Ramblings in the Coast Ranges by the Father of the Bride

Daughter and father above Muir Beach before the wedding

Last month my wife Peg and I traveled to California to attend our daughter's wedding.  The ceremony for the marriage of Beth Pearson and Tarek Ghani was scheduled for September 29, so our arrival on September 22 allowed us to spend time with family in Berkeley and help prepare for the reception in Glen Ellen.  It also allowed me to explore natural areas in the California Coast Ranges* east and north of San Francisco Bay: Sibley Preserve in Alameda County, Muir Beach in Marin County, and Sonoma Mountain in Sonoma County**.

Sibley Volcanic Regional Preserve

Oakland Hills

Despite his busy schedule of grading final exams at the university this morning and orchestrating final preparations for the wedding later this week, Tarek graciously drives me deep into the hills high above Oakland and delivers me to the Sibley trailhead.  We confirm our timing: meet here again at 2 PM so that we can rendezvous with Beth, Peg, and Rula (Tarek's mother), who are picking up Beth's wedding dress in the City. He grins as he drives away, enjoying the novelty of releasing me at the edge of a wild area with only a knapsack and a deadline.  I, too, am happy to be setting out on another adventure... and to have a family (now about to include Tarek as a son-in-law) who supports my desire to explore the natural world. 

Madrone

Hiking uphill, I pass though tall eucalyptus trees (a non-native introduction from Australia) and soon reach the edge of the forest.  I linger in the shade of a madrone tree (Arbutus menziesii) and admire the artwork of its beautiful maroon bark peeling from a smooth brown bole.  Stepping out into the hot sun, I enter a scrubby band of chaparral comprised of coyotebrush (Baccharis pilularis), coffeeberry (Rhamnus californica), poison oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum), and coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia); from a distance, they have the undifferentiated look of tall shrubs, but close examination of their leaves, fruits, and flowers distinguishes them from each other.

Coyotebrush

California Coffeeberry

Poison Oak

Coast Live Oak

Continuing up the trail, I leave the chaparral and emerge onto a golden grassland spread across the summits and upper slopes of the ridge.  I climb to the highest peak and revel in a clear view of spectacular countryside, my appreciation clouded only by knowledge that the grasses surrounding my vantage point are entirely non-native, having long ago replaced the natives displaced by past abusive grazing of the original grassland.  Nonetheless, the scene is beautiful.

Vista

I take a seat on the peak and begin composing the toast I will deliver at Beth and Tarek's wedding later this week.  During the next hour, I write down initial ideas, alternately chuckling at funny anecdotes and tearing up with emotional memories.  Soon it it time to move on. My deadline approaching, I make my way back down the mountain... out of the grassland, through the chaparral, and into the forest.  I meet Tarek at the trailhead, right on time.

Muir Beach

Peg and Beth on foggy ridge trail

Fog envelopes the hilly landscape above Muir Beach, sweeping low over coastal scrub and completely hiding the Pacific Ocean even though it is literally a stone's throw away. Beth apologizes for the fog, but Peg and I are happy with its otherworldly ambiance.  As a naturalist, I enjoy experiencing the sea fog in full ecological action, moderating the microclimate and moistening the mosses.

Mosses and lichens on coastal scrub

Coyotebrush dominates the chaparral-like vegetation.  Most of the plants in this coastal community are new to me and even ones that seem familiar are oddly different.  I spot the blossoms of an orange-colored monkey-flower (Mimulus) but they are attached not to an herbaceous stem but to a woody one: Bush Monkey-flower (Mimulus aurantiacus). Tucked into the brushy edge of the trail, a spike of white flowers catches my eye; I recognize it as some kind of rein orchid, but need to look it up my books: Elegant Rein Orchid (Piperia elegans).  It grows on dry, scrubby hillsides, not the boggy wetlands where every other rein orchid I have previously met has dwelled.

