Mill Creek Trail

 It had been quite a while since I traveled much above the elevation of Quincy when last Thursday I took a group fom Oakland Camp up to Bucks Lake.  We hiked the Mill Creek Trail as far as the Mill Creek crossing, 2.4 miles from the trail head.  I was pleasantly surprised - startled really - by the lush display of blooming wildflowers in the ditch where we parked.  I could easily have skipped the hike and spent a couple of hours at this spot observing insects and spiders and photographing the flowers. The most prominent flower was the Checker Mallow (above).  I just took a couple of photos and we moved on.
The next point of interest was a large patch of Pussy Paws.  The plants had grown quite large and were a duller pink than I have seen in other patches, and their stems were sprawled in every direction like spider legs and laid flat on the ground.  The plant shown here was at least 2 feet in diameter.

 A few hundred yards further along the trail, we walked down to the lake shore.  In a wetter area, possibly under water not long ago, we saw many Pussy Paws growing out of the decomposed granite sand. These were probably younger, and the soil was definitely moist.  As you can see, these look healthier, more colorful, and some of the stems are a bit erect, not all lying flat on the ground.

 In a third area, still further along the trail, we encountered a very lush patch of Pussy Paws, stems erect and much brighter pink.  The soil was obviously richer and there was lots of other vegetation around the Pussy Paws.  At this point, I explained to my guests how the Pussy Paws in all these situations tend to go through a daily cycle of absorbing then giving up moisture resulting in a daily rising and falling of the stems.  More interesting than watching haircuts, don't you think?

 We also encountered yellow Monkeyflowers in several different habitats.  They might have been of different species, but the ones along the shoreline (shown here) were definitely shorter but fleshier than the ones further into the forest. The petals were also more colorful with shades of yellow and sometimes with orange spots.

 We came across great patches of Leopard Lilies in the several wet areas between the trail head and the Mill Creek crossing.  Compared to the ones I've been seeing around Oakland Camp, the ones by Bucks Lake had much smaller flowers, and relatively larger anthers.  The anthers up at Bucks were yellow while the anthers on the ones by Berry Creek, Tollgate Creek, and Gilson Creek were tan or brown and longer and thinner.

 The first two photos here were taken along the Mill Creek Trail and the third was taken a few days earlier by Tollgate Creek.

 There were lots of blue Penstemon along the Mill Creek Trail.  I haven't identified the species, and there are several blue ones that are possibilities.

 There were some impressive displays of Pine Drops in the shadier sections of the forest.  These are saprophytes in the Wintergreen family.  They do not produce chlorophyll and they absorb nutrients from the soil much like the Fungi.

 The Prince's Pines, in the same family as the Pine Drops as well as Manzanita, were freshly blooming and gave the forest the feel of spring, quite a contrast from the trails around Oakland Camp that are now well into the dry heat of summer and where many wildflowers have already gone to seed.

 The Mullein growing along the lake shore were much healthier-looking than the ones down at the QUincy elevation that are somewhat beat up by the drought and the steady supply of dust from the traffic, especially on the dirt roads.

 We came across several patches of Scarlet Gilia.  The flower looked identical to those on the Scarlet Gilia around camp, but the overall plants were remarkably different.  Between Oakland Camp and Gilson Creek the Gilia often reach 3 to 6 feet in height before blooming and they tend to have few blooms per plant.  Up at Bucks they often bloom when only a foot tall and mostly have many more blooms per plant.

 The last notable flower on the Mill Creek Trail was the Sulfur Flower.  This member of the Buckwheat family was plentiful around the bases of large granite rocks along the trail.  A very bright yellow, it seemed to glow.  It also hosted lots of interesting beetles and butterflies.

 Finally, there was this attractive, but often hidden flower that I haven't yet identified.  It reminds me a lot of the Bitterroot, Lewisia, found on Table Mountain, but is much slimmer and was mostly growning in the shafe of huge pines and Douglas-firs.  If you know what it is, please let us know in the comments section below.