Feather River Reflections
Faded glory paralels La Porte Rd from Quincy to the Middle Fork of the Feather River.
Plumas County color spotter Michael Beatley found it near Red Bridge, an historic and still active gold mining claim, where clear skies, warm days, low humidity and cold nights have sustained the beauty of river grasses, well past the point that they should have lost their luster.
Though they are truly Past Peak, their reflected beauty is unquestioned.
- Feather River – Past Peak, YOU MISSED IT.
Cornucopia
At a mile high, Oak Glen in the San Bernardino Mountains is now past peak, though you couldn’t tell that from these photos submitted today by Southern California color spotter Alena Nicholas.
Unwilling to give up on autumn, Alena headed there today, returning with splashes of intense color to be seen along Oak Glen Rd. Firethorn, Pyracantha, hang heavy with their orange-red berries near the entrance to Parrish Ranch.
The 23 attractions along the route display a cornucopia of farm-fresh and farm-preserved apple butter, pears, apple pies, cider, blackberries, fudge, jellies and jams, cider-infused mini donuts and U-pick apples with a mix of hay rides, petting zoos and farm tours thrown in.
This weekend, the farms will be busy selling fruit pies and pastry for Thanksgiving dinners and entertaining visitors with homespun events.
Alena reports herds of deer are roaming Oak Glen orchards, feasting on unpicked apples that have fallen between the trees.
- Oak Glen (5,200′) – Peak to Past Peak, YOU ALMOST MISSED IT.
Hazy Daze
Haze and smoke from the Camp Fire (Paradise) has residents of the Sacramento Valley wearing paper masks outdoors, as health warnings discourage outdoor activity, just as fall color nears peak.
Frémont cottonwood and brush along creeks are otherwise crowned with gold and scarlet at Folsom Lake, Mormon Islands Wetlands Preserve and along the Humbug-Willow Creek Trail in Folsom and El Dorado Hills.
The Camp, Woolsey and Hill Fires have created widespread human and financial loss. The best way to help those displaced by the fires is by contributing to one of these nonprofit organizations (we’ve done so):
North Valley Community Foundation: This nonprofit in Chico is raising money to support organizations that are sheltering evacuees of the Camp Fire. These could include churches, fairgrounds and community centers, said Logan Todd, a foundation spokesman.
California Community Foundation’s Wildfire Relief Fund: For 15 years, the foundation has offered aid to those affected by wildfires. Grants have gone to rebuilding homes, providing financial and mental health assistance and helping those affected to get medical treatment.
California Fire Foundation: This organization is on the ground distributing financial assistance to people who have lost everything in the fires. Through its emergency assistance program, firefighters distribute pre-paid gift cards to help those who need to purchase necessities like food, medicine and clothing.
Caring Choices: This nonprofit, which is in Chico, Calif., has turned into a hub for organizing volunteers to help those affected by the Camp Fire. The organization has paused taking on new volunteers for the next few days but still encourages applications. Caring Choices is also seeking monetary donations for its operations.
United Way of Greater Los Angeles: This local branch of the national organization is raising money for those affected by the Woolsey and Hill Fires, specifically to help low-income residents.
United Way of Northern California: This local chapter of the national nonprofit has established a disaster relief fund to offer emergency cash and help to people who have lost their homes, according to a news release.
- Folsom – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
- El Dorado Hills – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Autumn In Your Backyard
Fall color has descended to California’s urban forests with Peak color appearing at elevations below 1,000′, bringing autumn to your backyard.
I captured these images during a five-minute walk of my backyard in El Dorado Hills (Sierra Foothills).
- Urban Forests – Near Peak to Peak (50-100%) GO NOW!
November Peak
North Sonoma County vines are “making their fall color move,” reports Sonoma County color spotter David Sharp.
He observes that most of the grape vines between Windsor and Cloverdale peak from early to late November, continuing, “In west Sonoma County, where most of the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grow, most of the vines have gone past peak and are losing their leaves.”
Whereas, vines in northern Sonoma County ripen later and their fall colors are “just coming on and should be colorful through Thanksgiving.”
