Last Jaunt for January

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I left the house early in the morning, but not crazy early. Less than an hour before sunrise. Driving down the hill on my way out of town, my coffee tasted even weaker than usual, and that wasn't a good thing, since I'd started the day feeling slightly under the weather even after taking it easy all day yesterday, the base of my spine still sapping strength while it heals from last week's spill. As I took repeated sips of my coffee, the awful truth finally dawned on me. I remembered putting the stevia in the mug, and I remembered pouring in the hot water (the leftovers of which went into my oatmeal), but I did not remember putting any coffee in the mug. Two facts will give away my lack of coffee-fiend status. First, I drink instant. Second, when I realized my mistake I didn't turn back.

I'd thought about doing some early birding out at Las Gallinas, but I wasn't a hundred percent in the mood and decided to just head straight out to Mt. Tam. As I was lining up to take the Sir Francis Drake exit I was enticed to make a quick stop at Corte Madera Marsh to try to photograph the colorful sunrise. The tide was still pretty high, and the pond was full of water. A few geese kept vigil from the little islands in the middle, but there wasn't enough wildlife to keep me from continuing on my way.

I drove non-stop to the base of the Cataract Trail and began the steep hike up the the canyon, gingerly maneuvering up the sections with wooden steps (mostly dry now and not so slippery). The waterfall I wanted to reach is arguably closer to the Laurel Dell trailhead on Bolinas Ridge than it is from the bottom. It's kind of a half-way waterfall. I've often gotten my fill of waterfalls on the way up from the bottom and turned around before getting there. The same thing can happen coming down from the top. In fact, I've only photographed the waterfall once before, in March of last year, and I didn't like what I got. You have to cross the creek to get a good angle on it, and if the water's running high, you can't make a dry crossing. If it's running too low, the waterfall becomes sparse and spindly. It could have been running a little higher for my taste this time, but at least I'm happy with what I got.

I'd planned to spend my morning looking for fungi in the canyon, but the pickings were slim. Only the polypores, like these turkey tails, showed signs of life. Some really cool Peltigera polydactyla lichen was fruiting out nicely too. The specific epithet means "many fingers." Trog say, "Finger lichen good."

I drove up to Bolinas Ridge and hiked a short loop, again finding no fleshy fungi to photograph. I was still in the mood for macro, though, so I scouted around for some willing subjects, including a very old Douglas fir cone with an interesting patina on its scales, and a moss-bound bit of rock that reminded me of Hawaii's Big Island.

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