As I mentioned before, this past Saturday I participated in a group hike on Mt. Diablo led by Hall Newbegin from Juniper Ridge. I finally got around to editing the photos from the hike, which you can see here. The hike was about seven miles long, though we stopped frequently to look at and learn about many different native plants and wildflowers. We even ate some of them. (Miner’s lettuce: mmmmmm.) There were four of us on the hike: Hall (below, left), Liza (center), Jason (below right), and myself. Liza work for Chico Natural Foods, and she had a pretty good grasp on some wild plant basics. Actually, so did Jason, which made me the novice of the group.

The hike was incredibly beautiful, which was easier to appreciate at the beginning of the hike, before my face turned bright red from the effort.

Hall did a fantastic job, teaching us about everything from pine cones…

…to poison hemlock.

Apparently poison hemlock is in the carrot family, and a lot of hikers accidentally mistake the poisonous plant for its cousin, wild carrot. I learned that the easiest way to tell one from the other is that poison hemlock has a thick stem with many dots at the base, also referred to as the “blood of Socrates“. I took notes and made some quick sketches along the hike, and on the page where I drew an example of the tell-tale spots on the hemlock’s stem, I wrote, “Liver failure: bummer.”

I suppose, though, if you were hiking and mistakenly ate some poison hemlock, this wouldn’t be a bad place to die (God forbid):

As we continued along the trail, we saw a ridiculous amount of poison oak. Now, THIS is a plant I was familiar with. Poison oak comes in many different forms, appearing at once to be a bush, at other times a vine or a tree; poison oak is one crafty bastard.

At one point, Jason and Hall topped near some mugwort to discuss its potential use in beer (Jason works for Devil’s Canyon Brewery). Of course, this only made me crave beer, which is scarce while you’re hiking a mountain that’s nearly 4,000 feet above sea level.

We did see a big rattlesnake to the left of the trail, though I was too freaked out to take a photo of it. It was coiled near the trail, and its rattle was sticking straight up, and it was RATTLING. Hall said that we would be fine, that we should just walk by like it was no big deal, like rattling rattlesnakes are a normal, everyday occurrence. Not wanting to look like a pansy, I followed Liza as we walked by the snake, pretending not to notice. That sucked.

Once we had passed the snake, Hall found some coyote mint growing to the side of the trail. He had brought a tea ball and a mason jar with him for just such an occasion, so he wildcrafted some of the herb and placed it in the tea ball, filling the jar with water. While he packed the future tea away in his pack, Hall described wildcrafting math: you should never take more than ten percent of what a wild plant has to offer, and you should try to disturb the area around the plant as little as possible. If you’re after the roots of a wild plant, it’s tough to avoid disturbing the area, so only dig under one in every twenty or thirty plants. Using these guidelines, wildcrafting is a great way to find wild herbs and food while protecting the plants that provide them.

My favorite plant of the day was black sage. I love, LOVE black sage. It grows on large bushes with pretty lavender flowers, and the leaves are really tasty, though a bit bitter. Hall crushed a leaf to release its oils, and it smelled like heaven. I wish I could keep that smell under my pillow at night, I think it would give me good dreams.

When we finally reached the top, I was elated, partly because the hard part was over. (I may have had to ask the group to stop for me a couple of times on the way up, though I’m not copping to anything.) The view was great, though I will say this: tract homes are ugly. I wish I knew what California looked like before developers existed, I’m sure it was incredible.

I’m really thankful I was able to go on this hike. I loved learning about the different plants on Mt. Diablo, even if my knowledge of them was limited before the hike began. I’m excited to learn more about plants that are native to Northern California, and I now have a much better understanding of how wildcrafting serves to protect the plants it depends on. Thanks, Hall, I had a great time.