March came in and out like a lamb

Sunshine in the Wild Cat Canyon Grove, March 1, 2023

I think the saying goes, "March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb," but this year March 1, was a nice calm, sunny day after heavy rain here in Marin County and lots of snow in the mountains and other places. However, the dry weather was short lived and at the beginning of the month we were left wondering if March would go "out like a lion." It actually went out like it came in with no storms on the last day, but there sure was a lot of wild weather in between!

Sunday evening March 5.

We don't get to see a lot of the sky from our campsite,

but here is an almost full moon shining through the trees.

My "Redwood Grove" sweater, newly finished.

I started designing this sweater and gathering yarn over a year ago. All the colors are ones I see in the Redwood groves here. The yarns are pretty thick, so the sweater is very warm. I was afraid I wouldn't get it finished in time to wear it this season, but it's still plenty cold here in the redwoods, and I have enjoyed this new, warm and cozy sweater.

Here's the whole sweater.

Blocking the sweater was a challenge now that the cats are back. I started out by laying it out in the back of the car, but it was too cold for the wet sweater to ever dry completely. By folding the sleeves over the front I managed to put it on the top of a plastic storage crate next to my bed in a place the cats didn't bother it, and after several days it was finally dry and ready to wear.

Monday, March 6

We haven't had any snow, but we did get hail!

Monday and Tuesday, March 6 and 7, we headed to Colfax where we celebrated granddaughter Avi's 10th birthday which was March 4. I took pictures of her blowing out the candles on her cake but she vetoed me sharing the pictures - so you'll just have to imagine her blowing out all 10 candles.

Wildcat Canyon Creek on Wednesday morning, March 8, by my morning bench.

Based on the forecast, I expected this creek and all the creeks to be flowing very heavy soon.

March 8, 2023, another sunny morning.

At the intersection of Barnabe Trail and Grave Site Trail, looking west.

Taking advantage of the sunny morning, March 8, to hike on the Grave Site Trail, a trail I haven't been on yet this year, I expected the trail to be much more muddy than it was, but the heavy rains had washed all the mud away so there were only patches of very wet gravel.

Near the end of my hike in Devil's Gulch a Bay Laurel tree blocked the trail, but I found a way under it. We'll plan to return and clear what we can.

It rained heavy all night on March 9, and we woke up to lots of water running off the hills around us. We heard that Lagunitas Creek went from 3 feet to 9 feet overnight. The power went off, but living in a motor home we are very adaptable to that.

March 10, 2023

Water coming down what I have named "West Fork of Wild Cat Canyon Creek."

This is the first, normally little, tributary on my way up to my morning bench.

Water flowing fast and high in "Trillium Gulch."

This is another tributary of Wild Cat Canyon Creek that I have named.

Where the "Middle Fork" joins Wild Cat Canyon Creek.

This "Middle Fork" had been dry for the past several weeks.

And here is the Wild Cat Canyon waterfall next to my morning bench on March 10.

March 10, 2023

Lagunitas Creek running just about as high as we've ever seen it!

Water starting to recede on March 11, 2023 at the little water fall next to my morning bench.

On our day off on Tuesday, March 14, we headed to Angel Island to visit Erin for what was supposed to be just the morning. On the way to Tiburon where we would meet Erin to take the staff boat over it was raining pretty hard and I wondered whether it was smart to be heading to an island on such a stormy day, but we did it. The boat ride over wasn't too rough and we had an enjoyable morning with Erin and then headed back to the boat dock at noon to return to Tiburon. The bay was rocking and rolling with high winds but we headed out across it toward Tiburon. It was a very rough go, with waves crashing towards us and the boat going way up and way down. At one point the boat crashed down so hard the crew all fell down. We made it to Tiburon, but had to turn around and go back to the island because there was a ferry at the dock where our boat could land. Returning wasn't as rough because the wind was now at our back, but docking at the island was rough and getting off the boat was a bit dicey. We went back to Erin's house and enjoyed an afternoon visit before heading back to Tiburon on the 5:00 boat after the winds had calmed way down.

While we were on the island one of the rangers at Samuel P Taylor called to tell us that our park was closed due to trees falling across the road and one in the campground, but that our site was fine and we could get to the park because the road was open from the San Rafael side. We made it back to the closed campground just fine. after our exciting adventure on the San Francisco Bay.

A stormy San Francisco Bay from Angel Island.

Those "white caps" were actually waves.

Looking out the window of the boat - wasn't able to get a picture of the waves, but some of them were quite big.

The tree that fell across two unoccupied campsites about the same time we were rocking and rolling on the bay. Apparently this falling tree just missed a maintenance worker.

One of the trees across Sir Francis Drake Boulevard that kept this section of the road closed for about 24 hours.

Another tree across the highway.

Both of these trees took down AT&T lines so their crews had to repair their poles and lines before the trees could be removed. That is why the road stayed closed so long.

