Saturday, November 19, 2011

habitat ~ 11/19/11 ~ Garland Ranch - Garzas Creek


Happy Thanksgiving! Garzas Creek is going to become my must-do pre-Thanksgiving hike. It's one of the only places around Monterey that has large, native, crunchy, deciduous leaves to tromp through and feels almost like the autumn most people expect in North America. The area along the creek is absolutely gorgeous!

Andy is training for a 50K trail run, so he sped off while I casually took a short loop. We planned to meet up at our favorite restaurant Jeffrey's at Carmel Mid-Valley for lunch. Thanks to a couple of hikers with a dog that liked to jump on me (I had muddy footprints all over me!), I veered off to the redwood trail to avoid them. I worried I wouldn't get back in time to meet Andy, but I am so glad I took this new-to-me trail. The trail loops back to the creek for some of the most scenic spots.

As the sign says, the seasonal foot bridges were taken out the Monday before my hike. I asked a fellow if the creek was passable. He was confident that it could be crossed at the 4 intersections along the trail. Note to self: do not take the advice of a 6 foot tall man with walking sticks if a creek is passable. While I love rock hopping, it helps if you don't have muddy shoes and aren't needing to pass over wet rocks. I managed just fine once I found a couple large sticks to help me balance. After my very grouchy previous week, this hike really helped cheer me up. It was food for the soul, and I am thankful for places like this.

5 comments:

Jennifer said...

This hike looks absolutely beautiful. I would love to try it out!

Jeannette said...

Crunch, crunch....hope you have a lovely weekend.

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Jennifer, when are you available?

Jeannette, thank you. Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Anonymous said...

Loved these beautiful fall pictures, lovely colors!

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Thanks, TGIQ. We generally don't have this kind of natural fall color here on the CA coast with most trees being evergreen. The bigleaf maples and CA sycamores are often only seen near water, and this trail is one of the few that follows a creek.