Nature Between the Cities: Hiking at San Bruno Mountain

Ravens over Colma, the City of Souls

Date: September 15, 2022

Place: San Bruno Mountain County Park, Brisbane, California

Coordinates: 37.697045, -122.434067

Length: 3.9 miles

Level: moderate

 

Leading a 4H Hiking Project drives me to explore new trails constantly. I am fortunate to live in the Bay Area, which is geophysically diverse, and has abundance of hiking possibilities within a short driving distance. This is my 14th year of leading this project and very rarely have we revisited the same trail, there is so much to explore. For the first hike of this 4H year I chose to hike at San Bruno Mountain Park, a place I've been eying for some time. One of the perks of leading this project are the perp hikes, which I often do alone. This is the blogpost about my solo hike at San Bruno Mountain Park.

My hike as captured by my GPS

The day was overcast and cold. I started from the main parking lot and walked on the inner park road to the trailhead and there I started on the Summit Loop Trail, counterclockwise.

Summit Loop Trail

For seeing wildflowers in mid-September it's almost a given that one has to hike in the coastal area. There were wildflowers blooming along the trail. Not many species, and many of them and only a few California natives.

Pacific Aster, Symphyotrichum chilense

There was rich vegetation all around me, much of it invasive species such as eucalyptus trees and Himalayan blackberry. I was surprised to find the Himalayan blackberry still at peak fruiting, with many ripe berries ready to be harvested.

In fact, there were so many ripe berries all along the first mile of my hike that I barely made progress: I was so engrossed in gorging myself with fresh, yummy berries.

Himalayan Blackberry Rubus armeniacus

Between the berry picking stops I also pause to look at other interesting plants, albeit not edible. Monterey cypress are an all times favorite of mine, a lovely native tree of the mid-California coast.

Monterey Cypress

About half a mile into the hike the trail narrowed and entered a thick chaparral area. The center of the trail was a deep rut made by bikes. I could only imagine the water flowing in it  after when it rains. The sky actually looked like rain was coming soon but it was the normal blanket of coastal fog. 

Summit Loop Trail

I haven't seen much wildlife until then. There were present, I was sure of that, but they were not out and easy to spot. Except for the spiders. I saw many of the 'castle' building spiders hiding inside their structures with only their front legs poking outside to feel the web.

Spider

Being alone and not in any particular hurry I could pay attention to details around me that I wouldn't have otherwise (probably). Like the spore-making structures of the ferns along the trail. 

California coffeeberry bushes (no relation to actual coffee) dotted the trail. They too were bearing fruit. Their berries are powerful laxative that were medicinally used by the native people of the Bay Area.

California Coffeeberry, Frangula californica 

While I don't know of any medicinal (or otherwise) use of the snowberry berries, (I know they aren't edible), I do love their beautiful addition to the park's scenery. 

Snowberry

I was surprised at the vegetation richness over the relatively short distance I've walked so far. By then I was already full of blackberries and didn't stop to harvest them any more, but I did stop for any interesting plant along the way, including the only Indian paintbrush that I saw blooming that day. 

Wight's Indian Paintbrush, Castilleja wightii

I was walking downhill for nearly a mile on the Summit Loop Trail before I actually started ascending toward the summit. On the north side the trail's grade is very mild. The cloud cover was dense and nearly all my wide shots came out very dark. 

Summit Loop Trail

The close up photos did come out brighter though, showing the color of the flowers better. 

Honeysuckle 

Most wildflowers I've seen on this hike were individuals blooming out of season. The Sticky Monkeyflower however, seemed to be blooming at peak season still. There were many of them around. 

Sticky Monkeyflower, Diplacus aurantiacus 

A ray of sun would occasionally break through the thick clouds, and little fence lizards were taking the opportunity to gather some warmth into their bodies. I chanced on one lizard that cooperated with me as I took its photo. 

Western Fence Lizard

I was nearly alone on the trail but occasionally I did come across other hikers. While I was ascending slowly up to the summit, I was overtaken by a single trail runner who passed me at the speed of wind. After having seen some insane trail running up at Mount Whitney I developed high appreciation of the people who can do that. I settle for walking. 

Most of the mountain's vegetation was chaparral community of which the dominant bush was the coyote brush. Coyote brush is w=one of the hardiest plants I know, and is so common that I rarely feature it in my blog as an individual plant. On this hike however, I saw a number of exemplary coyote brush bushes that were very interesting, or just plain gorgeous. The white tips of this bush aren't flowers but the fluff of seeds ready to be wind-dispersed. 

