Bicycle Botany

Occidental - San Francisco

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:41:49 -0500

February begins and a bicycle tour to San Francisco.

Heading out on a sunny Thursday morning. Down into Occidental and coasting with loaded BICI through Freestone and Valley Ford. Mostly cows and some sheep along Highway 1 and Petaluma Ave. Birds flying in pasture. Hawks and Turkey Vultures patrolling the Traffic as I ride by with the trucks and cars

I started to notice the roadkill- dead wildlife. As I ride my bicycle I can become more acutely observant and this includes beer cans and roadkill. Most just get swept to the roadside ditch to decompose and eventually dry out and become soil. With help from the Vultures, who play an important ecological role for the roadside environment. Potentially gruesome photo withheld.

Mt. Tamalpais from a cool bike route I was on between Novato and San Rafael.

Such a nice day for February 2nd, the lack of wet weather has caused many trees such as this ‘wild plum’ Prunus sp. to bloom early.

Lunar view from 90s era shopping lot in San Rafael. California Poppy is a pretty badass state flower. Eschscholzia californica,

Bargin’ from CHINA.

Riding around San Francisco is awesome! A lot to see and smell and bike routes every way. Riding down Market St. at midday on Friday was a good practice in ‘sharing the road’.

Music both nights, good nightlife culture in the city, especially to living way out in the country. Martin Sexton at the Fillmore and The Phenomenauts at The Rickshaw Stop

I was staying with Jack and the Barnacle Boys on the sunnyside of the street. Simple Pleasures Cafe Inner Richmond. Rode around everywhere. Except up Twin Peaks, got to leave something for next time (smiley). Notice the Twin Peaks Tower in the photo.

Bicycle botany brought me to USF on a (nearly) full moon.

On Monday I rode north and crossed the Golden Gate. I took mental imagery. It was sunny but not as calm and clear blue as the weekend had been. I rode through Sausalito, Tiburon, and Corte Madera up Camio Alto where I found these Early Blooming Trees. Magnolia and Prunus, both white and pink. Is it that early? The groundhog said 6 more weeks of winter on Thursday.

Up there I caught another view of San Francisco before crossing north to Mill Valley and Fairfax. I had bought a North Bay and Wine Country Bicycle Map before this weekend bicycle tour, and following the bike routes will take you to the next town.

Made it just past Point Reyes Station before I stopped riding. I found some shelter to sleep, a pretty strong wind storm, accompanied by rain made for added value. I went to sleep smiling and thinking about the City.

Gorse! Ulex europaes. Willow catkins - female or male?

Woke up, put on my boots (Larry’s), loaded my bags and pedaled off, continuing up highway 1. It was raining, but not too much- I was close. Stopped for coffee in Tomales then rode through Valley Ford and Bohemian Highway to Occidental, where I stopped again for coffee. I passed these roadside vulture welcoming me back.

Im back. Now what? To start I can take a hot shower and relax. Tonight I am a little bit more thankful for a warm dry place to sleep than normal.

Happy New Year Sunset

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:17:41 -0500

Back on the Joe Rodota trail.

This time of year the weeds are germinating and growing roots for the new year, with last years dead stalks standing.

Tonight there were striated cloud formations that were hanging dark blue and gray to the west before sunset. The sun set giving way to especially vivid colors to the west, orange, purple, and dark red.

I first saw them from a taqueria by ROSS on Stony Point Rd.

This was one of the brightest skies I have ever experienced. It was hypnotizing, especially for me, one who looks to the sky often. Remember, these photos are taken with a Cannon Powershot A540 6.0 Mega Pixel camera from 2006.

The second quarter moon was already high in the east, glowing along with the rest of the sky.

Happy New Year!! 2012 is the years of the Dragon, and the year of coincidence. January Jupiter will move to the west towards venus setting earlier each day.

In March Jupiter and Venus will reach conjunction, which means they will appear right next to each other from our Earthly perspective.

This article gave me a lot of information:

http://earthsky.org/astronomy-essentials/visible-planets-tonight-mars-jupiter-venus-saturn-mercury

Occidental Redwood Commute

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 21:27:57 -0500

Nice ride between Occidental and Sebastopol, California. About 9 miles downhill into town, then a slower ride back up.The vineyards and cottonwoods have yellow and increasingly no leaves. The fig trees have no leaves but fruits. Still finding some concord grapes. Mushrooms are fruiting along the sides of the road.

Two species busting up out front of the house

Nice Gold Capped Gilled mushroom next to some horses

First Amanita I’ve seen since I’ve been looking in Sonoma Co. A population of 10 or so, along a road cut, a good place to find mushroom fruits as the mycelium networks run out of soil.

Growing along the road and Ragle Ranch. Big White Gilled Button mushrooms. Agaricus?

Russian River Swim sunny Fall Morning

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 05:22:59 -0500

I took a dip and when I was walking back almost stepped on these mushrooms. I want to believe they are chantrelles but not 100%.

