Extra Credit
I went on two spring outdoor adventures this break.
The first took me to Calaveras Big Trees State Park. It was a large sequoia forest. I learned here that sequoia bark is fire resistant. When these trees were first discovered by westerners, the bark of a couple of the trees were stripped and reassembled in shows in New York and London. Although the removing of the bark essentially suffocated the trees, it lead to the conservation of the sequoia forest, which is why they still are standing today
My second trip was by far my favorite. I went camping at Big Basin Thursday Friday night. I went on the 13 mile hike Friday morning (Sunset trail to Skyline to the Sea Trail) and saw a huge amount of biodiversity. The hike took me through mostly redwood forest habitat, but included some chaparral patches as well. My hiking buddy and I decided that we saw two to three hundred California Newts (all either looking to breed or actually doing it). The highlight of my trip was finding California Giant Salamanders, a species I haven't seen in the wild in years. There were a group of four at a river crossing on the trail (I had to stop at all river crossings to hunt for newts and other amphibians). I believe the dicamptodon is an adult, because the largest was about 5 inches long and was guarding a little sack of eggs. I am not a dicamp expert though... Seeing the hundreds of mating newts and the dicamp larvae was amazing. I might have to make another trip to go somewhere equally as newt populated before mating season is over!
