habitat ~ 11/15/14 ~ Fort Ord National Monument - Creekside

Fort Ord National Monument - Creekside entrance

November 15, 2014

It feels like forever since I've been out to Fort Ord, mainly because I've been focusing on my butterfly sites, which leaves me too exhausted to do more hiking elsewhere.  Plus, it's been unbearably dry.  Andy hasn't been trail running out here much this year, either.  We enjoyed the recent rains (last one on Thursday 11/13/14), and we were hoping to see our coastal version of early winter "spring green".  Sure enough, Creekside delivered in the form of freshly sprouted fiesta flower leaves under the oaks.  There's something so soothing and welcoming to see soft green again.  Yep, this is what November looks like here on the central coast of CA, and I'm very glad I'm not still living in the Midwest with their polar vortex. 

Things that caught my attention at Fort Ord...  There are a lot more people on the trails since Fort Ord became a National Monument.  They finished another parking area off Hwy 68, so there's better access.  Before it used to be primarily mountain bikers and retired folks with hiking poles; now there are more youth trail runners and families with little children.  I love their new "Play Nice" campaign, which covers horseback riders, dogs, bikers, and staying on designated trails.  I finally figured out I can use unused trailside-dispensered dog poop bags as trash pickup receptacles - the increased litter was bothering me, so I decided to do something about it.  The BLM replaced the old sign off Reservation Road, and the neighboring farmer switched from strawberry plasticulture to berry vine plasticulture.  The thought occurred to me that those plastic awnings would be the perfect cover to hide crops from DEA agents.  Eh-hem.  And, as always, there are reminders on the trails that this used to be an Army training area.

habitat ~ 12/07/13 ~ Fort Ord - BLM Creekside

Fort Ord National Monument - Creekside entrance

December 7, 2013

We woke up around 3am to the rainstorm splattering our windows.  Yay!  This hike was pure bliss, partly because of the decent soaking everything got and partly because I haven't been out to Fort Ord in months.  While Andy ran away for 2 hours, I headed over to the old pre-Creekside parking route. The old Public Lands sign is still up, instead of the fancy new National Monument signs.  It was nice to see water in the Salinas River; I had heard a rumor that it had completely dried up. Apparently not. There were more people on the trails than I'm used to.  Andy thinks it's a combination of all the attention the National Monument designation got last year and this year yet another parking access opened along Hwy 68 next to the Toro Park housing development.  It's okay.  While I loved the complete solitude I used to find here, I'm open for sharing this pretty unique spot of land.

ps - If Pete is reading this, I looked for rain beetles since it was still early.  No luck.

habitat ~ 12/17/11 ~ Fort Ord - BLM Creekside

Fort Ord Public Lands - Creekside entrance

December 17, 2011

Truth be told, we didn't actually park at the Creekside entrance for this evening hike. We used the old dirt pull-off on Reservation Rd., which we once used regularly before the BLM built a fancy parking lot with pit toilets on Creekside Terrace, shown in the 3rd photo above.

Speaking of the 3rd photo and 4th photo, that's not the pretty shimmer of water in the distance; it's the extensive plastic that farmers use to cultivate strawberries. Strawberries have been Monterey County's most valuable crop for the past 3 years. I had a friend who recently worked at a small organic farm. Even though they didn't use methyl bromide or methyl iodide, they used several hundred pounds of plastic every year. It was a huge expense for them to dump the plastic at the local waste management, but it was "better" than burning all those plastic chemicals to be released into the atmosphere, which according to my organic farmer friend so many other farmers choose to do to save on costs of dumping plastic. There seems to be something inherently wrong with plasticulture. Needless to say, I've long ago not purchased strawberries, be it cheap supermarket, on the side of the road, or expensive organic farmers' market. I believe the environmental costs are too great for such a small fruit. However, I will eat them if they're offered to me. Hmm, maybe I'll try growing strawberries in my mini-balcony greenhouse... which, guess what, is covered in reused greenhouse plastic?

