An Eventful Friday the 13th

This morning we agreed to try to cover more ground between breakfast and lunch.  More walk, less talk; or, at least talk while walking.  Couldn't help but do a little sight-seeing, though.  We hiked down the pavement out of Oakland Camp toward the first bridge over Spanish Creek, then headed north on the southern section of the Keddie Cascades Trail.  The first scenic attraction was a dead cat.  The ants and beetles had cleaned the bones white and the skin had mummified.  No odor at all, and no remaining scavengers.  Next, we noticed immediately that the blooming flowers on the west side of the creek, and thus in more shade, were about a month behind their counterparts on the east side.  The Spreading Dogbane (2nd photo) and the Showy Milkweed were very freshly bloomed while on the east side they were already wilted and going to seed.
Then we came across some nice patches of Rose Campion, a weed native to the Mediterranean region that has become naturalized around here.  Very pretty, bright red flowers on a gray, fuzzy plant around 3 feet tall.  Next, we found a good-sized wasp nest on the ground and fragments of it still hanging from the tree above.  We also came across Funnel Spiders and several kinds of ants and termites, although our findings beneath rocks, bark, and logs were minimal because everything was pretty dry.
When I got home I found three different emails all with the same photo of a "mystery flower" someone had seen in the Lakes Basin and wanted some help with ID.  Since I can't get to the Lakes Basin any time soon, I'm including two photos of said flower that I took last summer.  It's Twinberry, a member of the Honeysuckle family.  A native of the Mediterranean region, it has successfully established itself in forest of Plumas County and is sold in nurseries.  A good day, despite the intense heat and dryness.