Gary-Summer: March 3, 2019 - China Creek Park

Sunday, March 3, 2019

March 3, 2019 - China Creek Park

Title: March 3, 2019 - China Creek Park
Hike Info : Description : Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Trail head: China Creek Park, Centerville, CA also called Centerville Park

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking

Trail: Chinese Creek Park Nature Trail

Destination: Loop

Distance: 2.03 miles

Start Time: 12:24

End Time: 2:03

Travel Time: 1:39 (1.23 mph)

Moving Time: 1:29 (1.37 mph)

Elevation Rise: 139'

Descent: 59‘

Maximum Elevation: 354'

GPS Tracks

Description:

For this is the secret of successful sauntering. He who sits still in a house all the time may be the greatest vagrant of all; but the saunterer, in the good sense, is no more vagrant than the meandering river, which is all the while sedulously seeking the shortest course to the sea. But I prefer the first, which, indeed, is the most probable derivation. For every walk is a sort of crusade, preached by some Peter the Hermit in us, to go forth and reconquer this Holy Land from the hands of the Infidels. From Walking by Henry David Thoreau

Sometimes you can on a walk to get someplace. Sometimes it is to push yourself. But then sometimes you walk just to wander. That is our time on this episode. It is a trail which lends itself to going nowhere fast and we fastly got nowhere. But it was pleasant. Cool, but no rain. It is good to walk with your family

The talk this morning was to go to Woodward Park and do a walk. I suggested a place I had not been before, close to Centerville called China Creek Park-I got the name wrong, oh well-I thought it was Chinese Creek Park. This is a county park and I happened to come across it while looking for something else-isn’t that how the most interesting things get found.

A Bit Bigger Idea of the Location

Gary, Andrea and Steven by the enterance gate

So we took off around noon to go there, about 25 minutes away. That gets us to Smith Road in Centerville, where we head south for about a third of a mile. We come to a gate, which is the boundary to the park. There is one other car parked-not room for a whole bunch of people. We get out of the car-there is little to prepare-and are off.

View at the start

This area is flat. You start down the rest of Smith Road. There are signs marking various nature areas, after all this is a guided nature trail. In the part of the trail which is paved, there is five markers. Cows are behind a barbed wire fence to the east of us. Grasslands area around us with sprouting of massive oak trees, some older than 200 years.

Silhouette Against Dark Clouds

At the end of the road is a sign saying Long Trail which seems to indicate to us to take a left. The Short Trail just heads back to the car-about a half mile total with six guide markers. We take the left and read the fifth marker, continuing on past it. We pass by a pond and follow a creek a ways east, passing under oaks and sycamore trees. That is until we came to a gate, baring us from going forwards anymore. Oh Oh. Checking the map, Steven decides that the sign saying Long Trail probably was pointing beyond where we turned. So we walk back the same way we came.

Interesting coloring

Andrea and I start talking about the County elections this coming Tuesday. She is upset by my terminology, but interested in my rational about why I am not happy with the lone possible person I may be in sync with. Later on Andrea reads the campaign flyers I got and understands why I am not happy.

The Wow Moment

Now we get to the Long Trail. This starts off by following the South Pond, but then goes to an area interspersed with grasses, shrubs and trees. We pass one sign which points out an elderberry plant. Then come to another talking about sycamore trees. An oak standing majestically against the cloudy skies catches our attention, and our cameras.

North Pond Reflections

We meet up with a little loop called the Woodland loop. There does seem to be more trees on this little quarter mile path. The big bonus is a patch of white blossomed peach trees. Real nicely offset by the natural reds and browns of the rest of the area. The trail loops back to the beginning. This is by North Pond. We go around the pond. There is tall marsh grasses growing on the side of the pond where ducks and frogs are hiding. We also meet up with a large white fungi growing in the middle of our path. (Sort of the fun guy meeting the fungi thing. Andrea said something like this first.) This path ends as we have gone about ⅞ of the way around the pond. So we backtrack to the original trail.

The trail leads us on the south side of North Pond and eventually gets us back to the car. A lot more cars have lined up behind us. We hop into the car and return back to our house. Not a bad little stroll on a Winter’s day. In a Summer afternoon, it would feel different.