Visiting one of our elders

Coppertone and I returned to Jack London State Park to map another couple of trail segments we had not done in the past.  We started off heading uphill via the Service Road.  In almost exactly the same spot we saw this behavior before on a previous hike we spotted a ground squirrel hanging on the top of the wire fence between the trail and vineyard.  This time we knew he must be OK so we observed from a distance.  He looked in our direction and went back to sunbathing, or whatever he was doing.  He was gone by the time we came back that way.

Once we got to London Lake we moved onto Vineyard Trail, one of the segments we had only partly hiked before.  The trail is aptly named as it parallels the vineyard that the park wraps around on three sides.  From this trail there are some nice views across Sonoma Valley and through to the Mayacamas Mountains.  The trail was also the recipient of some decent trail maintenance in the form of some nice wooden bridges the span creek crossings.

We were behind a couple who appeared to be on a hike with a guide and we suspected they were headed straight for the Ancient Redwood tree.  So we turned onto Ashbury Creek Trail to do our planned loop in the opposite direction of their travel.  Perhaps we could get the tree to ourselves later.  At one spot along Ashbury a large tree had recently fallen across the trail.  No one had yet cut up the trunk so we scrambled over to keep going.

Once we got near Fern Lake we took the Fern Lake Trail west toward the four way junction near the Ancient Redwood.  Here we had the first of several encounters with horses on the trail.  The equines were friendly enough, but took less interest in us when they realized we didn't have food for them.

When we got to the Ancient Redwood Spur our guided couple was nowhere to be seen.  But some others were at the tree.  As luck would have it, they all left just as we entered.  We sat and enjoyed our peaceful solitude with our elder.

When we left we returned via the Vineyard Trail and Service Road to double back down the mountain.  We took the Horse Trail near the trailhead that dumps out on the parking lot opposite from our starting point and reunited with a couple of the horses (and their riders) we had seen on the trail.