind.  The sun found openings in the clouds and spotlighted cross-canyon hillsides.  A tunnel view down Little Sycamore Canyon gave a distant peek-a-boo view of the Pacific Ocean, dark and gray under overcast skies.  Some good views were had of the San Fernando Valley to the east.  Otherwise, on this day, the clouds ruled.

The last little scramble to the Sandstone Peak summit involved a little guess work on my part because of the obscuring cloud cover and my unfamiliarity with the area.  After the trail leveled out I had a sense that I was close to the summit.  Several scramble trails branched off to my left through the brush.  I figured one of those would get me to the top and so I followed one.  It was just a short Class 2 scramble up and across the rocks that make up the summit.  When I reached the summit, I was in the clouds.  Visibility was limited to a few tens of feet.  No views from the summit were had on this day.

Leaving the summit, I took a slightly different way back down to the main trail, a way that required a couple brush belays at steeper areas.  At the main trail, I headed back down the way I came. Through the day, I only saw three people on the trail.  It was a good day.

Notes on geology:  Sandstone Peak is not really made of sandstone, though it looks somewhat like sandstone and affords good traction underfoot like sandstone.  The rock of Sandstone Peak and the surrounding area is actually volcanic in origin, not sedimentary as sandstone is.  The rock that makes up Sandstone Peak (dacitic and andesitic breccias),  are part of the Conejo Volcanics formation that erupted some 16.1 to 13.1 million years ago.  The Conejo Volcanics were formed as a result of colliding crustal plates, when an oceanic plate, the Farallon Plate, was subducted under the North American plate.  The resulting friction and melting of the Farallon Plate caused the eruption and formation of volcanoes, similar to the Cascade volcanoes, and the accumulation of thousands of feet of volcanic rock; the Conejo Volcanics we see today in the Santa Monica Mountains and on the Channel Islands. The Santa Monica Mountains are part of the Transverse Ranges that include the other neighboring east-west trending mountain ranges, the San Gabriel Mountains and the San Bernardino Mountains.  The plate collisions responsible for the  eruption and formation of the Conejo Volcanics also wrenched the Transverse Ranges into their east-west trending position, which is different from the majority of California mountain ranges, which generally trend more northwest-southeast in parallel with the San Andreas fault.

Photos:

 

The trailhead, my car (rental) and one other one.

The FYI

The roads traveled.

Clouds shroud the ridge tops.

Cliffs of volcanic rock, layers like pages in a history book.

Down Little Sycamore Canyon, the distant Pacific Ocean, cold and dark gray.

East to the San Fernando Valley.

Sun spotlight.

Summit plaque.  Sandstone Peak is alternatively know as Mt. Allen.  W. Herbert Allen was the benefactor of the Circle X Ranch, a former Boy Scout camp, now part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area administered by the National Park Service. 

During the 1960s, in an attempt to honor Circle X benefactor Herbert Allen, the Scouts petitioned the United States Department of the Interior to rename Sandstone Peak. The request for “Mt. Allen” was denied because of a long-standing policy that prohibited naming geographical features after living persons.

Many common names for it: chaparral yucca, our Lord's candle, Spanish bayonet, Quixote yucca, common yucca, foothill yucca.  Scientific name: Hesperoyucca whipplei.  This is the common yucca native to southern California hillsides as part of the chapparal plant community.  This plant takes several years to reach maturity and flower and thereafter it usually dies.  After the main plant dies after flowering, a cluster of clones are produced at the base and continue to grow and reproduce.  The plant is pollinated exclusively by the California yucca moth (Tegeticula maculata).  Working at night, the female yucca moth collects up to a dozen sacks of pollen grains and forms them into a ball.  She then flies to another plant and lands on the ovary of a flower.  Standing with her head near the stigma, she inserts her ovipositer into the ovary wall and lays a single egg.  She then rubs her pollen mass against the stigma to pollination.  The pollinated ovary will now produce many seeds, ensuring an ample food supply for the moth's larva.

Common names for this succulent are: chalk lettuce, chalk dudleya, and chalk liveforever.  Scientific name: Dudleya pulverulenta.  This plant is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico.  I found it growing well in the rocks at the Sandstone Peak summit.  The plant is covered in a dusty looking "wax."  Unlike the typical hydrophobic nature of wax, the wax coating of this plant is hydrophilic.  When water drops land on this plant they become coated with the wax, increasing their surface tension and size and preventing their evaporation.  Wax that has washed off the leaves also coats the ground around the base of the plant, preventing evaporation.  Just one adaptation for surviving in a dry climate.

The route.

Cabin Creek Cross-Country Skiing 2-19-13

Younger son had the day off school on a Tuesday and I had just come off a 60-hour work week.  The weather didn't look too iffy, in fact it turned out rather nice.  What could be better than a day of cross-country skiing?

Off we went eastbound over Snoqualmie Pass to I-90 Exit 63, the Cabin Creek Sno-Park.  This is a popular cross-country ski area that usually gets crowded on the weekends.  Today, there were only a handful of cars in the lot.

