The weather is weird today: it’s totally dark and overcast, but warm, and there’s little (read: “almost no”) rain, so we don’t know what the sky is up to.  I got up around 6:00 am and was out the door with Sergeant Margie in about 15 minutes.  We went over to the American River Bend Park for our walk.  We were drizzled on occasionally, and heard some distance thunder, but otherwise I didn’t feel the need to wear a jacket or bring an umbrella.

I hadn’t been there is quite a while because there were a series of fires that burned through parts of the park and I didn’t want to be in the way of the firefighters.  I was happy to see that most of the area where I usually do my mushrooms hunts in the winter, and watch for Pipevine Swallowtails in the spring weren’t burned… but other areas, especially where they’d built up some new picnic tables and camping sites were burnt to the ground, everything flattened and blackened.  It’s always sad to see the incinerated forest… but I also know that the burning makes way for new growth… and as this is a “mast year” for acorns, black walnuts, and buckeye chestnuts, there will still be plenty for the wild critters to eat (and for new seeds to plant themselves).  It’ll be interesting to see how the burned areas “translate” in ‘shroom season.  I wonder if there will be any (or maybe different kinds of) mushrooms where the ground has been burnt.  Some fungi — like the Elfin Saddles — prefer burnt earth, but I don’t know how long it takes for them to establish themselves…

Between the summer-burnt vegetation and the fire-burnt areas, there wasn’t a whole lot to photograph today, but the sky was interesting with all the dark, sometimes roiling clouds, and I got a lot of good exercise.  I got some shots of the burned areas (and the plants already trying to reestablish themselves in it) — including some small bones of what was probably someone’s cat or dog, although I couldn’t find the skull.

There were signs all over the park saying that the Park Service will be dropping gravel for the spawning salmon in the river over the month of September… but I don’t know how that will affect visits to the park during the month.  I’m glad they’re laying the gravel for the spawning season, though.  I don’t remember them doing that around here over the last 3 or 4 years…

The dog and walked for about 2 hours and then headed home.