Seiko

Skyliners in the Canyon

We went walking this Monday morning at dawn, in a canyon just west of Stonecrest Village. I'd never heard of this area before doing some research yesterday, while I was looking for new places to walk.

It was a bit dark in the canyon at O'Dark Fourteen. Luckily there was a street light where we unloaded ourselves from the car.

but the path was paved and smooth, and we had just enough light to find our way.

Rock-stacking seems to be popular - I don't mind photographing them but I don't personally have the urge to stack...

We continued down for about a mile. It was very cold and got colder as we descended -- probably to freezing.

At the end we found this nice pergola / shade structure / gazebo (too many choices in English). The light was just right coming up the canyon from the east.

The realities of living in San Diego. Dog waste and rattlesnakes.

This plant is known as Toyon, or Christmas Berry. How appropriate for this week, eh? The berries are said to taste terrible raw, but can be cooked and eaten, or infused into a drink. The local natives consumed these berries, as do many local animals and birds.

We found a marshy swamp at the bottom of the canyon, with an inviting path off into the wild

We walked in until the path turned into swamp mud. We retreated to save our soles (souls?) My new ones are much nicer on my feet than the worn-out ones, thank you very much.

Water!

This canyon is a great example of lush native foliage, marked by California Fan Palms (Washingtonia filifera) which are found in clusters anywhere that underground or surface water drains or accumulates.These are native to California but most of our palms have been brought in from elsewhere. Notice more Toyon in there.

We found another shade structure and I got to pose this time.

I like these native desert smoke trees (Psorothamnus spinosus). They do look like smoke from a distance, and light up nicely at dawn. They have nasty spikes though, as we learned when we planted one in our yard.

The Pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana or jubata) to its left, is considered a pest but has been here since the Gold Rush days ~ 1850 ~ when California became a state in the US of A.

I walked down to take a look at the Smoke Tree

and then I saw something strange.

Is this fur or some kind of plant?

Hmmm, definitely fur! Here's a skull and pelt, of a skunk perhaps?

Creepy - my wife didn't want to investigate so we moved along. Thankfully the sun was lighting the tops of the palms and warming the canyon.

Definite signs of water.

I saw our only birds of the day - a silent flock moving at high speed, underlit by the sun. I caught a few of them - sorry for the blur.

Thanks to Photoshop I can show you both watches I carried this morning. Seiko 6222 movement in a Skyliner case. Silver and gold. I suppose at some point we could discuss the rationale for collecting variants of the same thing, distinguished only by case material, or dial color. But now is not that time.