Ruckel Loop July 28 2011
Posted: July 29th, 2011, 10:54 am
What a primo hike! To spend practically all day following knife-edge ridges—but knife edges softened just barely enough to be mossy and shaded most of the time, while retaining plenty of beautiful columnar basalt spires. And then at, of all places, the very top of this 3700-foot trek, just when you're sweatiest, there's a lovely creek big enough to soak your head in. (The creek likely dwindles toward the end of dry summers.)
The R Ridge trail is unofficial, so it doesn't see a lot of feet, but enough to keep it pretty easy to follow, the whole way.
Tons of poison oak on lower R Creek trail.
Flowers in bloom:
Indian pipe just emerging
Slender bog orchid
Western coralroot past its best
Crown brodiaea
Douglas's brodiaea
White brodiaea
Farewell-to-spring
(Those last four, together in a hanging garden on R Creek Trail, are way later than normal)
Hooker's onion
Trail plant
a very few Beargrass at the top
Stinky Bob
Arnica
White hawkweed
Scouler's hawkweed
several more I can't think of at the moment.
The R Ridge trail is unofficial, so it doesn't see a lot of feet, but enough to keep it pretty easy to follow, the whole way.
Tons of poison oak on lower R Creek trail.
Flowers in bloom:
Indian pipe just emerging
Slender bog orchid
Western coralroot past its best
Crown brodiaea
Douglas's brodiaea
White brodiaea
Farewell-to-spring
(Those last four, together in a hanging garden on R Creek Trail, are way later than normal)
Hooker's onion
Trail plant
a very few Beargrass at the top
Stinky Bob
Arnica
White hawkweed
Scouler's hawkweed
several more I can't think of at the moment.