The Woodland Star (Lithophragma glabrum), is a member of the Saxifrage family. There aren’t terribly many of these dainty delights relative to other wildflower species, but perhaps that’s due to their lurking in shady little hideaways where mere mortals choose not to tread. Sometimes, however, they appear before us at trailside, white elfin gowns shimmering as if by the winsome whisperings of a mystic muse.

The Woodland Star blooms from February through June in forests along the California Coast. My camera may capture them just so every once in a while, but the Woodland Star captures my heart every time.

~winehiker

Bradley Cooper lives in Canada’s Okanagan Valley, an immense winemaking region of British Columbia. It’s where he produces small lots of Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah, and a whole host of white wines for Township 7 Vineyards. Now that he’s finished bottling his latest batch of Rosés, he and his wife, Audralee, are going to visit California for their first real vacation since their honeymoon nine years ago.

Bradley’s my kind of guy. Sure, his winemaking efforts attract my interest, and so does his blog, Wine & Vine BC, but so does his love of jazz and baseball. What’s more, he and Audralee, who together also consult for Daum-Cooper Winery Services, are ready to engage in some winehiking.

We’re getting together on Saturday, May 31st, for a five-mile tour of the redwood forests at El Corte de Madera Creek Open Space Preserve, followed by a picnic and wine tasting at Saratoga’s Savannah-Chanelle Winery.

And Bradley and I invite you to join us!

Walk with Bradley, Audralee and The Winehiker in the redwoods of California. Then let’s do some wine tasting!

This event is essentially free but for the cost of your own transportation, lunch (shared potluck), and tasting fees at the winery (credited to any purchase of their fine syrahs and pinots). If you plan to join us, just add a comment to this post, and I will follow up with the details.

~winehiker

When I’ve walked the paths through the stately giants of Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, about 30 miles from my hometown, I’ve always been awed by the majesty of those timeless trees. Equally timeless, it seems, is the far-off whistle of the historic Roaring Camp steam locomotive that runs daily from its mountain home in the town of Felton to its terminus at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Hearing that lonesome whistle blast always makes me yearn to transport myself to faraway places, and so it is a welcome sound in my ears as I meander along the banks of the San Lorenzo River.

There’s something about being outdoors and getting a concurrent dose of history. There’s also something to be said for adding fine wine to that equation.

This Sunday, May 18th, from 1:00 to 4:00 p.m., the Santa Cruz Mountain Wine Growers Association (SCMWA) will sponsor its inaugural Santa Cruz Mountains Wine Railway and Auction, to be held at the Roaring Camp & Big Trees Railroad Museum in Felton, California. Guests will be able to enjoy wines from over 50 SCMWA-member wineries - which is to say, nearly all of them - plus get an opportunity to ride the venerable Roaring Camp train through the redwood forests of this mountain appellation.

From the SCMWA website:

Wines tasting will be accompanied by delectable appetizers, as well as, a silent and live auction. Auction items include rare wines, large format bottles, getaways to world class resorts, and trips, unique private winemakers’ dinners and much more.

Tickets are $55 in advance, $65 at the door, and $20 for children; leashed dogs are allowed. For reservations, or for more information, contact the Santa Cruz Mountains Winegrowers Association at (831) 685-VINE (8463) or send them an email at info@scmwa.com.

~winehiker

• The Top 10 Wines Sold in a Grocery Store
  Fellow wine bloggers/vidcasters Tom Wark of Fermentation, Dr. Debs of Good Wine Under $20, and Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV speak to you about wine from the grocery aisle.

These last few days have been rough. I’ll admit that my chiropractor and I have been friends for over 18 years, but I’d sure rather get together with her under friendlier circumstances.

You see, I am Excedrin’s Bitch. I’ve had a helluva headache for six days - a headache so strong that I haven’t been able to focus on reading the written word, much less writing any. The base of my skull, on the left side, is experiencing a nerve-pinch that has resulted in a constant dull ache. It’s causing my left eye to tear up in a constant stream. Did I sleep funny?

Ha! - ’tis not funny now. Verily, mine head hurteth.

Image source: American Library Association

I’m running behind on responding to emails. And I don’t care to miss work when I’ve got lots to do there. Instead, when I haven’t been at the chiropractor’s office, I’ve been lying prone, flat-out on the floor, my bed, my sunshine-filled patio.

