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

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Head north on the Cataract Trail, a wide dirt-and-gravel path, passing a faint trail heading right. The large, grassy meadow ahead and right is called Serpentine Swale, named for California’s state rock, which is found on the upper reaches of Mt. Tamalpais and elsewhere throughout the state. Serpentine soil, rich in magnesium, makes life difficult for many plants, but some have adapted to it and others thrive in it. Later today, you will pass through a grove of Sargent cypress, a serpentine lover.

The trail descends gently about 100 yards to a fork. Here, the Simmons Trail, used later, goes right, but your route, the Cataract Trail, bends left and crosses a bridge over Cataract Creek, which drains Serpentine Swale and flows into Alpine Lake. Several hundred feet downstream from the bridge, you come to a jumble of big, moss-covered boulders. Although you may see a trail across the creek, stay on the creek’s right side and follow the trail through the boulders.

Soon you reach a clearing and another wood bridge, this one over Ziesche Creek, named for Edward Ziesche, secretary of the Tamalpais Club, a hiking group founded around 1880. The route turns left, descends a few wooden steps, and then crosses a bridge over Cataract Creek. Just before you reach a large wood bridge over Cataract Creek, you pass a great tangle of evergreen huckleberry that hangs over the creek.