The Cabin Creek Nordic Ski Area has a network of groomed trails ranging from beginner to expert.  The ski area is maintained by the Kongsberger Ski Club and the trails are groomed by Washington State Parks.  Kongsberger Ski Club regularly holds races here.

Today younger son and I did the easy road trail out and back for two laps for a total of six miles.  We had clouds and peeks at blue skies.  The weather was warm for this time of the year, maybe mid to high 30s.  The snow varied from soft to crusty depending on where the sun hit or didn't hit.

We also had taken the opportunity to outfit ourselves in new skis and boots from the big winter sale at REI.  I had been skiing for over 20 years on a pair of Epoke 1000 skis with Rottefella three-pin bindings and a pair of made-in-Italy leather boots that were about a half-size too small.  I plan to mount NNN-BC bindings on the Epokes because it's still a fantastic ski on and off track. 

I picked up a pair of Fischer Jupiter Control skis that for the price will make a pretty good track ski.  In fact, they worked out just fine for in the tracks and I even was able to skate on them in the skating lane.  The boots are Madshus CT100 and fit my EEEE foot comfortably the whole time.  I'm set now for casual days in the tracks.

Bob Heirman Wildlife Preserve 2-18-13

It was the last day of the Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) over the long President's Day weekend.  I was holding on to my third place in the Snohomish County bird count with a good chance for second place if I could score more species here at Bob Heirman Wildlife Preserve at Thomas' Eddy, maybe even a Trumpeter Swan.  This is a gem of a Snohomish County park located on the flood plain of the Snohomish River set aside as a wildlife preserve.

When I arrived here on a President's Day Monday, I was the second car in the lot.  I had the whole 340 acres practically all to myself.  The main trail, a wide gravel path, takes a straight shot down from the upland lot directly across the floodplain meadow to the Snohomish River.  I veered left on a path leading to Shadow Lake, one of two oxbow lakes within the park.  Returning back to the main trail, looking right to the other smaller oxbow lake, Robins Pond, I spotted a male Common Merganser, a beautiful duck, almost all white, with a dark green head and bright red bill that I often see on swift moving rivers, not quiet ponds.  Duly noted and a new one to my GBBC list.

Where the main trail encounters the river, the trail divides in two opposite directions, a lesser used trail following the levee upriver and the other more heavily used following the levee downriver.  I followed the lesser trail for a short way then doubled back and took the trail leading downriver.

All in all a nice day.  I added a few more birds to my GBBC list, no Trumpeter Swans, but I did hold on to my third place Snohomish County bird count in the end.

The main trail

 Shadow Lake

 Snohomish River

 Map of Bob Heirman Wildlife Preserve

Stevens Pass 1-3-13

I had planned to get in a few days of skiing during the Christmas break this year but work got in the way.  It was a shame because during that time it was an epic powder dump, or so I heard.  After the New Year, I managed to steal away one day at Stevens Pass, up with my two boys riding in older son's jeep.  The sun was shining as we paused in Skykomish for refreshments.  The day remained mostly sunshine but with temperatures never above 20F.  Clouds occasionally shrouded the higher reaches creating foggy patches.  It was a perfect dad and sons day full of the humor and guffaws that only happen when mom is not around.

Skagit Valley & Padilla Bay Day Trip 10-20-12

Every fall, generally October, I make a day trip to the Skagit Valley with my Mom, who this year is 83 years young.  The main purpose of these trips is to buy flower bulbs directly from the grower.  But the Skagit Valley usually has additional plans for those inclined to wander and discover.  And so it was with this Skagit Valley day trip.  The one certainty is that these trips have bookends starting with a stop at The Donut House in Anacortes and ending at the Skagit River Brewery in Mount Vernon.  My donut of choice is the blueberry fritter, which at The Donut House is about the size of a standard frisbee.

The Skagit Valley Bulb Farm (aka Tulip Town) is where we always buy the bulbs.  These are fresh, fat bulbs, unlike any you find on the rack at Home Depot.  Here you can also pick as many fresh, ripe apples as you can carry out from the rows of espaliered apple trees.

After our big bulb purchase, we decided to wander north.  When you roll through the Skagit Valley it's best not to have a plan, just drive along the roads and sooner or later something will pull you in.  And so it was with the Padilla Bay - Breazeale Interpretive Center.  The center has a small museum jam-packed with information about the ecology of Padilla Bay and the Salish Sea.  You get the feeling that eel grass is pretty much the crux of the ecosystem here.  The museum has several beautiful and impressive aquariums, well stocked with the local sea life.  This is all part of the Padilla Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve and so there's research going on here and a laboratory (not open to the general public).

We decided to follow the loop trail that begins just outside of the center at the edge of the parking lot.  The trail is about a mile in length and gently ascends through the upland area behind the center.  It's aptly named the Upland Trail.  It's an easy wide trail perfect for young kids and octogenarian mothers.  There was nobody on this trail when we were there on a cool cloudy wanting-to-rain fall day. 

