Hiking Russian Ridge

After getting our taxes done on Saturday, Jan and i decided to go Hiking on Sunday.  We did our usual prep, she got ready, and  I went to the store got sandwiches, jalepeno chips, and some sort of salad to go.  Made a thermos full of tea, loaded up and drove off to Russian Ridge, which is off of Skyline and Page Mill Road/Alpine Road.  The weather was cooler then expected with winds not to bad.  Jan had wanted to see some wild flowers, and she was not disappointed.  Many varieties could be seen from Poppies bursting with vibrant colors to Lupens and every other wild flower out there.  We were a mile in when we came across a bench and stopped for lunch.

 I have to add this in here, if you hike with kids and they are stragglers, let them lead so you can move at a pace they can handle.  We were behind a family of four, the parents off in their own bliss were, ignorant of the fact their kids were lagging further and further behind.  THe youngest kid was a good 150 yeards behind their folks, and the kid was around 7-8 y/o.  The right size for a stray cougar take down or worse some varment of the 2 legged size and the parent were too far away to be of any use.  When we passed them I told them that mountain lions love stragglers, hoping the parents would get the hint.  But no, no sooner had we stopped and were eating when they passed us again witht he parents blissfully unaware that their kids were once again lagging behind.  Some people just don't learn the easy way.

Back to the hike.  After going through the woods and meeting we ended up halfway down a hill where the road split in two.  I spotted a pair of ears, and we noticed it was a coyotee.  We watched him for a while, he did not care that we were there.  He eventuly went off intot he wodds and we lost him, or so we thought. 

We hiked up a hill heading back towards the parking lot, when I looked down a draw and spotted our coyotee friend still looking for his lunch.  further down the hill by several hundred yards a doe and her fawn poped out of a treelined, neither the deer nor the coyotee paid us or each other any attention.  We watched this for a while, and pointed it out to a couple hiking past us.   They got a look at nature in the wild and took it in then went on there way.

Now we were on the last mile of the trail and off to my right  Jan see's a deer coming out of the tree line that neighbors skyline.  Now as I am moving forward I report ot her, no there's 2, now 3, now 4, now 5, now 7 deer.  They are working through the grass  on the edge of the wooded area.  I t appeared to 7 blacktails  just doing there thing.   We continue on the trail and see two women communicating in sign, and tryour best to explain that there are deer just up  the hill and off to their right.  I finally notice that one of the heads has popped over the rise and then another.  We point to them and I don't think anyone but I can see them.  So Jan hands off her bino's to the women and they finally see htem.  You could see their beeming smiles and thumbs up and knew this made their day. 

We headed back to the parking lot then on home for after a nice day on the trail.