A wooden bench halfway between Spooner Summit and Kingsbury Grade

This wooden bench can be found on the Tahoe Rim Trail (TRT) about halfway between Spooner Summit and Kingsbury Grade on South Camp Peak. You can get there by either hiking about six miles north from the Kingsbury North Trailhead or about the same distance south from the Spooner Summit South Trailhead. Either way you need to go upwards, but switchbacks and the shade of pine trees make it a relatively easy hike. Mountain bikers enjoy this section of the TRT, which also is open for equestrians. Depending on the time of day and year you are doing this trip, you may see more deer along the trail than people. However, don't be surprised if the bench is already occupied. This is a place where people meet and stay for some time. On a clear day the view of Lake Tahoe and distant Sierra peaks is magnificent. Try to spot Emerald Bay, Cascade Lake and Fallen Leaf Lake. If blue is not your color, study the greenish yellow patterns of lichens on the rock outcrops in front of you.

Bluegrass Trailhead

Where can you hike between bluegrass sessions? At Anderson Marsh State Historic Park south of Clearlake in California! This year's Old Time Bluegrass Festival took place there over the last weekend. It was sunny and hot. Bands such as The Mighty Crows had to play under the sun (left picture), but the audience could enjoy the music from under a parachute roof (upper right picture). Workshops for flatpicking guitar, banjo, mandolin and fiddle were scheduled at the old ranch house. During your self-planned intermission, you could hike on some of the trails of this park, where the Cache Creek meets the lower end of Clear Lake. Trails lead through riparian habitat, hills with blue oaks and grasslands. And during the festival, faint bluegrass sounds passed over the hills and trails.

Hiking through prickly habitat

Stephen Ingram introduced his new book about cacti, agaves and yuccas yesterday at the Sundance Bookstore in Reno. In addition to the amazing color photographs and botanical watercolors, the book contains range maps for most of the spiny and sometimes hairy plants. These maps help you to anticipate which succulent species you are likely to see on your next hike through some arid habitat in California or Nevada. You may not want to touch any of the plants, but many animals do. They interact with them in various ways. Ingram's book provides plenty of examples including ants feeding inside a prickly-pear fruit, orioles perching on a Shaw agave and a ground-nesting cactus bee visiting the flower of a Whipple cholla. I am wondering about the wildlife I'll experience along the next trail through the prickly world?

The Book
Stephen Ingram: Cacti, Agaves and Yuccas of California and Nevada. Cachuma Press, Los Olivos, California, 2008.

Cathedral Rock Trail in the Spring Mountains

Cathedral Rock Trail in the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area west of Las Vegas is a short (1.4 miles one way) trail through a forest of ponderosa pines and white firs and a stand of quaking aspen. Halfway up is a waterfall of three falls that may dry up during summer, but still had enough refreshing water trickling down at the end of June this year. The trail offers spectacular views of Echo Cliffs (see picture), an eroding uplifted limestone formation. Crinoids, brachiopods, horn corals and other fossils from an ancient, warm shallow sea, which existed here over 100 million years ago, have been found in the area. In case you are searching for fossils in the rocks, be careful and stay away from the vertical cliffs. Enjoy the view from the Cathedral Rock summit into Kyle Canyon and onto the surrounding mountains.

Trailheads: Cathedral Rock Trail Parking right off State Route 157 or Cathedral Rock Picnic Area.

Pupfish in Ash Meadows warm water springs

Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge has 30 warm water seeps and springs that are home to endemic fish species. The picture shows a pupfish of the Point of Rocks Springs. The various springs are connected by trails and dirt roads. The refuge protects endemic animals including two pupfish species and endemic plants. The endangered fish rely upon algae, which you can see at the bottom of the springs and streams, as a food source and as a place to lay their eggs. Entering the springs is strictly forbidden, since it would destroy the fragile algae. However, you may lay down at some edge and closely watch the unique life in the water.

Yerba mansa at Peterson Reservoir in Ash Meadows

The Peterson Reservoir in the Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is a wildlife viewing area. The sand dunes are a good place for viewing birds. Interesting plants can be found in that area along the trail, in the sand and near the water, such as the medicinal plant Yerba mansa of the Saururaceae family. The picture, taken on June 21, shows a maturing plant developing yellowish orange stains at some of their white, petal-like bracts. Yerba mansa plants are useful in many ways [1]:

Tea made of the leaves was used for purifying blood; a poultice for cuts and bruises; and bruised leaves reduced swellings, dysentery, asthma. The tea was also used for colds and to help movement of urine in kidney ailments. An infusion of the rootstocks was used for various skin troubles. The leaves boiled in a quantity of water were used as a bath for muscular pains and for sore feet. Dried roots, roasted and browned, were made into a decoction used for colds and for stomach ache.

Reference:
[1] Muriel Sweet: “Common Edible and useful Plants of the West.” Naturegraph, Happy Camp, California, 2005 printing; page 61.

Still more about Yerba mansa:
Yerba mansa is also known as Anemopsis californica and under the common name lizard tail. The Spanish name, Yerba mansa, means “domesticated herb.” Indigenous people of the Southwest and Mexico used the plant as medicine.

Tonopah Historic Mining Park

The Tonopah Historic Mining Park in Tonopah is not a nature park. Here, everything looks like it has been turned around many times. The park tells the history of what happened to this place in Nye County in Nevada after silver was discovered in 1900. Trails are connecting the rich collection of artifacts and sites including various mines, hoists, holes and shafts, a dynamite house and a warehouse. The visitor center provides detailed information and has an excellent mineral collection. A Bell Signal Code in the Mitzpah Mine & Hoist House is still in place: 7 bells means accident. To avoid any accidents, stay on the trails. Look for the ball mill and the stamp mill. Find the wrench you are seeing in the picture or some artifact that fits the octagonal star of the wrench.