Geocaching and hiking

We hiked along the Sonoma Baylands Trail this time around primarily for the geocaches.  There are a string of them about every 1/10th of a mile of so along the route.  In the end we logged nine caches in less than two hours.  This might represent the most we'd found in a single day ever.

Unlike our aborted trip here a couple of weeks ago when the winds were howling we had pleasant temperatures and calm air.  This trail segment in the refuge sees fewer people than some of the others so we were able to cache without having to worry too much about giving away cache locations to "muggles".

We spotted a large flock of California Quail on the trail ahead of us but they disappeared into the brush before we could get a better look at them.  They did not reappear after we passed by, which is unfortunate.  In a previous visit we spotted a hawk's nest on top of one of the high tension power line towers that crosses the trail.  It's still there and appeared to still be in use as two birds perched just above it.

A few spots along the trail were blackened by what appeared to be controlled burns.  The burned areas more clearly showed the trash that people had disposed of in the past, now primarily glass bottles and cans.  We need to make a habit out of bring a bag to pack out a bit of trash whenever we go hiking.  Every little bit would help.