I drove for this experience too. Arcata to Sebastopol on a sunny fall morning lots of colors and fuzzy warm feeling inside.

Joe Rodota Trail II

Sat, 23 Jul 2011 14:51:00 -0400

Went down the Joe Rodota Trail again, this time all the way to Santa Rosa where Highways 12 and 101 meet. Here is a link to the Sonoma County Bicycle Trail system maps:

http://www.sctransit.com/bikesafe/maps.htm

Strange how much the landscape changes from Sebastopol to Santa Rosa! From Sebastopol it is changes from open spaces, oaks and plum trees. East of Stony Pt. Rd it becomes more developed, non descript industrial warehouses, barbed wire, bridge underpasses. Tall Fences and subdivisions take the place of open fields, with more busy intersections and traffic. The social demographics change too- a depressed economy is more evident towards Santa Rosa by the amount of people pushing shopping carts along the trail.

I went back to my favorite prunus grove to get some more Santa Rosa Wild Plums, still on the tree and still sweet!

I stopped and took some photos of the plants growing alongside the trail vigorously. You could call them weeds, non native, invasive, but they are still pretty cool nonetheless, tenacious plants.

In one area we have many growing together, here is Lamb’s Quarters, Chenopodium album.

Prickly Lettuce, Lactuca serriola

Poison Hemlock, Conium maculatum. Do not eat or breathe in this plant! It causes respiratory problems and death, the story goes that Socrates ate some to kill himself.

It grows everywhere, tall too, sometimes 10 feet or more. It has purple spots on its stem which is a good identifying feature.

Curly Dock, Rumex crispus

Wild Radish, Raphnus sativus

Luther Burbank Gold Ridge Farm

Tue, 19 Jul 2011 19:09:01 -0400

Rode my bicycle over to the Luther Burbank Experimental Gold Ridge Farm in Sebastopol the other evening. Not many people there, a nice orchard of grafted fruit and nut trees.

I climbed up into a multigrafted Mother Chestnut tree, Castanea, after I noticed its catkin flowers strong appearance and smell. From up there i noticed the moon rising from the southeast. A woman was walking around on the path below but did not notice me as she had on her ipod.

Also Burbank did work with Brooms! Creating this red and yellow flowered Scotch Broom, Cytisus scoparius, very strange for me since I have already spent many weeks dedicated to eradicating this weed in the Sierras. I also read that he worked with some Himalayan Blackberries too, so he was experimenting with all sorts of plants, some got away and established as major weeds. I did get some berries at the farm too, and a Santa Rosa Plum.

… and of course the moon rising

Joe Rodota Trail in July

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:18:00 -0400

Just rode for my first time about half of the Joe Rodota Multi-use trail which connects Sebastopol to Santa Rosa, California. I happened upon it at a nice time I suppose, it was late afternoon/early evening when I started out, on a hot July 12th day. It felt nice to be on a bicycle as always, more aware of the space I travel through.

..What do you know! Cherry trees full of ripe cherries lining the path! Well, some were plums, so lets call them cherry plum trees- and lots of them! Some with green leaves some with red leaves, some with dark red fruit some with yellowish fruits. A major score and one unexpected so all the better. Prunus is my favorite genera of flowering plants.

Besides the cherry plums there is lots of blackberries, and today I had my first ripe blackberry of the season. Himalayan Blackberry, Rubus discolor, of course, not a rare sight by any means but at its best when producing sweet black fruits. I predict it will be a summer of many blackberries.

I made sure to pick fruits that are above me- dont trust the trailside low hanging fruits.

Lots of other cool wildflowers, mostly all non-native. Mustard, Wild Radish, Fennel, Queen Anne’s Lace, Poison Hemlock, Bristly Ox Tongue, Vetch + many more lining the trail. Soap Root flower stalks were blooming too, a nice sight to see and my first of the summer, in the Sierras all of the Chlorogalum sp. have been growing their basal leaves. Also, the soap root flowers only open during the evening and night apparently.

A cool sunflower -

Lots of Oak - Live oaks and some sort of valley oak? I need to figure out which is broadleaved oaks growing out in that area, which is actually the Laguna de Santa Rosa, a large floodplain area where water from surrounding hills flows to and drops sediment, making for a fertile soil.

Willows along the path and creek that the trail runs parallel to. Walnut trees in peoples yards over the path. Lots of grasses growing tall, the bulk of the land is prohibited access for restoration- a good thing. Once you get closer to Santa Rosa vineyards and cattle occupy the lands, and hay fields, which are irrigated and at this evening time of day makes a rainbow reflected.

On my way back I also became acutely aware of a rising 2nd quarter, waxing gibbous moon- nearly full. I was taking my time riding about 10 mph when the limit is 15. Notice the fog to the south in this photo- San Francisco Bay. Sunny in Sonoma County!

I am very impressed by that trail! Bicycle travel really is the most pleasant activity you can do on a summer evening like this, especially when there are so many fresh fruits lining the path to taste.