Tapering Down at Rancho San Antonio

Today, we tapered down, doing a shorter less strenuous hike at Rancho San Antonio. Our objective was to do the full PG&E Trail looping back down on the Wildcat Trail to Deer Hollow Farm and back to the parking lot. About eight miles long.

The hike itself was unremarkable, although I noticed that it was a lot easier than the first time I did it. That time we only did half the distance. I took half as much water as I usually do and I actually used very little of it. The weather cooperated and we had the marine layer which thinned into a high haze that kept temperatures lower than they otherwise would have been.

The poison oak was itself spectacular today, giving us all quite the warning. Don't touch! As with many of the other parks we have hiked in this season, the wildflowers were in full display.


Clematis Vitalba, or Old Man's Beard, classified as a pest in New Zealand, is a fine with white fluffy flowers with tendril-like petals. Apparently this thing kills whatever it grows over.

Chamise is a very beautiful plant that throws up sprigs of tiny white flowers.

California Golden Poppies were ubiquitous. Also in view was the Blue Nightshade, (a relative of the tomato).
Blue Nightshade, a relative of the tomato with it's beautiful yellow centers, was also in evidence.

There were also some beautiful stands of Alstroemeria, commonly called the Lily of the Incas or the Peruvian Lily. Some of them appeared in orange, while there were others in a beautiful deep shade of red.

Also in evidence was the Pacific Monardella, a beautiful cornflower blue cluster of tiny flowers.

Perhaps the most stunning flower that we saw today was the Mariposa Lily. They come in a variety of colors and patters; today's version was basic white with green and red centers.

This beautiful flower is called Farewell to Spring, a Clarkia, presumably because it blooms at the end of spring. Its vibrant purple colors were absolutely stunning.



Do you have any idea how many yellow daisy-like flowers are out there? Lots of them! This one is called Curly Gumweed.

We reached Deer Hollow Farm near the end of our hike. Three of the female goats had just given birth to some kids and they were really cute, walking around awkwardly and unsteadily on their brand new legs. We hiked about 3.5 hours this morning, a little bit longer than our 2.5 hour goal, but by no means as long as we hiked on the previous two weekends.