Ryan Creek and Slough

McKay Community Forest

I wanted to have a hike in the McKay Community Forest focusing on those pieces that are actually within it at the north end. There would be no crossing over the creek to the easements on the McKay Tract. There would be an attempt to follow routes all the way to Park Street along the far north sliver of forest north of Myrtle Avenue. Most enjoyably, there would be wanderings of the trail system that's marked and somewhat rocked under the trees wrapping around the Redwood Acres Fairgrounds. There might be a jaunt off along the other edge to a geocache that had given me troubles before.

Trail or road? At the north entry to McKay Community Forest. Left is the forest, right is private property.

Parking for north end of the forest is simply parallel along the side of Harris Street. There's thoughts of a lot at the fairgrounds, but that has not been secured yet. My plan was to start along the old roads, following the R-line to R-2, then continue beside the creek as it becomes tidal.

Current hanging over a trickle of water in the community forest.

Looking up the creek on the private property side of the road.

As I was pondering one of the prettiest pockets of forest about, which pops up on the private property side after the rough fences of back yards retreat, I found some more of those "timber harvest boundary" flags that were lining the first part of the hike I just took in McKinleyville. People don't realize that the land around Redwood Fields actually belongs to a developer and this pocket north of it still belongs to Green Diamond.

The ferns and hardwoods beside the little creek will likely stay, but the trees on the gentle slope behind are likely to vanish according to that pink flag on the right.

I got to the first intersection and its gate, which is very secured against motorcycles leaving walkers to crawl through it. From there, the walk is sort of beside Ryan Creek. A second gate on R-1 has a nice little walk around.

Somewhere in that field of cattails is Ryan Creek.

Two roads divide beside a wood. I'm off to the left.

Got a few bigger trees along the way.

I made a recording of the birds along this section. There's also a few squeaks from the redwoods in the breeze, especially toward the end.

Where the road is a soggy mess, there's some rocked excursions to stay dry.

Pacific trillium are getting very common.

A northern red-legged frog taking advantage of a wet bit of road not yet with an alternate.

Slow water of Ryan Creek comes into view.

A path diverged from the old road to follow on the outside of the trees beside a large meadow and I let it pull me from the main track.

Diverging paths.

Lots of space at the field.

Candy flowers are getting started.

Looking back at what might have been my trail.

My alternate path got a little scruffy right before rejoining the main route. North along the side of the creek continued pleasantly.

Along Ryan Creek.

The cattle on the other side don't seem to mind.

Arriving where both rocked trail and general use climb the hill into the forest, it looked like someone might be trying to discourage me from continuing north along the old road. Upon inspection, it was just a warning that there would be work on the 60kV electrical lines over a year ago. It may as well have said, "Turn back, all ye who be sensible!" for I quickly had to accept soggy, muddy feet. At least the road area is clear of anything more than buttercups and larkspur? water leaf? that hide how much water I'm about to step in but provide no other nuisance.

A lot of soft green covering the corridor of the old road ahead.

Willows are closing in from the sides.

Water pooling on the far side from the creek.

There is a plan for trail here eventually. It just needs a 200 foot retaining wall built near the bridge and more research for how trail will affect the gas transmission line hidden underground. Any of that will happen after the trails around Redwood Acres are finished. For now, it at least dries out a bit for the second half.

Trail appears once the ground dries out a little.

Myrtle Avenue bridge over Ryan Creek, or perhaps it is Ryan Slough by now.

I found plenty of room to continue under the bridge to the northern section of the forest. A scrambling path gets up to the service road that comes off Myrtle and the gate leaves room for walkers to shuffle past. Then I found that, strictly speaking, it isn't forest. It's quite a nice view instead.

Starting along the service road with views of Ryan Slough, the bottoms, and the mountains beyond.

Cackling geese with a couple Canada geese towering over them.

In the distance, the line of eucalyptus trees along the edge of US-101.

After the road ends at its purpose, there's a pretty good trail for a little bit. Apparently that one has a purpose too: accessing a bird house or two. After the last of them, it got scruffy with a few blackberries reaching across. Soon it just dropped into a watery channel and ended. I wasn't feeling much desire to try walking the channel. Another branch slipped along beside the fence shortly before becoming bramble. I wasn't feeling like pushing through that or trespassing either.

Almost the end of the line for walking north.

Definitely the end of the line.

So, still 0.4 miles from Park Street, my goal was blocked. Park Street is not yet connected to the rest of the forest.

Returning the way I came.

Cackling geese in flight.

Back to the edge of the Ryan Slough.

A fire truck had taken up residence in a turnout on the far side of the bridge and a diver had a pickup on my side and a boat had appeared tied to the pilings and, oh, it's a manikin. More cars were arriving and they were getting set up for some exercise. I didn't stay to find out what all they would get up to. I've seen them dangling from the bridge by the highway before, so it might have been quite interesting.

Back to the better trails around Redwood Acres.

Looping around the once logged redwood forest.

I came upon the section of trail that was worked by the monthly volunteers in February. It's kind of a steep, wiggly spot.

This section of trail started 3 February 2024 as a slick, muddy mess and ended it much as seen now.

It was a big group in February, so I chose to pluck ivy rather than compete for work space with the rocking then. I stopped to check on a hillside I'd cleared. The wild ginger that also lives there doesn't seem to have filled it in much yet. I made sure the pile of invasive wasn't taking root, then checked on an area that had turned out to be full of blooming fetid adderstongue once the strands of ivy moving all through the ferns were removed.

The fetid adderstongue just looking fetid now that the flowers have gone. There's a little wild ginger around here, too. It's the rounder leaves.

There's many little streams that flow through here, but the trail seems to have dried pretty quickly even where it isn't rocked.

Some bits of trail are under those 60kV power lines.

I had the time, so I turned down the trail to follow R-1 a little way to find the pesky geocache hidden away there.

Spanish bluebells, non-native.

And after a good, long look and a huge hint, I actually found it this time. The difficulty is severely underrated as the hard side of easy (2.5) in my opinion. I headed back up from the road and into the higher trails again.

An old stump sculpted by fire and time.

Much of the trail is nice up there even without rocks, but where it gets into flat areas, it is a mud puddle mess, widening and encouraging ever more area to be stomped. Work on the schedule of volunteers takes a while.

A fallen log can host all sorts of mushrooms.

The lack of redwood sorrel as ground cover could indicate the area is already getting stomped all over everywhere, though. Please keep to the trails when there are trails!

*photo album*




©2024 Valerie Norton
Written 28 Mar 2024