Sequoia Bayview Trail

17 January 2010

Here's the weather forecast: tonight — rain; tomorrow — rain/wind; Tuesday — rain/wind; Wednesday — rain; Thursday — rain. All this wetness was supposed to start yesterday, and it did, but only weakly. Today, we've had drizzly weather punctuated by brief periods of blue sky and sunshine.

We took an easy walk midday through Oakland's Joaquin Miller Park. The first mile or so of the trail, starting from Skyline, passes through a heavy forest of bay trees and coast redwoods. In the summer, the trail is dry and dusty. But in the winter it is delightful, surprisingly reminiscent of forest paths through some of the great western national parks. I especially like the bright green colors of the mosses, ferns, and grasses. In places, these are the only patches of brightness on the wet forest floor.

Toward the end of the walk, I spied this mushroom. I don't know anything about mushrooms. But I did a google search and decided that it might be an amanita muscaria, which is both psychodelic and poisonous.