Sunday, October 4, 2009

A FIELD TRIP TO CRANE CANYON PARK IN COTATI

Today I drove to Crane Canyon Park. There were a number of folks visiting the park. They had attended a memorial for someone and were coming back from their hike dressed in leopard clothing?? In any case, I went all around the park and completed the hike in less than 2 hours. There was no water flowing in the creek and I followed the trails up around the dry creek bed, noting that the wind was picking up. I saw many yound men playing a game by throwing frisbies in the metal baskets. The park has gently sloping terrain with plenty of trees. I happened to find a good supply of tarweed, a staple of the Pomo. I picked a bunch of it to show to people on my walks. The pinhead seeds were eaten with a mixture of berries and called Pinole. There were hundreds of types of tarweed according to the ethnobotanical sources written in the 1800's.

I stopped for a while to listen to the wind and it told me that fall was in the air. The type of clouds were cirrus and there was a gentle wind. I could see for miles and I wanted to see Mt St. Helena but couldn't. Most of the country side had grapes growing and I could see and smell cows nearby.

There were only a few birds that I could recognize and many types of oaks and buckeye and bay trees, as well as big leaf maple and curly dock.

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