Sunday, February 13, 2011

Another sunny day

So I went out hiking in the Santa Cruz Mountains... I saw deer:

And flowers on the manzanita as I dropped through the chaparral biome on my way into the redwood biome: The redwoods were awe-inspiring as usual:

And I finally arrived at my destination, about 3.75 miles from the Skyline Highway:

I saw this nice yellow banana slug while heading back:

As you can imagine from the biomes I went through -- from high prairie to lowland redwood -- the hike back was all uphill. So it goes. All in all, it was a lovely day, and I saw only one person on that trail, which was almost closed-off with trees on the trail once I got into the redwoods... WTF is the matter with people, not taking a nice walk in the woods on a sunny day?!

-- Badtux the Strolling Penguin

Posted by BadTux at 2/13/2011 07:40:00 PM
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5 comments:

  1. Jazzbumpa13/2/11 8:24 PM

    It was sunny here, too, and about 40 degrees. I have a bad cold and a sore throat and never left the house.

    Instead, I vent my spleen on my blog.

    Cheers!
    JzB

    ReplyDelete
  2. One Fly14/2/11 4:57 AM

    That looks so inviting and a yellow slug is at least better looking than the plain old slugs we have here.

    I went for a cruise and it was mid 20's and the sun was out. As far as hiking pure mud with snow where there wasn't mud. It's actually supposed to go above freezing the next couple days.

    ReplyDelete
  3. One Fly14/2/11 6:34 AM

    What I forgot to say is about animals. Quite a few elk around but they are struggling. Many eagles,magpies and crows scavenging on the deer and elk who did not make it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. BadTux14/2/11 7:50 AM

    Saw two whole herds of deer, actually. Unfortunately by the time I got my camera out and activated, they were gone, the only photo I got was of a couple of stragglers. But they appeared quite healthy. They certainly were leaping well, anyhow.

    I was rather surprised to see the slug, because it was too dry for slugs. They like it damp. But he looked like he was in a hurry to get somewhere. I watched him for a few minutes and he was hauling butt. He musta moved six inches during that time :).

    -- Badtux the Nature-watchin' Penguin

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown15/2/11 6:04 PM

    BT - If you are in the hills well above UCSC and you hear a pipe organ playing baroque music it's probably an old friend.. The link below is to an article (front page LA Times) about a person I know a little..

    http://home.comcast.net/~pqboom/latimes/latimes.html

    ReplyDelete

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