kdiversityka5472's Journal

For my third hike I went to Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park in Oakland. I ended up trekking along the Graham and West Ridge Trail. It was a sunny day with light winds and zero clouds in the sky. It was fairly cool although I felt a bit too warm underneath my jacket. I didn't see much wildlife other than the occasional squirrel and some corvids squawking hear and there. There where quite a lot of people hiking along the trails and many of them had brought dogs. Some of which either didn't notice or simply ignored the waste their dogs left behind. The redwoods seem to occupy a specific patch of territory and as I walked I started seeing a boundary where the redwoods ended and the typical flora started. The redwoods felt quite cool and well shaded furthermore the soil seemed much more damp than the non-redwood areas. Before this hike I hadn't realized Oakland had any redwoods and prior I had thought redwoods to mainly occupy coastal areas like in Santa Cruz.

For this second hike I went to Lake Chabot near Castro Valley. I trekked along the West Shore and East Shore trail. At my arrival the sky was somewhat cloudy with much more darker clouds seen in the distance. It started off somewhat warm and sunny but eventually it actually started sprinkling about two thirds in on my hike. Then it reverted back to being somewhat cloudy. I didn’t really see a lot of animals like squirrels or other little critters. There were some birds but they were either floating in the lake or hiding up in the trees. I will say though that the woodlands along the lake were very lively and green. I saw a couple of what looked to be decaying plants, but overall it was very vibrant. The lake on the other hand seems quite murky and stagnant. Some of the coastline inlets actually appeared somewhat marshy.