A treat of a walk at Edgewood Park

Wednesday, 25 March 2009:

My manager, Jaromir, was in town from Prague for a few weeks, and suggested that we do a team hike & lunch as a team-building exercise.  It should surprise nobody that I eagerly agreed, and we decided to hike at Edgewood County Park, meeting there at 10:30am.

Woodland Star

We hit the trail at around 10:50 under sunny blue skies and temperate weather, perfect for an early spring hike!

Poison Oak

Edgewood has a good deal of Poison Oak, and I made sure folks who weren’t familiar with it could identify its leaves.   Plenty of opportunities to get to know it presented themselves as we hiked out on the Sylvan Trail.

The early bloom was progressing, with Hound’s Tongue, Lupine, and Woodland Stars being the dominant blooms in this first, shaded, section of trail.

Lupine sp.

Pipestem Clematis

We emerged from the forest and found a bushy, flowery Pipestem Clematis (with Poison Oak peeking through its branches, naturally!), and the trailside was strewn with Blue-eyed Grass, one of my favorite native wildflowers.

Blue-eyed Grass

We continued climbing, bearing left on the Serpentine Trail, and views opened up of the SF bay below, and the green hills all around us.

Serpentine Trail

Despite being in the middle of a weekday, there were a fair number of runners and walkers, getting in their morning constitutionals.

Indian Warrior

In colorful patches under some oak trees and manzanita shrubs, spiky red Indian Warrior bloomed abundantly.  I’d read that this plant is parasitic, and indeed it is – here’s what the Wikipedia article on Indian Warrior has to say about it:

This species is a facultative parasite, or hemiparasite, in that it can live without attaching to another plant but will parasitize if presented with the opportunity. It often parasitizes plants of the heath family, such as manzanita.

Creamcups

Up in the grasslands now, we saw scattered California Poppies, many Creamcups, patches of Goldenfields, and Blue-eyed Mary as we hiked around the west end of the park, and descended back toward the trailhead.

Erik, Jaromir, Ada & Emily

We finished at around 12:30, and enjoyed an excellent lunch at New Kapadokia in downtown Redwood City.

Needless to say, getting to hike with my co-workers during the workday was a real treat.  Thanks to Jaromir for suggesting such a fun team outing!  (I’m only partially saying that because he’s probably reading this 😉

Hike stats:
Distance: 3.6 miles
Moving time: 1hr 23min
Stopped time: 20min
Elevation gain: 551ft

Wildflowers seen:
– Aster sp.
– Blue-eyed Grass
– Blue-eyed Mary
– Bluedicks
– California Buttercup
– California Poppy
– Creamcups
– Dove’s-foot Geranium
– False Solomon’s Seal
– Fremont’s Death Camas
– Goldenfields
– Hound’s Tongue
– Indian Warrior
– Larkspur sp.
– Lupine sp.
– Mission Bells
– Owl Clover
– Pipestem Clematis
– Red Maids
– Scarlet Pimpernel
– Shooting Stars
– Sticky Monkeyflower
– Sun Cups
– Woodland Star