Of course the Bay Area is not the only place that had notable, or record setting weather in California. Record snowfalls have been recorded in the Sierras and I'm sure you've seen pictures of that. One very notable happening this winter was the freezing over of Emerald Bay at Lake Tahoe, something that does happen occasionally at Tahoe. The rest of Lake Tahoe is too deep to ever get cold enough to freeze over, but Emerald Bay is relatively shallow in comparison to the rest of the lake and so it can freeze - last time was around 1990.

Picture of Emerald Bay this winter.

No, we didn't see this, and actually it would be pretty hard for anyone to see it as the road around Emerald Bay was closed when this occurred. I think this picture was taken by a cross country skier or someone on snow shoes. The campground, Eagle Point, we host at in the summer across from where this picture was taken is never scheduled to open until the second week of June. We are wondering if there will still be snow there in mid June. A very warm and rainy spring could melt the snow quickly - we shall see.

We had several trees on our Colfax property die from bark beetles due to being weakened by drought conditions. They were closer to the house than we or our daughter Ruth felt comfortable taking down ourselves, so we hired a contractor to do it. The operation had to be delayed a number of times because of the weather, but finally in mid March they came down. Ruth sent us some pictures of it happening.

See the climber in the tree?

Here's one way up there after the limbs were removed.

I said, "Yikes," when I saw the picture.

Ruth said that it looked like fun to her.

16 inch rounds of wood from the trees, ready to be split into firewood.

Back at Samuel P Taylor State Park we have enjoyed the interludes of sunshine between all the March storms.

A beautiful spider web along the South Creek Trail on March 15.

Part of the beautiful trail connecting the campground to the Pioneer Tree Trail.

March 18

Grandson Alex in the "You don't know if you don't try," tree.

Alex who is currently stationed with FEMA in Sacramento came to visit on March 18.

What I call "Big Tree Pass" on Pioneer Tree Trail.

Alex on an overlook next to Pioneer Tree Trail.

I made a new hat.

Socks almost finished.

On Tuesday, March 21, I headed to Santa Cruz to serve as a small group leader for a clergy retreat. It was a stormy day, but I arrived before the full brunt of the storm hit. There were heavy rains and hurricane force winds on the coast. Our retreat center was right over the beach. The power went off and we ate dinner in a candle lit dining hall. I went for a short walk, but after seeing the tree that caused the power outage I opted to return to shelter. I decided it was not too smart to be walking around in that kind of a storm.

Tree across power lines a couple of blocks from our retreat center.

March 22, 2023

Beautiful ocean view after the storm.

The beach below our retreat house.

Beautiful reflecting beach.

Bird in flight in front of the surf.

Stunning blue "Pride of Madeira."

In a park across from the beach in Santa Cruz.

Up close.

Rob and I finally got over to Devil's Gulch on March 27 to trim the tree I had crawled through earlier in the month. It was a beautiful day for a walk along that creek and through the meadow above.

Devil's Gulch Creek.

The meadows above the creek.

Yes, it was still pretty wet!

Monday, March 27 was a beautiful, sunny day with bright blue sky, but in the middle of the day the park aide got a call from a ranger at Mt. Tamalpais that we needed to close the park at sunset that night through Wednesday due to predictions of more heavy rain accompanied by high winds. The winds predicted would be coming from the south, not the usual direction for this area, but the same direction they had come from when the trees fell all around us on March 14. No one wanted trees falling on campers. It was pretty weird to tell people while the sky was blue and the sun was shining that the park was closing and they had to leave by sunset, but everyone we talked to understood and were very cooperative. The park aide had to call everyone with reservations for Monday and Tuesday night to tell them they wouldn't be able to camp. Of the 30 or so people he called, only one answered their phone, but he was able to leave messages with all the others. Even so a couple of campers showed up Monday afternoon admitting they had ignored any phone calls, and not checked voice mail. Such is the time we live in with all our sophisticated methods of communication, but if folks don't pay attention to it, they aren't informed.

We even had one car with a reservation arrive in the campground near us about 8:00 PM, trying to move a barricade to go to their reserved site. When we stopped them, they said, "Oh, is the campground closed?" We asked if they'd seen the signs or listened to their phone messages. The camper said that since they had a reservation they thought they could still camp here and that no, while they were driving they didn't pay attention to any phone messages. When we explained the safety issues and that trees had fallen in the park this winter they were understanding and they left. I did feel sorry for them, wondering where they would go for the night.

March 28 was our 53rd wedding anniversary so we went out to a movie in San Rafael and our new favorite Chinese restaurant, China Palace, in Novato. We don't go to the movies very often, and most the time when we look at the trailers we aren't interested, but we went to see "Champions," a movie we highly recommend. Earlier in the month on another rainy day off we saw "A Man Called Otus," also a very good movie.

I think the park closure was well marked!

A reflecting puddle on March 30 after the park reopened.

As it turned out the predicted storm was pretty mild, but after all the crazy stuff this winter I guess it was better to be safe than sorry.

Me with another newly knitted hat in a Redwood Grove, March 30.

A blog for March at Samuel P Taylor State Park would not be complete without a Trillium report. There were lots of Trilliums in various stages blooming throughout the month, with some long done blooming, and others just beginning to open.