Coyote Brush, Bacharis pilularis

Little song birds, sparrows mostly were twitting in the bushes well hidden from my camera. The birds that did stay out in the open were the ravens. One of them landed next to me and eyed me with interest as I walked by him. Perhaps he though I might drop a morsel or two of human food (I didn't). 

Raven

I now was high enough to have a nice view of San Francisco. BC (before COVID) I used to go there a lot, leading guided tours. Now I was satisfied looking on the city from a distance. 

View north to San Francisco

The upper part of the trail included a few switchbacks and in one of the turns I got a good view of the path I had ascended. The thin trail curved through the grayish green chaparral with an occasional Monterey cypress tree. This scenery stood in sharp contrast to the forest in the background which was all invasive eucalyptus. 

One of the interesting things about the coyote brush plants was that their stems were completely covered with lichen (of several species) and liverwort. I haven't seen that on coyote brush plants on the east bay. Not to that extent, at least. I wonder if the coastal fog was a factor here or wether there were other reasons. Either way, I liked the sight of it. To my knowledge, the lichen doesn't harm the bush at all. 

I was nearing a fenced structure off the trail and the slope was getting milder. Large bushes, many of them covered to almost choking by blackberry vines were blocking my view of the structure. I assume it's somehow connected t the antennae complex at the summit. Beneath the bushes bloomed the pearly everlasting which got its name for the inflorescence structures that remain stiff and beautiful even after the flowers have gone to seeds. 

Pearly Everlasting, Anaphalis margaritacea

The summit of San Bruno Mountain loomed darkly to the southwest. It was crowned by many antennae and I suspected that the actual summit would not be accessible because of them.  

I crossed a narrow and heavily damaged paved road that stretched from the fenced structure to the summit. The hiking trail was curving around the mountain top from the west. Looking southwest was a thick urban area that stretched all the way to the ocean. Directly below me that urban sea was interrupted by large green lawns dotted with white tombstones and old mausoleum buildings - I was looking at Colma - the city of souls, where all of San Francisco's dead were (and still are) buried. A conspiracy of ravens were playing in the wind nearby and I chose as header for this post a soulful photo of the ravens over the eternal resting fields of Colma. 

Colma

The last bit of trail leading to the summit was on exposed rocky outcrops. The wind had picked up and I huddled in my jacked and quickened my pace. As I suspected, the Summit Trail didn't go through the actual summit only close to it. The actual summit was fenced off and full of antennae. On the way there I saw one old and out of commission dish antenna that seemed very much out of place. 

I didn't spend any time at the summit. The place by itself is not very interesting. There are some really nice views from the trail near the summit though. 

View Northwest, Lake Merced

There is a road to the summit leading to the antennae there. I crossed it and continued on the Summit Trail Loop, now descending on the northeastern side of the peak.  

Yellow Yarrow, Eriophyllum confertiflorum

The trail down was much steeper and shorter. I was treated to some nice views of the East Bay, but the cloud cover was much thicker now and the wind blew hard and cold and I wanted to get down quickly. 

View Northeast

The chaparral on the east-facing slope was much lower and consisted of shrubs different from the west side chaparral. Late blooming ceanothus bushes added their sweet odor to the cold air. 

Blueblossom, Ceanothus thyrsiflorus

It was nice to see some bloom still, even this late in season. For finding flowers in fall time the coastal region of California is the the right place to go. 

Seaside Daisy, Erigeron glaucus

I descended quickly, making my way down through the chaparral and back to the lower, forested part of the mountain. 

The forest below the peak is nearly all eucalyptus. The trees were covered in English ivy vines and I found it ironic that these two highly invasive species from two far away parts of the word were having their existential conflict here on Californian soil. 

A 'forest' of poison oak was more the California theme. I love seeing poison oak, for it is a beautiful plant, but I avoid touching it, now that I know that I'm sensitive to its oils. 

I completed the Summit Loop Trail and now I had to go back to the parking area. This time I walked on the road, but I was still paying attention to the interesting sights by the road side. 

Fruit of the Italian Arum, Arum italicum 

Just before returning to the parking lot I saw the California state flower in bloom. I didn't notice them on the way to the loop trail because in the morning the flowers were still closed. Now however, they were fully open in all their golden glory.

California Poppy, Eschscholzia californica

Less than a month later I led the 4H Hiking Project on the same trail and the fog was so thick we couldn't see any of the views. I would love to go bak and hike that trail in the spring, it should be really nice.