I certainly can’t complain about the warm and sunny weather this week, nor the fact that it’s been a good few days to miss work - weatherwise. But damn, it’s tough when all you can do is alternate between hot-hot showers, icepacks, laying down, getting up, walking around, moving the garden hose, reaching for the Extra-Strength Excedrin, laying down again, repeating the cycle in an effort to unlock this cervical subluxation. I don’t get paid for this, certainly. Indeed, four trips to the chiropractor isn’t cheap, either.

I went back to work today. Up until about an hour ago, I thought I was out of the woods. But that damn headache has come back this afternoon.

Will I be going to the chiropractor again tomorrow? Will I be leading Saturday’s scheduled hike at Montara Mountain? Do I wish I could enjoy a nice glass of vino without it tripling my pain?

Are they making bionic necks yet?

Whew! It’s been a rough, and expensive, few days. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. Now where did I put that Excedrin? Unhh….

~winehiker

I enjoyed a good chuckle tonight when I arrived home from work. There on the steps was a UPS package addressed to Winehiker Reviews Wine. It looked like it could contain a bottle of wine, but when I picked it up, the package wasn’t heavy enough to contain a 750ml bottle - at least a full one. Curious, naturally, and Swiss Army knife at hand, always, I set down the sunglasses, the keys, and the mail and proceeded to open the little brown mystery box.

Seems those nice folks at Clif Bar liked last week’s post about their wines so much that they decided to “sweeten” the deal by sending me two cases of Carrot Cake Clif bars - my favorite!

Golly, if Kit & Gary ever decide to open a restaurant, I will be so there.

Though I suppose it’ll be a bit hard to ship a four-course, five-star dining experience via UPS. Not that I wouldn’t take receipt of such, mind you. Indeed, there are times when I am easily amused.

Thanks, Clif Bar!
~winehiker

Its expansive panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean extend all the way down to Monterey Bay. Facing south, breathtaking landscapes of the Santa Cruz Mountains are shaded periwinkle blue in the distance. Natural springs, numerous creeks, and wetland habitat are distinct features as well as its bigleaf maples, bay laurels and lush grasslands. Across its 1,047 acres of premier hilltop ranchland, opportunities for fine hiking experiences abound.

Located within a strategic swath of nearly 33,000 acres of open space, Mindego Hill is a critical link in a chain of open lands extending along the spine of the Santa Cruz Mountain range. Image source: Peninsula Open Space Trust.

This isn’t heaven, but it’s close. And though this dramatic mountain property is quite real, its future as a wilderness destination may not be. That’s why the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) is asking for our help in preserving the landscape known as Mindego Hill, which is adjacent to the Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve near the junction of Skyline Boulevard and Alpine Road.

Since its founding in 1977, POST has been responsible for saving 60,000 acres as permanent open space and parkland in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. From the POST website, GoMindego.org:

Mindego Hill requires immediate and extraordinary action to prevent private development of the land. With its proximity to Silicon Valley and world-class views, this premiere property is a prime candidate for subdivision, which would result in a gradual diminishing of resource values and scenic protection.

If we don’t protect Mindego Hill now, we could lose this signature landscape forever. POST seeks to protect the land’s visual impact, wildlife habitat, watershed resources and recreation potential for the benefit of all. By purchasing this property for ultimate transfer to a public agency, we can ensure permanent protection of the land, so that views remain beautiful, wildlife corridors uninterrupted, watersheds pristine and hiking trails bountiful.

POST purchased the ranch in October with the hope of transferring the land to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) later this year. They’re now trying to raise $6.9 million to permanently protect the Mindego Hill open space. They have recently received a dollar-for-dollar challenge grant from a foundation (who wishes to remain anonymous) that will match our gifts to help POST raise the remaining funds needed to safeguard this natural area. In effect, if you were to make a $50 donation, your donation would be doubled to $100 by the foundation.

The good news is that of that $6.9 million, $6.4 million has already been donated! If you’d like to help make up the difference and perhaps make a little history while you’re at it, you can make a donation here to prevent Mindego Hill from becoming McMansionville. For more information, including a photo gallery and a series of videos, check out GoMindego.org.

~winehiker

Editor’s note: I donated $100 to the Mindego Hill cause and dedicated my donation to my high school music teacher Don Carre, who was also an avid backpacker. (See my post titled In Memoriam to a profound man.)

In this Spring season, more than in seasons past, I’ve been seeing an incredible lot of wild cucumber flowering along my favorite Bay Area trails. The wild cucumber, Latin name Marah macrocarpus, is a member of the Cucurbitaceae, or gourd family. It is quite a pretty vine when it flowers, and does bear resemblance to most garden-variety cucumber plants. But that’s where the similarity ends.

