Wildflowers and Wildlife at Coyote Ridge – BionicOldGuy

March 30, 2022

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Coyote Ridge Open Area Protect is a more moderen protect of the Santa Clara Valley Open Area Authority. It has some endangered species, so entry to it’s at the moment restricted to both docent-led hikes or particular occasions the place a restricted quantity of self-guided guests are allowed. I took benefit of a type of particular occasions final Saturday, hoping to get in some good wildflower viewing and perhaps see among the wildlife.

I rode my electric-assist recumbent to the beginning on Malech Street in San Jose. There I encountered enthusiastic and pleasant volunteers who helped me get on my method after I parked the bike and switched to mountain climbing mode. The is generally basic grasslands frequent in California foothills. They’re beginning to flip, however we obtained a superb quantity of rain final evening so I’m hoping they’ll keep inexperienced some time longer. It’s a good stout uphill to Coyote ridge, after which the path follows the ridge and is rolling. I noticed fairly just a few stunning poppies, lupine, and popcorn flowers. After a few miles, I bumped into a few fellow ex-Ibm’ers. I used to be solely there for 3 years, 1984-87, however Larry and Howard had been there fairly a bit longer, working in software program in Endicott, NY, and later at IBM on Bailey street in San Jose. I continued together with them and loved some story-swapping about our days with Massive Blue. I used to be glad I did as a result of they talked me into doing an out and again to a spectacular lookout level, which for me was the excessive level. We didn’t get as fortunate about wildlife, no Tule Elk or hawks in view, however did see some butterflies, and in addition a raven. These are bigger cousins to crows however extra skillful fliers.

I had my little digital digicam, however Larry is a gifted photographer with a a lot larger high quality digicam, and he was sort sufficient to present me permission to make use of his (that are annotated beneath ©Larry England).

This ended up being a 3+ hour hike for me, and along with the bike trip there and again added as much as a four-hour exercise, so I slept effectively that evening.