- Northern Sonoma County – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Orchard Pickings
Visiting orchards has become a late-autumn tradition, with Californians heading to Julian for apple dumplings, to Oak Glen for cider-infused mini donuts, to San Luis Obispo for hard cider, to Sebastopol for U-pick apples, to Kelseyville in Lake County for a Pear Belle Helene (pear ice cream sundae), and to Apple Hill in Camino for apple pies.
With so many calories ahead, Southern California color spotter Ravi Ranganathan recommends walking the Oak Glen Preserve Botanical Garden in Yucaipa, soon after the trail opens at 8 a.m. It’s got kid-friendly sections, as well as others that get your heart pumping and “beautiful fall colors along the trail.”
Of course, if that hike works up your appetite, head over to Snow Line Orchard for their delicious apple-cider-infused mini donuts and a glass of freshly pressed cider. Ravi recommends picnicking under an ancient chestnut tree beside an apple orchard.
- Julian – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
- Oak Glen – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
- San Luis Obispo – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
- Sebastopol – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
- Kelseyville – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
- Camino – Peak (75-100%) GO NOW!
Special Report: New England
While California and the west have experienced exceptional color this autumn, it was disappointing in the northeast.
One of the warmest summers on record, one that extended into October and that kept nights warm, was credited for delaying color development across New England. Trees remained green into October.
Then, it rained as temperatures cooled, ruining the leaves.
California color spotter Crys Black enjoyed a trip to beantown this week and sent back these snaps of New England’s trees carrying Peak to Past Peak color.
Though the show was not New England’s typical brilliant scarlet, gold, gamboge and orange, its somber tones of marroon, burnt umber, auburn and feuille morte have a deadened dignity that remains beautiful, particularly in the soft glow of twilight.
- New England – Peak to Past Peak, YOU ALMOST MISSED IT.
Fun with Fungi
Late October/early November are usually mushroom months, but with little rain so far in autumn, we’ve not yet seen much fungi photography.
To the rescue comes Shasta Cascade color spotter Gabriel Leete who drove to find a store of spore-born fungi in Shasta Cascade and North Coast forests.
Gabriel became fascinated with mushrooms when he was 19 (he’s now 46). So, he really knows the fungi he photographs. Leete wrote that he became interested in them when trying to find a certain fungi, then realized it had “deadly look alikes.”
So, he focused on learning how to identify mushrooms which led to exploring what edible fungi he might “take home for dinner.”
A word of caution: many California mushrooms are poisonous. Only if you are expert like Gabriel, should you attempt to dine on them. Not taking such a precaution could have you pushing up daisies.
Leete’s fascination with fungi made him serious not just about identifying fungi, but growing them, and eventually, mushroom microscopy.
To tune his ability to identify one mushroom from another, he’s joined groups of expert mushroom hunters. They are so knowledgeable, that he’s learned a lot from them.
Mushrooms are both good for the environment and, if edible, good for you (full of nutrients and medicinal qualities).
MushroomShack.com reports that “mushrooms play an important role in the environment, breaking down logs, leaves, stems, and other organic matter in the forest to recycle essential nutrients. Many are vital to the growth and survival of trees. They form a symbiotic (mutually beneficial) relationship, with the trees giving mushrooms glucose and mushrooms providing trees with essential minerals.
“Not all mushrooms grow on wood, though. Some grow from the ground, feeding on humus and organic materials in the soil.”
Friends, following is more fun-filled, factual fungi filler:
- (Above) Sulphur Tufts are mildly poisonous and prolific, found throughout California. When fresh, the clustered caps are bright yellow to greenish-yellow, as are the gills and stem, though cap colors vary widely.
- Russula atroviolacea, a type of fungi known for its bright color (Russula means red) is seen being devoured by a Pacific banana slug, Ariolimax californicus. Banana slugs are the mascot of the University of California, Santa Cruz (The university’s chancellor had chosen the Sea Lions, but the student body persisted in supporting the lowly mollusk as the school’s mascot. It has since been judged, on numerous occasions, as the nation’s best college mascot). Though banana slugs were a food source for North Coast Yurok Indians, their slime deadens tastebuds. Celebrated on a UCSC t-shirt, Sammy the Slug is identified by its motto, “No Known Predators.” Wikipedia advises, “Even when fed corn meal to purge them or soaked in vinegar to remove slime, the slugs’ flavor is not always well regarded.” Gabriel says their acrid flavor “gets worse the more you taste.” I guess the t-shirt got it right.
