WEEKLY

WALKER

By Tom Davids

Wildflowers in Bloom

Edgewood County Park

"On a spring morning one has only to step out into the open country, lift his head to the sky--and follow his nose..." David Grayson

Directions: From Highway 280, take Edgewood Road east about one mile to Old Stagecoach Road opposite Crestview Drive. Or from San Carlos/Redwood City, take Edgewood Road west to the park.

Grade: Moderate with a maximum elevation gain of 600 feet.

Distance: 3.5 miles, more or less.

Time: Two hours.

Special Conditions: This is a San Mateo County Park. No dogs are allowed. Watch for poison oak close to the trailside. There are picnic tables and rest rooms at the trailhead.

By late spring, we've been washed, and we've been cleansed, and the days are longer and warmer. A perfect formula for nature's prolific spring display, which debuts right in our own back yard. Edgewood Park is famous for one of the Bay Area's most spectacular displays of spring wildflowers, and you are only a few minutes away. April and May are the ideal times to hike this park. Spend an hour or two, or the whole day, enjoy the green grass, the clear sky, the magnificent views, the passing of winter, the coming of spring.

Edgewood Park covers more than 400 acres with a wide range of topography--deep, cool canyons, broad meadows, oak woodlands, and hilltops with broad views of Skyline Ridge, San Francisco Bay, and the East Bay hills. It is home to seven rare or endangered plant species, including the San Francisco thornemint and also the endangered checkerspot butterfly.

Our hike begins at the Old Stagecoach day use area parking lot. Take the Edgewood Trail, and climb through the forested, cool woodlands. Watch for patches of miner's lettuce in the moist, shaded areas. After half a mile or so, the trail opens to a series of meadows that extend to Highway 280. Now you begin to see a wide variety of spring flowers--the glossy bright lemon-yellow buttercups, bright orange California poppies, lavender-blue lupine, and tightly clustered blue dicks blooming on naked stems about a foot tall.

As Edgewood Trail approaches I-280, it continues as a service road that meanders through a large meadow in a southeast direction until it intersects with Serpentine Trail near the trail head at Hillcrest Way. Turn left at the junction and shortly right on Sylvan Trail. Watch for one of the most unusual plants in the park. It has deep red flowers in dense spikes on 6- to 20-inch stems. It looks like Indian paintbrush. But it is Indian warrior, and according to legend, each of these plants grow for a fallen Indian warrior. There is another old superstition that sheep became infested with lice when they ate this plant, resulting in the name Pedicularis, meaning louse.

Continue back to the parking area, or take one of the intersection trails to traverse the ridge or climb through the forest to the ridge top.

During your hike, take time to reflect on what this area was like 20 short years ago--a popular motorcycle and four-wheel hill; what it was to be--a state college campus; what some dreamed it to be--a golf course; and what it is--a great place to put aside winter and to enjoy springtime.