It was a beautiful spring day in Berkeley so we headed out mid-afternoon to go on a hike at
Mount Tamalpais in Marin County. It was a partly cloudy day, and when the sun was out, it was still a crisp day with temperatures from mid 50's to low 60's.

First, we treated ourselves (actually we do this practically every weekend) to breakfast in bed. A healthy breakfast of oat toast, eggs, a banana-mango-date smoothie (recipe to follow) and Pete's coffee to top it off.

After breakfast, we went to Mill Valley do a little shopping and grab lunch before we went on our hike. We ventured into a used furniture store and John found a western tree book and a butterfly field guide. It was now time to go on our hike and breath the fresh clean air on top of Mount Tamalpais (Mount Tam).

The spring rains from the night before left the air crisp and revitalized. The ground beneath us was spongy in the coastal redwood/coast-live oak/douglas fir/madrone (one of may favorite trees of the coastal area)/bay forest, and moist with dew in the open fields.

Our journey first took us to the crest of Mount Tam. I wanted to first go on the trail to see the wonderful views, but John wanted to go in to the forest. So, guess where we went? In the forest of redwoods, douglas fir and aromatic bay trees, we first came upon a tall flower with a flower-head of beautiful blue-purple flowers - a Western Hound's Tongue (Cynoglossum grande). This flower is in the Borage family which is the same family as the forget-me-nots, and the small flowers resemble the common forget-me-not you see in many gardens in the Bay area.It comes about to my knees and is scattered throughout the forest. It is native and is one of the first flowers of spring.

We continued our hike and noticed many small, delicate white flowers. They had two different types of leaves, broad-oval and lance-shaped leaves near the top of the cluster-head of white flowers. The California Toothwort (Dentaria californica var. californica) is in the Mustard family, is generally one of the earliest spring wildflowers and its root stocks are edible raw and tasty in salads.

We marveled at all of the ferns on the damp, shaded forest floor. Neither one of us knows much about ferns and we decided to tackle the ferns on another date. We did decide on identifying the California polypody (Polypodium californicum). This was a fairly smallish fern that was growing out of the rocks.

There were many wood strawberry plants, but no blooms at this time. I must remember to come back here early summer when they start fruiting.

John and I ventured out into the open fields on the outskirts of the dense forest and looked on in awe at the magnificent skyscape. We chewed on some sorrel and noticed two very small flowers - one orange and one white. They were both from the Borage family - the white one, the Common Cryptantha (Cryptantha intermedia) and the orange one, the Fiddle Neck (Amsinckia intermedia).
We decided to walk to the car and investigate another part of Mount Tam - Alpine Lake. Before we got back in the car, we lingered a bit to watch small glimpses of sun move along the rolling hills. You could see Stinson Beach and we noticed the sun touching the edge of the ocean and it glistened more beautiful than any precious gem. I had an overwhelming urge to be at the beach, but that would have to wait for another day. Today Mount Tam was satisfying all my urges of nature and beauty.

After a very long, windy drive on Bolinas-Fairfax Rd, we descended to Alpine Lake. We parked on the side of the road and took-off along Cataract trail that winds along the lake. California nutmeg, bigleaf maple, california bay, coastal redwoods, douglas fir, tan oak, etc. lined the lake and several beautiful wildflowers were blooming along the trail.

Before we even hit the trail we saw large patches of clover-like leaves with some smallish white-pink flowers - Redwood sorrel (Oxalis oregana). The stems and leaves are edible in salads.

We came upon a curious bell-shaped flower that was greenish-yellow with purple spots called Checker Lily or Mission Bells (Fritillaria lanceolata). We also saw the beautiful Western Wake Robin (Trillium ovatum) which is in the Lily-of-the-Valley family. It has a whorl of 3 large dark green leaves with a small 3-petaled flower, which changes from purple as it ages (we saw more purple flowers than new white flowers).

A very interesting flower called the California Fetid Adder's Tongue (Scoliopus bigelovii) in the Lily-of-the-Valley family is one of the earliest flowers in the spring. The two (sometimes 3) large oval leaves have purple blotches on its glossy green surface. It is an early spring flower, but we didn't see any blooms, only flower buds.

We ended our excursion at a beautiful waterfall. We stayed a bit and breathed deep the moist, clean air several times before heading back to the car. On our way out of Mount Tam we spotted a few white Mountain Iris (Iris douglasiana) and a very beautiful deep red flower (good catch John). We stopped to look closer at this beautiful flower - Indian Warrior (Pedicularis densiflora) from the Figwort family.The leaves are fern-like and the flowers grow on dense spikes making this a captivating flower. According to legend, each of these plants grows for a fallen Indian warrior.

We were revitalized after our hike and very happy with ourselves that we had learned some new flowers. What better way to top-off our day in Marin County but to go to our favorite chinese Dim Sum eatery in San Rafael. I discovered my new favorite desert - steamed custard buns (a fluffy round ball with a sweet custard middle).

We drove back home to the East Bay in the dark and as we crossed the Richmond bridge I looked over at San Francisco and noticed how clear and beautiful it was, and what a beautiful day John and I had just spent on Mount Tamalpais.

Christine's California Smoothie

(Use organic ingredientswhenever possible)
 
One banana
5-10 pitted dates (the more dates, the sweeter)
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt (plain or any flavor will do)
1/3 cup of frozen mango (or other fruit)
1 cup juice (mango, papaya, any fruit but grape will do)
1/2 cup of soy milk (almond milk, rice milk, or skip this and use more juice
2 tbsp vanilla protein powder (bee pollen or health powder)

Blend in a blender until banana, dates and frozen fruit are blended. Serves two.
Make up your own smoothie, all you need to start with is a banana and some sort of juice. It's healthy and a great substitute for a meal if you're on the run.