- (Below) Bracket Fungus, Ganoderma applanatum, also called shelf fungus is called “the artist’s fungus” due to its white to gray pore surface and brown bruising. It retains the brown bruising for years when picked and brought indoors.
- Amanita muscria, var. guessowii buttons grow to be spectacular mushrooms, but are unigue and beautiful as buttons, as well. The Amanita muscaria are typically red with white dots on the cap and have been placed on many stamps, postcards, in books and cartoons. They vary from scarlet to yellow and are lethally poisonous. Look, don’t touch.
- Postia ptychogaster, commonly known as the powder puff bracket, is a species of fungus in the family Fomitopsidaceae. The fungus resembles a powdery cushion that fruits on stumps and logs of rotting conifer wood.
- The King Bolete, Boletus edulis is a world traveler, called the Cep in France and Steinpilz in Germany. This is a well-known, large mushroom favored for use in cooking pots by mushroom hunters. This example was small, young with a greasy/tacky, bald brown cap and a meaty swollen stem with fine reticulation (netting). The pore surface is usually white, with tightly spaced or “stuffed” pores, becoming more and more visible as it ages.
- Stropharia ambigua are fairly large and at first bright yellow, fading with age. They become semi-slimy and adorned with drooping white veils. They are both beautiful and prolific … so much so that they’ve been called weeds due to how many grow along the coast.
- Peppery Bolete, Chalciporus piperatus, are not something to eat, “losing their peppery flavor when cooked, and with so many other edible mushrooms growing in the same habitat, why bother?” Gabriel advises.
#ParadiseStrong
A year ago, we were writing about Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino Counties and how they had recovered from then-recent wildfires.
The above image is of Near Peak color in Mendocino County vineyards near Ukiah. Proof that things do get better with time.
Today, our thoughts are with the people of Paradise whose Northern Sierra foothill town, ten miles east of Chico, has been ravaged by wildfire.
At least for now, luck seems to have run out for a town that a popular local legend says was named in the late 1870s after the “Pair o’ Dice Saloon.”
However, if California gold rush history tells us anything, panning out isn’t a permanent condition. Good luck will roll again in Paradise, even if hard times are now afflicting many good people hurt by this disaster.
And so, we’re #ParadiseStrong.
Post Note: Walt reports that “The last few days have been unusually cold with the temps the high 50s. The forecast for this week was supposed to be for sunny weather and temps to be in the high 70s. These low temps and heavy smoke (just like last summer with the local fires) has had an effect on the seasonal color of the vines. The heavy smoke is keeping the sunlight out and daytime temperatures cold. Some vines are still turning, but today (10/11) I noticed that many have suddenly dried up and have turned brown or dried green. I don’t know how long this will last.”
Past Peak at Potem Falls
For a guy who’s traveled every byway in California and lived within the sound of Yosemite Falls, I’m constantly amazed to see a waterfall I didn’t know existed or get a report from a route I haven’t driven.
Laura Jean accomplished both with her report from Potem Falls (Montgomery Creek) and Stand By Me Bridge (off CA-89) in the Burney area of the Shasta Cascade, scoring double First Reports.
The color is definitely Past Peak near Burney, though bright spots of orange and yellow can be seen across its rolling landscape.
The hike to Potem Falls, is what one reviewer describes as “short but sweet.” Just .4 miles and lightly trafficked, it gains only 98 feet and has the bonus of a beautiful, 69-foot waterfall at the end of the trail. In summer, it’s a popular swimming hole.
- Potem Falls, Burney – Past Peak, YOU MISSED IT.
- Stand By Me Bridge, Burney – Past Peak, YOU MISSED IT.
- Burney – Past Peak, YOU MISSED IT.