A wild cucumber flowers along the Zinfandel Trail in the hills of Cupertino, California

For while you would eat a garden-grown cucumber, the last thing you’ll want to do - should you ever find yourself foraging for food in the wilderness - is chow down on the fruit of the wild cucumber, also known as bigroot, manroot, and old-man-in-the-ground.

How is such a pretty vine accorded such an unflattering name? While I must admit to not having dug one up personally, apparently the taproot of the wild cucumber is large, fleshy, alternately woody, and can weigh up to one hundred pounds. But if that doesn’t intrigue you very much, the main thing you should know about the manroot regards the fruit that it bears: the seeds of the manroot are extremely poisonous.

The soft spines of the fruit of the manroot. I discovered this cuke along the Sunol-Ohlone Trail on the return leg of an early-April hike to Murietta Falls.

Like many of Nature’s local denizens, the wild cucumber is a plant worthy of admiration. But mostly, it deserves the healthy respect that comes from knowledge gained. I probably don’t have to tell you that it’s better to take a picture than to take a swallow!

~winehiker

On Two Heel Drive, a local hiking blog I often read, author Tom Mangan polled his readers, asking the question What wildlife have you seen on the trail? Apparently Tom had to take down that poll due to technical difficulties, but it essentially listed a number of animals one might commonly see in the wild if one is out in it to any regular degree. The list included animals such as bear, wolf, coyote, fox, deer, mountain lion, bobcat, and more. With the exception of wolves, I had seen all of them, some more than once.

Great Horned Owl, Bubo virginianus

Tom hadn’t included owls, though, which brought a response from local hiker/blogger Tom McGuire, author of the gambolin’ man blog. gambolin’ man commented, saying:

A few weeks ago, toward the early evening around 6 pm, I caught a prolonged first-time ever (in the Bay Area) glimpse of a Great Horned Owl flying and then settling to roost for about three minutes on a tree limb, at Briones Reservoir. Luckily, I had my binos handy to zoom in on this wondrous animal. It was quite a sighting!

Has anyone ever spotted one of these guys in the Bay Area Wild before?

Indeed I had, and I immediately felt compelled to write:

I was 9 years old and walking one morning with my 4th-grade class on Cabrillo Avenue in Santa Clara from Bowers Elementary to a concert at Juan Cabrillo Middle School. We all heard a sound coming from a tree lining the edge of Bowers Park and looked up to see a Great Horned Owl - the first owl many of us had ever seen. Fortunately our teacher knew what it was, but in retrospect, its large size - and its eyes - made it unmistakable.

Many years later I saw a Great Horned Owl get hit by a jeep a half-mile ahead of me on the road out of Canyonlands NP. I knew I couldn’t do much about an injured animal in that extremely remote location, but I stopped anyway, put on some gloves, grabbed some newspaper, and removed it from the roadway. As I did this, I saw the light fading from its luminous yellow eyes, and it died right there in my arms. I buried Mr. Owl that evening in camp, but I still keep one of his primaries to remind me of that morning in the Utah desert.

A whole lot of things happen out there in the wild when we’re not looking. Fortunately there are times when we can observe - even participate in - the unforgettable. I, for one, cannot imagine what my life would be like if I couldn’t occasionally catch a glimpse of these moments, for they rank up there as being the great moments of my life.

May you enjoy great moments this weekend.

~winehiker

Agent Red sent me a communique this afternoon. Though tersely worded, it was a topic of great importance. I knew I had to immediately share the news with you!

BEGIN COMMUNIQUE

• I infiltrated Fantesca’s secret stash and nabbed a limited supply of their 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon
• You can’t buy this wine on the Fantesca.com website
• This wine will go on sale tomorrow only at The Wine Spies for 20% off its $60 retail price
• The sale starts midnight tonight, May 2, 2008
• We’re offering Free Ground Shipping on 3 or more bottles when customers use code “SPYHIKER”; this promotional code is exclusively for the Winehiker faithful

Are you in?

END COMMUNIQUE

Agent Winehiker is in! He knows how good Fantesca wines are. The 2003 Cabernet Sauvignon from Fantesca Estate & Winery’s Spring Mountain appellation is exceptional, and now you have an exclusive one-day-only opportunity to get some for yourself, while they last.

~winehiker