Wild Big Sur

The first workshop of the season was green in every sense of the word. On Saturday we hiked in Big Creek Reserve. The water in the creek was still very high and the bridges were not yet in. We crossed the first fork of Big Creek on a fallen redwood that now serves as a bridge. Lucky for us Feynner (the caretaker of the reserve) was just ahead of us with a trail crew. They put up the bridge on the north fork and we were the first to cross. We were blessed by having the crew clear slides and fallen trees just ahead of us without seeing them until lunch when we finally caught up with them. We were literally the first up the trail. Everything was wonderfully wild and fresh! The winter rains seem to have stopped or at least slowed. The wild flowers and grasses are delayed from their normal peak. Still we saw lot of Spring's early bloomers. We found mountain lion prints and the remains of a deer that had been taken by one of these incredible cats.
On Sunday we made our way to Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park and hiked up the Ewoldsen Trail. Part of the group journeyed up to the grandmother redwood tree while the others sauntered along looking at plants and listening to stories about their uses and ecological relationships. I had asked everyone to show up for the weekend as fully as they could and as far as I could tell we all did. It was a rich and full time... full of green aliveness.