Beith Creek and extras

Arcata Community Forest

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I hiked the Beith Creek loop again, this time in the rain. I also hiked it the week before and finally took one last little bit of trail I'd not taken before. That bit of trail comes out in a different part of the neighborhood and allows the loop to be extended nicely through a little neighborhood park. There was a particular trillium along that bit of the trail that I wanted to see again and get a better photograph, so I did it again today. I bumped into mountain bikers on the road sections and a couple hikers on the narrower sections when it was sunny. This time, there were very few people around, but still a couple. I was mostly wanting to see if there are rhododendron around, so it became mostly a wildflower hike. None of those I was looking for, though.

The trillium lasts forever. These aren't much worse than they were last week. The sort around here sometimes turns purple when it gets old.

I headed right at the loop break. Besides a pair of dogs with a pair of people, there was no one on the narrow portions of the loop. They passed while I was climbing up a spot to check out an area with a lot of invasive plants. I didn't even notice the fruit trees (cherries maybe) blooming away until I was up close to them.

Parts of this trail have old road underneath. There are spots to pass frequently, but much of it is narrow.

Horsetails just before a bunch of invasive plants show the area is rather moist.

There's still a few salmonberries, but most common flowers with this look are now white.

Looks like a stone fruit tree in bloom.

The spider on a thimbleberry might be an invasive too. The thimbleberries have a lot of the same look as the salmonberry except for being white.

Most of the bleeding hearts I saw last week seemed to be producing pods already, but this week they are just flowers.

Of course the common molluscs were out and about in the rain. One of a few banana slugs.

I finally decided to skip the steep section for the mildly flagged but never developed path to the side I have noticed. There was use trail through the area, which is good because the flags have started to vanish. It took a little climbing on one section and since it was raining, I soaked my trousers on the ferns. It was the wrong day to try it, but now I know it does go through with some effort. It wasn't really cold enough to worry about getting wet so much. I had my rain coat on, anyway. (Finally giving it something like a test. Not a good one, the Frogg Togg thing I had could probably have taken the light rain easily and it was an awful rain coat.)

More redwood sorrel. My new iNaturalist account informs me that the earlier blooms that are deep pink are actually another sorrel.

Getting up high, I seemed to get up into the clouds a little. It didn't stop the rain any, just made things foggy.

Feeling foggy among the redwoods.

Here are some bleeding hearts with pods.

The candy flowers caught my attention because the flower looks so much like the redwood sorrel, but the rest of the plant is entirely different.

The week before, I'd been excited to see a lot of new leaves with the flat structure of irises, but no flowers. On this loop, I did get a few flowers, but it deflated my excitement a bit. They looked just like the ones that were down by the beach over a month ago.

An iris taking on the rain.

The road as trail up here actually gets some use as a road, too.

I'd been missing the mushrooms until just before heading down again. There was not only a mushroom, but a massive one. There were more on the way down and especially along the particularly sheltered area along the new-to-me trail segment.

Someone flipped over the biggest and cut another in half to display this bolete.

The new bit of trail starts by the water tank. The week before, I took the trail down and had to follow the road back up almost to where I'd started down. This time, I went the short way, but did go a little extra to photograph the invasive.

It's a pretty invasive.

Then I turned again to take the narrow trail that flirts to near a new creek and then empties out high in a different section of the neighborhood than I started.

The three fates rendered in Pacific trillium.

Turkey tail, or so iNaturalist suggests. Fungus seems to be hard to identify.

This fungus puts me in mind of some rather elaborate arm gestures. Only the oldest fruiting bodies are so tangled. The youngest are like little balls.

The younger fruiting bodies of the same fungus, at least it's coming out of the same log.

Elaborate stump gardens are found along this bit of trail, too.

I found a few trillium along the trail, but not the particular one I was looking for. So it goes.

The tall, damaged redwood drew my attention. The panorama sort of works.

Phone photo of the trillium I wanted to see again. It has a variegated look to the coloration.

Once coming out, I pondered the large cabin style houses tucked into the trees while following the road down the hill and across a few more roads as the neighborhood turns more ordinary. The park trail is not marked on the upper side, so I almost missed it the week before. I found it easily this time. The road comes to an end after a few more houses anyway, so missing it doesn't lead to too much extra walking.

The trailhead to the Arcata Community Forest here is a little less elaborate than the other.

The city park has much younger redwoods sprouting up.

Then I finished off my loop through more neighborhood. The loop was a little over four miles and excellent exercise since I really haven't been doing enough.




©2020 Valerie Norton
Written 26 Apr 2020