Gordon Lakes trail

Sunday was a really great day spent hiking (tramping is something else here, it seems, and it's not something the nice girls admit to). We went with the Sierra club (the local Mary's Peak crowd) to Gordon Lakes. We started/ended at the yellow star and ate lunch at the red star.




We saw Soapgrass Mountain, which is actually identified on Google Maps (below), so you can see where we were, relatively. Note the cool interactiveness of the embedded link....



View Larger Map


On the trip we met a bunch of really great people, learned lots of scarey things about poison oak (although it doesn't grow at the altitude we were at), and scored a dinner invitation.

Here's the trail-head, not looking at all like we're about to head off into foggy doom. The weather was misty and cool, pleasant for walking in but a bit chilly for waiting around in. Of course, mad Kiwis who insist on wearing shorts when everyone else is in long pants don't mention things like that.



These cute little plants are "Bunchberries" according to the locals.


The lakes were spectacularly calm.



Lichen ruled the forest, which was eerily silent for most of the hike, except for when a tree fell, which certainly makes a sound even if you can't see it.





This is an awesome little myco-heterotroph, a funky plant that parasitises fungi. I don't know exactly what it is, though.



This is a puff-ball of some description. Even though it's only the beginning of the fungus season (I think), there was a great variety about.



We sat in a large naturally-formed meadow for lunch (not thinking about ticks at all).


Dessert was "blue huckleberries", looking suspiciously like blueberries... And tasting like happy.



And for those of you who may have been concerned... Manfred attended and judged lunch worthy, if a little damp.