by Cori Strell
Today's Hike was one of my favorites over all. The drive to the trailhead, was about an hour away in Julian. The car ride was long, but beautiful. I saw a lot of wildflowers growing along the road, they were white and gold daffodils, these really interested me and I kept an eye out the entire hike for more.
The walk up Volcan Mountain was steep and it felt that there was enough of an altitude difference that it would be harder to breathe. I think I might have made that up in my head. The higher we traveled the colder and windier it got. Ranger Bill told us a story about chimney remains at the top of Vulcan mountain. All that was left of a cottage was a tall stone chimney. Ranger Bill told us it was built for space research, but was abandoned soon after it was made. It is thought that around the time of Prohibition, drinkers would brew in that house; until their wives found out and burnt the structure down.
I noticed a lot of little purple or blue wild flowers. There were no daffodils this high up, but there were wild Purple Lupin, Yellow Wallflowers, and California Poppy!
After this first trek we drove about a mile down the road to where we will finish our trails and end our hike for the day. This area was fully of grassy and woody rolling hills. There were cows and their calves on all sides of us, not fenced-in but free to roam the meadows. It was nice to see cows like that, and even though they weren't fenced in, they seem to stay relatively near one another. At a later point in the hike we found some shinny white animal bones. They were very large, aand neatly paced around one of the fields we passed. It almost looked like they were placed there. I identified one bone to be one single vertebrae.
The hike overall was great. I think today's hike had the steepest climbs, but the best views. I'm so happy to finish the hike off tomorrow.
Today's Hike was one of my favorites over all. The drive to the trailhead, was about an hour away in Julian. The car ride was long, but beautiful. I saw a lot of wildflowers growing along the road, they were white and gold daffodils, these really interested me and I kept an eye out the entire hike for more.
The walk up Volcan Mountain was steep and it felt that there was enough of an altitude difference that it would be harder to breathe. I think I might have made that up in my head. The higher we traveled the colder and windier it got. Ranger Bill told us a story about chimney remains at the top of Vulcan mountain. All that was left of a cottage was a tall stone chimney. Ranger Bill told us it was built for space research, but was abandoned soon after it was made. It is thought that around the time of Prohibition, drinkers would brew in that house; until their wives found out and burnt the structure down.
I noticed a lot of little purple or blue wild flowers. There were no daffodils this high up, but there were wild Purple Lupin, Yellow Wallflowers, and California Poppy!
After this first trek we drove about a mile down the road to where we will finish our trails and end our hike for the day. This area was fully of grassy and woody rolling hills. There were cows and their calves on all sides of us, not fenced-in but free to roam the meadows. It was nice to see cows like that, and even though they weren't fenced in, they seem to stay relatively near one another. At a later point in the hike we found some shinny white animal bones. They were very large, aand neatly paced around one of the fields we passed. It almost looked like they were placed there. I identified one bone to be one single vertebrae.
The hike overall was great. I think today's hike had the steepest climbs, but the best views. I'm so happy to finish the hike off tomorrow.