The plan was to remove English Ivy from some of the trees in Arroyo Seco. It was going well, for a few minutes, until everyone got attacked by killer bees.
(Not kidding)
We ran like hell, and got away from them (I have never before had a bee chase me!), but everyone left their packs and tools behind. We had lunch and waited for about an hour until a couple brave souls cautiously went back and grabbed them (the bees were still pissed off...)
For the rest of the day, we pulled "vinca", a small flowering plant that...again, I'm not kidding...competes with poison oak. Helping poison oak flourish again after the fire frankly made me feel dirty and ashamed. Sorry fellow hikers - PO is apparently better environmentally than a benign plant with attractive purple flowers. Blame mother nature, not me!
We also took out a bunch of mustard plants, and thistle.
We saw several California Newts in the stream. All looked fat and healthy. No other animal tracks, but that's simply because so many hikers and bikes go up there.
Lots of wildflowers a regrowth. Most of the trees seem to be leafing out. The mudflows have changed the course of the stream significantly, and even that wide flat old road-turned-trail is damaged pretty bad.
Pics:
Ivy:
Mud:
Erosion:
New stream course:
Bites taken out of trail:
I have to admit, we were pulling mustard plants near the trail, and ignoring the vast fields of mustard covering the hillsides. This made me wonder how much of a positive impact we could really have, but every bit counts, and is better than nothing. Still a great group and I look forward to learning more from them.
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