We also explored the short trail to the beach that dives through a tunnel under the road with a final plunge on a spiral staircase that gets you right down on the beach.  We were here at high tide so there wasn't much beach.  At low tide Padilla Bay is a huge tidal mud flat.

The final stop was the Skagit River Brewery in Mount Vernon for good grub chased down with a glass of their Highwater Porter. 

In the Skagit Valley, go with the flow.  You'll never know where you'll end up.

Next photos:

 

It all starts at the Donut House in Anacortes.

Skagit Valley Bulb Farm

Skagit Valley barn.

Skagit Valley autumn colors on a row of old buckeye trees.

Padilla Bay - Breazeale Interpretive Center.

Amazing sea creatures ... found locally.

Red sea urchin

The Upland Trail at Padilla Bay - Breazeale Interpretive Center.
(derived from http://www.gmap-pedometer.com)

On the Upland Trail, looking back to the Padilla Bay - Breazeale Interpretive Center.

On the Upland Trail, looking out over Padilla Bay, the March Point refineries, and Mount Erie.

On the Upland Trail.

Friends you'll see on the Upland Trail.

The woods along the Upland Trail

 Fall rose hips along the Upland Trail.

 Dangers along the Upland Trail.

Take a rest on the Upland Trail.

Lummi Island from the beach access.

Great way to end the day.

Ptarmigan Ridge - A Geology Field Trip 9-30-12

The Ptarmigan Ridge Trail begins Artist Point at the end of the paved Mount Baker Highway.  I had signed up for a field trip with North Cascades Institute to study the geology along the trail, with a focus on the Kulshan Caldera, a volcanic subsidence structure similar in origin to Crater Lake, but older, with the Crater Lake eruption at 7,200 years compared to 1.15 million years for the Kulshan Caldera.  The existing Mount Baker stratovolcano is a mere 40,000 years old.

The field trip was led by Dave Tucker, a director of the nonprofit Mount Baker Volcano Research Center and long time researcher of volcanic stratigraphy in the North Cascades with an obvious focus on the Mount Baker area.  I had been on several field trips with Dave, adding more to my knowledge base of North Cascades geology while discovering new places.  The field trip group consisted of a couple family groups and a few interested individuals like me.  We all met at the Glacier Public Service Center in Glacier, then bussed up from there to the trailhead at Artist Point.

The Ptarmigan Ridge trail is fairly level with a few gentle ups and downs.  For the first mile, the trail skirts the southern side of Table Mountain, offering unending views of Mount Shuksan, the subject of countless picture calendars.  Laid out below was virtually the entire scope of the Kulshan caldera, evidenced most by the white-colored ignimbrite exposed in gullies cut by the various streams that eventually coalesce into Swift Creek.  The ignimbrite is the lithified volcanic ash that filled the caldera to over a 1,000 meters deep.

We made several stops along the hike to learn new things.  Rocks of the Chilliwack Group at 200 million years old were the oldest rocks we would see.   The Chilliwack Group represents oceanic island volcanic and sedimentary rocks brought in by plate movement as the Pacific Plate and North American plates collided, with the more dense Pacific plate diving underneath the North American plate, leaving behind and attaching the Chilliwack Group rocks onto the margin of the North American plate.  Picture a conveyor belt and you get the idea.  The Chilliwack Group rocks viewed here were a volcanic breccia of a beautiful shade of butterscotch cut with quartz crystal-filled fractures.

Most of the trail is on two andesite lava flows, the Table Mountain andesite lava (301 to 309 thousand years old) that sandwiches the Coleman Pinnacle andesite lava flow (305 thousand years old).  The the Coleman Pinnacle andesite differentiates itself with black hornblende crystals encased in the gray aphanitic matrix.  Along the way we observed polished and striated surfaces left from the passage of glaciers since melted away.

It was an absolute gorgeous day with barely a cloud in the sky, except a few wispy clouds on Baker's summit that later in the day developed into a full double-lenticular hat.  A faunal highlight was a mountain goat laying on a distant snowfield enjoying the sun.

 Now a few photos.

The morning start offered full, in-your-face views of Mount Baker.

 Detail of a volcanic breccia of the 200-million year old Chilliwack Group.

The Swift Creek ignimbrite (white), a lithified volcanic ash that filled the post-eruption Kulshan caldera 1.15 million years ago.

Glacial polish and striations on an andesite lava flow.

At 3 miles in, this is as close as we got to glacier-shrouded Mount Baker.  Coleman Pinnacle is the closer peak.  Backcountry skiers were making a few short runs on the sun-cupped tongues of snow below Coleman Pinnacle.

Mountain goat chillax.

Looking the way we came, into the North Cascades all the way into British Columbia.

The Mount Shuksan calendar shot.  Note the exposures of Swift Creek ignimbrite in the gulleys below the mountain.  Kulshan caldera includes just about the entire area seen below tree line.

On the way out looking back, Mount Baker grew a lenticular cloud hat.

Near the end of the road at Artist Point is this incredible contorted columnar andesite.

The route (adapted from http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/).