Elegant Rein Orchid

After posing for family photos on a high ridge overlooking a foggy seashore, we descend a final hillside.  Falling behind to pore over more new plants, I look up to find that Beth and Peg have rounded a switchback onto the opposite slope, looking startlingly small and distant in this huge landscape.  I  pause to watch the fog roll inland, working its special effects on vegetation and imagination, then hurry to catch up.  

Vista

Sonoma Mountain

Oak savanna on Sonoma Mountain

Driving on winding roads into the hills above Sonoma, we disappear into a mesmerizing mosaic of green woodland and golden grassland.  The steepening road, studded with switchbacks, slows the pace of our car to a crawl, allowing me to glimpse into savannas of stately oaks standing serenely above a tawny blanket of bronzed bunchgrass.  The scene is a bewildering mix of familiarity and novelty: I generically recognize the trees as oaks and the grasses as needlegrasses and fescues, but the species are different from any I know from elsewhere... and mixed with the half-recognized oaks and grasses are many species of tree, shrub, and herb entirely new to me, all growing together in a community bearing the visual gestalt evocative of oak woodlands everywhere.  Our car climbs a final slope up a narrow driveway and halts in a cul-de-sac fronting the lovely ridgetop home of Ted and Pat Eliot, hosts for our stay on Sonoma Mountain for these final few days before the wedding.

Vista

The Eliots and I are delighted to discover that we share an intense interest in nature.  Within an hour of our arrival, Ted (an expert birder) guides me up a steep trail to a high grassy ridge with a stunning view of the Sonoma Valley and the distant Mayacama Mountains.  Passing through woodland groves along the way, I get a close look at the oaks I glimpsed from the road: California Black Oak (Quercus kelloggii, resembling a large-leaved version of our midwestern Black Oak (Q. velutina)), Garry Oak (Q. garryana, resembling a small-leaved version of our midwestern White Oak (Q. alba)), Valley Oak (Q. lobata, resembling our midwestern Bur Oak (Q. macrocarpa)),... and Canyon Live Oak (Q. chrysolepis, not remotely resembling any midwestern oak at all)).

California Black Oak

Garry Oak

Valley Oak (with cynipid wasp galls)

Canyon Live Oak

The next morning, Pat guides me down into forested ravines below the ridge, encountering a new suite of moisture-loving species including Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) and California Spikenard (Aralia californica).  Climbing back up the circuitous trail, we cross dry savanna ridges where I get a close look at bunchgrasses beneath the oaks, their tall culms gracefully poised over the forest floor.

California Fescue

Needlegrass

Later, I wander alone through the savanna.  I am delighted to find numerous caches of Acorn Woodpeckers, their holes boldly drilled into the boles of dead oaks and artfully stuffed with live acorns.  Fence lizards scurry across rock outcrops, posing just out of reach to monitor my approach (and usually vanishing at the moment I lift my camera).  

Acorn cache

Fence Lizard

Everywhere I wander and everything I see here is intriguing. Thank you, Ted and Pat, for your hospitality, for your efforts at many levels in appreciating and protecting nature, and for letting us experience the beauty of your land!

Wedding

My explorations in nature have been sidetrips on the the main road of the journey to Beth and Tarek's wedding.  I love the beauty of nature, but today's beauty is the happiness of my daughter, the smile she beams as I walk her down the aisle, the love that she and Tarek so obviously share, the celebration of their marriage by family and friends, and knowing that she and Tarek and our new, extended family - Ashraf, Rula, and Mariam - will be a rich and ongoing part of our lives now and in the future.

Walking Beth down the aisle

Beth and Tarek

At the wedding reception, I presented the opening toast which I ended by reciting the the beautiful words of the old Quaker hymn "Simple Gifts":

It's a gift to be simple

It's a gift to be free

It's a gift to come down where you want to be

And when you find yourself in a place just right

T'will be in the valley of love and delight

Best wishes, Beth and Tarek, we are delighted that you have found your "place just right"!
-Dad


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Credits:
Wedding photos by Thomas Miller.

*Map of California Geomorphic Provinces linked from "The California Geotour" webpage of the State of California Department of Conservation.
**Map of San Francisco Bay Area counties linked from Bay Area Health Inequities Initiative webpage.