Hiller Park in McKinleyville

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Today I biked over to Hiller Park to check out the Mad river estuary. The ride over on the Coastal Bike Trail is a great scenic route which passes a number of cow pastures complete with bird flocks and dilapidated barns. The sun was shining through a light cloud cover and it was very pleasant out. Once I got down where the river meets the ocean I got to see a pair of seals cruising down the current of the river. It was great to see them effortlessly get pulled through the eddies and bends of the river; it looked really fun. I am gonna have to do that once I get a wetsuit. Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of them, they had already passed me while my eye was occupied in the viewfinder; sometimes having a camera keeps you from seeing the great things right in front of you!

The sand bank of the river on the beach undergoes a constant process of being built up and destroyed with the rise and fall of the tide. While you walk along its side there is always chunks of the bank edge falling into the current. There is also a wall that is around 5 ft tall created by the last flooding of the river.

In this picture below; taken right at the last bend of river before it empties into the ocean, you can see a number of tree stumps scattered about. This phenomenon is called a "ghost forest". It occurs when a subduction zone earthquake causes the ground to suddenly drop several feet. This causes the roots of the trees near the ocean to be exposed to salt water killing them off.

After enjoying the estuary and walking around a bit I started back up a trail that headed towards McKinleyville. This is where I found a few mushrooms scattered about. I have yet to look up this one, it is so young and small it maybe pretty hard to identify. I'll post more info if I figure it out. The was a large grove of coastal oak and all the trunks and limbs were covered in spanish moss. Spanish moss (Ramalina menziesi) is actually a lichen (a symbiotic organism composed of fungi and algae), and this species in particular is very important to sulfur cycling and removes a considerable amount from our atmosphere.

Thats it for now, check back next week!