Читать книгу Afoot and Afield: San Francisco Bay Area. A Comprehensive Hiking Guide онлайн

69 страница из 110

From the four-way junction, descend the Phyllis Ellman Trail, a single track heading northwest. In about 100 yards, you come to marker 13, right, indicating the tree island ahead and right. Trees can grow on this site because the rock is fractured, allowing roots to penetrate until they find water.

About 100 feet ahead, at a trail post, you turn left. The trail gains a little elevation and then levels, taking you across a rocky hillside in the heart of the serpentine belt. Now descending, you pick your way over rocky ground to marker 14. This is the area to look for rare plants, such as Marin dwarf flax, Tiburon paintbrush, serpentine reedgrass, and the Tiburon Mariposa lily, a late-May bloomer that grows nowhere else in the world.

Level for a while, the trail curves right and then drops on a moderate grade. At a junction where a trail merges from the right, you bear left and continue downhill. In about 100 yards, at the next junction, a sign with an arrow prompts you to turn right.

Marker 15, right, refers to soap plant, identified by its long, wavy leaves. The bulb of soap plant had several uses for Native Americans: it yields a cleansing substance when crushed; it contains toxins that stun fish; and, when detoxified by cooking, it can be eaten. Soap plant, which blooms from May through July, carries its flowers aloft on tall stalks, but these don’t open until shade falls in the late afternoon.