habitat ~ 08/24/11 ~ Fort Ord - BLM Creekside

Fort Ord Public Lands - Creekside entrance
August 24, 2011

We've had so much cold fog here on the coast this past month, that it was very nice to drive 20 minutes inland to experience some sun and heat of around 80°F. I was sweating during my hike and it felt great. Unfortunately, we'll be heading to a family reunion in the Central Valley this weekend where the temp is supposed to be over 100°F. Oy! Oy! So, I'm back to enjoying the refrigerator-like conditions at home. Btw, I've added a little weather widget to my sidebar, so you can see our current weather conditions in Pacific Grove, the southern end of the Monterey Bay.

habitat ~ 06/02/11 ~ Fort Ord - BLM Creekside

Fort Ord Public Lands - Creekside entrance
June 2, 2011

The grasses are definitely on their way to dried summer yellow. Interesting to note the vernal pool above looks like it has more water than back on January 19, 2011 when we had unseasonably warm and dry weather. It's been such an unusual weather year with our last rain on June 4.

habitat ~ 01/19/11 ~ Fort Ord - BLM Creekside

Fort Ord - Creekside entrance
January 19, 2011

Fort Ord has become one of my favorite places to hike. It can be very green this time of year through to June. After a very wet December, we haven't had much rain and it's been unseasonably warm (77 °F this day). I expected to see more water in the vernal pool. There are still 3-4 months of rainy season left.

I have two location labels for Fort Ord BLM lands (Creekside entrance and InterGarrison entrance), but I've combined the two with others for the Fort Ord habitat - all label. Eventually, when all the munitions are removed, the Fort Ord BLM lands will include about 15,000 acres.

habitat ~ 08/21/10 ~ Fort Ord - BLM Creekside

Fort Ord - Creekside entrance

August 21, 2010

During this hike, it felt like I physically moved from spring, to summer, to fall at Fort Ord in one day.

The first photo above has a great egret (Ardea alba), which is more closely related to the great blue heron (Ardea herodias) than it is to the snowy egret (Egretta thula). I still get the common names mixed up, since there's also a white form of the great blue heron, called the great white heron. Mainly what I want to show in the first pic is how much water is left in one of the vernal pools this late in the year after the winter and spring rains. It's been so drippy wet foggy here on the coast the past month that I'm not surprised there's still standing water. We've been wondering at what point does the heavy fog officially become precipitation.

The second pic is classic CA summer grassland, dry and yellow almost as far as the eye can see. The heat and dryness are the main reasons why I don't hike out there much this time of year.

The last pic is of CA buckeyes loosing their leaves for the year. This is about as 'fall' as it gets around here. There's still "Spanish moss" on the oaks, a local term that is not the real Spanish moss. Really, what we have is not moss at all, but a lichen called Ramalina menziesii. Interestingly enough, within 10 feet of this picture, there was one lone lupine shoot making a bloom. I'm sorry to not have taken its photo to show.

ps 02/16/11 - For a great post on our local lichen, check out Curbstone Valley Farm. And, recently while we were watching a PBS show on snub-nosed monkeys, I found it interesting that they eat lichen. Their big lips and snowy habitat reminded me of cartoon depictions of the abominable snowman, aka yeti.

habitat ~ 05/22/10 ~ Fort Ord - BLM Creekside

Fort Ord - Creekside entrance
May 22, 2010

Often it's easy to overlook a place like this. The green underneath the oak trees is amazing... and somewhat unexpected!

habitat ~ 06/19/09 ~ Fort Ord - BLM Creekside

Fort Ord Public Lands - Creekside entrance

June 19, 2009

Compare these pics with those from our March 14, 2009 hike. I'm usually not a huge fan of hiking at Fort Ord once things start drying up for the summer, but it wasn't too hot and the profusion of sticky monkeyflowers and beautiful manzanitas kept me cheerful. There were several spots under the oak trees which were green with ferns and red poison oak leaves.

habitat ~ 03/14/09 ~ Fort Ord - BLM Creekside

Fort Ord Public Lands - Creekside entrance
March 14, 2009

This hike was almost at the peak, bright green of spring that I so love. In the distance of the first photo, there's Toro County Park (sunlit green) and Mt. Toro (what looks like a shaded hill in the background, but is actually quite a ways away).