The suburbs make me uneasy. They aren’t lively and diverse enough to be a city and aren’t wild enough to be nature. I think it is the walls, housing developments and chains that bother me the most. Interesting how the word chain can mean a metal linked device that literally binds you, or a business that hopes to figuratively bind you. Either way, it’s not very nice.
However, I tolerate the San Diego suburbs because if I make it through them I can get to some nice hiking areas. There is the highway, then the suburbs, and finally, beyond that, the open spaces stretch into hills as a reward.
When Rowshan and I both used to work in Rancho Bernardo, we would sometimes go hiking in the Blue Sky Ecological Reserve after work. It was a nice way for us to change gears and let the work day dissolve. We would watch for birds of prey soaring above us and stink bugs at our feet looking like they were trying to break dance.
The past couple days have been beautiful hiking weather. It poured down rain last week and now the weather is sunny, clear and clean. The pounding heat has finally dissipated. I suggest doing the hike from Blue Sky, past Lake Poway and up Mt. Woodson. It is a good hike of 10 or so miles. But we decide that’s too much and opt for a less ambitious loop from Blue Sky to Lake Poway, around the lake, and then back.
The laurel sumac berries are mostly dried up but the sugar bush berries are just starting. The 2 bushes look very similar with oval leaves that fold down the middle making them resemble green taco shells. However, the berries are different. The sumac has little torches of berries while the sugar bush berries are larger, flatter and furry growing off pinkish scaled stalks. A little down the path, we turn onto the Creekside Trail. This is a quiet trail alongside a damp area (the creek). “It smells so good,” R says. There’s a smell of cool dampness mixed with sage scrub. Ragweed, mugwort and poison oak line the trail. Above, huge live oak trees make a canopy. There are also willows. I stop for a while to examine the plants. I’ve been trying to learn to identify various Artemisia plants, especially mugwort. It is an interesting plant that is used in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, European and Native American herbal medicine.[i] In fact, it is so interesting, I think I’ll have to write a different blog post about it. I don’t think common mugwort (Artemisia vulgaris) grows in So Cal; but there are several other species of Artemisia. I find Douglas Mugwort (Artemisia douglasiana) and Palmer’s Sagewort (Artemisia palmeri). There is also a lot of Coastal Sagebrush (Artemisia californica) I get a little frustrated because I keep seeing ragweed (Ambrosia psilostachya) and thinking it is an Artemisia plant.
As I try to sort out my Artemisias and Ambrosias, a hummingbird whizzes by and settles, wings out stretched a couple feet away from me on the mugwort. Before I can get my camera, it whizzes off again. Then I notice another bird rustling in a tree. Then I hear birds beginning to chirp. I have been there long enough for the birds to feel comfortable enough to come out. I watch a yellow rumped warbler picking at a worm or piece of a plant. A lizard scampers down a nearby tree. A jay calls from above. Little chirps and twitters drift down from the light speckled tree tops. A small bird that looks as grey and soft as a mouse, maybe a female yellow rumped warbler lands on some sumac and proceeds to pick at the berries. A little farther down the path a plain titmouse (Parus inornatus) clambers on a tree branch, accidentally flipping upside down. In the underbrush and dry leaves, I barely catch a glimpse of a wren like bird hopping along the ground. These are subtle little birds colored grey and browns so they can remain hidden in the branches. As other people walk by, they again disappear and the path became silent.
Above me on the main path, I can hear people jogging by or casually walking and talking loudly. Sometimes I step aside for people to speed by me blind to everything around them. It occurs to me that so many people are in a state of self-desensitization. <RANT> We wear headphones or blast loud music, slowly making ourselves deaf. We use perfumes and air fresheners to block the smells. We deaden our eyesight staring at computer and TV screens. There are even “augmented reality” glasses that alter our vision of what’s around us adding things that are not there to what is really there. We blast ourselves with sensory overload until we learn to tune everything out. And touch? I think a lot of people are afraid of touching things because they worry about germs or unfamiliar consequences. I think people remark on how beautiful something is but are a lot less likely to comment on how it feels… except maybe clothing. And taste? OK we are Americans; we like to eat. However, I think in spite of that, many people are less aware of taste and more aware of quantity. We’ve blasted our taste buds with salt and sugar, so end up reacting to addiction more than taste. Of course there are many people who are paying attention to the taste of food, especially with the slow food and local food movements. However, I think the average person takes the taste of food for granted. I only realized how not all tomatoes were equal when after moving to California from Turkey I was shocked to find an abundance of tomatoes in supermarkets with no taste. It struck me that everyone in Turkey, even those without much money, eats better produce than the average middle class American. </RANT>
As I’ve been studying plants, I have started to pay more attention to senses that perhaps I don’t use as much as I should. So, back to Blue Sky. As I stare at a ragweed and an Artemisia plant, trying to notice the differences, I realize, “Duh! Smell them!” The ragweed has a fairly ordinary generic plant smell. The Artemisia is minty, with the slightest bitter tone. It is cooling. It’s smell is obvious. I can’t believe I hadn’t compared the smells until this point. The Artemisias don’t smell exactly the same but the smells have similar tones. I think the Douglas mugwort is more medicinal smelling than the sagebrush. I tasted the Douglas mugwort and found it way too bitter.
I catch up with Rowshan and we make our way out of the willow shade and up to the Lake Poway dam. The water level is quite low judging from the 2 distinct colors of stone on the banks. Dragon flies mate resting on water grasses and the brush around the lake. After the walk up the hill in the hot sun, it’s refreshing to sit on the sand next to the lake in the shade of a small willow. This part of the lake is full of coots who make funny honking squawks as they paddle about, streaking in waves away from the rowboats.
We head back to Blue Sky and come across a huge lizard in the middle of the trail. He is so still, I wonder if he is dead. R slowly brings his camera closer and closer to catch the lizard’s smile. After his photo shoot, he takes off into the brush.
| Useful Info:
The Blue Sky Ecological Reserve is located at 16275 Espola Road Hours: sunrise to sunset. Note that the parking lot gate is locked at sunset. More Information: The Friends of Blue Sky Canyon have a lot of information including photos of plants, articles and maps on their web site http://www.blueskyreserve.org Hike: We hiked the main trail (Green Valley Truck Trail) into the reserve, turned left onto the Creekside Trail which joined the main trail again. Then we took the trail to Lake Poway, going right when the trail split to the Mt. Woodson trail. We walked counter clockwise around the lake and then joined the Mt. Woodson trail down to join up with the trail back to Blue Sky. Rules: Please note, bicycles are not allowed in the reserve and dogs must be leashed. Dogs are also not allowed on the Creekside Trail. This is probably because riparian habitats are scarce in San Diego and often nesting places for endangered birds. Dog owners, please respect this. |