Wildflowers

I got out for a hike with f0t0m0m yesterday morning hoping to beat the rain. We didn’t, and ended up hightailing back to the car for a mile and a half in the drizzle and the mud, but on the way up, I was once again delighted to see the first of the myriads of our wildflowers already starting to bloom.

I don’t know the names of them all, but I do know this one is purple lupine:

This is indian paintbrush:

This photo shows at least a dozen different types of plants:

I’d like to learn more about what plants are edible, but the only one I know for sure is this one, miner’s lettuce:

Here’s a little blue flower:

Here’s a little purple flower:

You can see bushes of purple flowers on the rocky hill across the canyon:

I saw three different types of yellow flowers!
cluster:

some type of daisy:

clover?:

This lonely sticky monkey flower will be one of many setting the hillside ablaze with its orange and yellow color in a couple of weeks:

The rock formations show interesting colors, too:

They also are home to moss:

… and lichen.

The clouds lifted from time to time to allow for some great vistas!

Here’s what we found today on the hike, and there are more to get on the next, hopefully dry, hike up.
I-5 Overlook
Ursula's Unhealthy Buffet
Oak Grove #1
Oak Grove #2
Oak Grove #3
The Tin Man
TREE

Golden Valley

This week, I found a few caches up a fire road I hadn’t explored to date out in the Placerita Canyon area. This to the north and east of where i live, and just south of Santa Clarita. I headed out first thing in the morning to get the hike in while it was still cool, and the fall angle of the sun cast dramatic shadows.

I found four of the six caches I looked for:
Highway 14 TB Hotel
GVT#1-At The Gate
GVT#2-Signs of Fire
GVT#3-Vines

One of them was among this classic example of how the landscape recovers from the occasional fire.

The top of the hill and the last cache was at a crossroads marked by this pole:

I saw a deer down the slope, but she disappeared too quickly. I did take a moment to enjoy the panorama.

The wildflowers are going to seed now, and their colors will soon disappear for a couple of months.

All too soon, it was time to head back down the hill and drive home.

Rice Canyon

This week, I elected to explore a canyon that I’ve known about since I started geocaching. Some new geocaches popped up, and now I had some bread crumbs to follow.
East/Rice Junction

Right near the trail head is a horse ranch:

The old gates nearby would have some good stories to tell, I imagine, if they could:

Unfortunately, one of the caches has gotten completely blocked off by poison oak:
photo
Toadstump

The spring vegetation has gotten quick thick, so I had to watch for stickers, and thistles as well.

Although it’s called sticky monkey, this flowering plant is just pretty, and poses no danger:

The trail has several creek crossings, adding to the adventure, and I look forward to a return visit to see what’s further out than I hiked this time.
Feather Rock
Rice Walnut

Big Numbers in Lancaster

There are three new sets of caches out in Lancaster, and I could not resist grabbing most of them in a couple of days of easy power caching. Last week, I found the CLUE caches, 54 caches laid out to spell the word and each with a clue to solve the mystery of Who Done It? and to find the final cache nearby. Of course, certain locals added a NO to the area to the west of the CLUE, and I found most of those, as well. Here are one of each series, and from there you can link to the rest, if you like:
Miss White with the Trophy
NO fortune telling

It was windless and cool, a perfect day in the desert. I headed out with f0t0m0m, who’d found most of them before, and just relaxed in the quiet of the isolated area. The wildflowers were just starting to bloom, and I’ll have to be sure to get out there in April for the height of that season. The colors out there in spring are nothing short of spectacular. Unfortunately, I have no pictures of the day. My camera’s battery was dead, so I used f0t0m0m’s… but he escaped to China before I remembered to ask him to forward them to me. Some people will do anything to… oh… not really. Just kidding… he and his family really are in China, though. I’ve asked him to post a guest blog when they are back!

A couple of months ago, I did get a bunch of photos west of the Lancaster area while finding over 110 caches in f0t0m0m’s Tarot card series.
Tarot – The World

I made this run on a lovely, breezy, chilly day with RobbDogg, TeamPerks (who hit 5000!), Capdude, and Albackore:

We saw a complete rainbow at sunrise! (pardon the wind in the audio)

Andy of Team Perks got this shot of the sunrise:

I took my Prius for a drive on the Pacific Crest Trail:

RobbDogg exerted himself so much retrieving this cache…. :

…. that he had to lie down and rest:

Scenic caching:

More scenery!

I loved seeing this old street sign, and the atmosphere made it look even more spooky:

Thanks to the hiders for placing gobs of caches out in Lancaster… again…. what a great place to have right around the corner for desert adventures!
Wishing you much scenic caching this spring!