If you would prefer to spend your time hiking rather than wait for a parking space at the Phoenix Lake parking lot, try the Tucker Cutoff Trail from Kent Woodlands. This four-mile hike takes you through several habitats – oak, bay and madrone woodland, redwood forest and even some chaparral. The hike starts opposite a fire road gate, right where the street sign points to Crown Road one way and Phoenix Road the other way. There is no sign at the trailhead, only a break in the guard rail at the start of the trail.
As I descended, I paused to watch an Anna’s hummingbird sipping nectar from the orange blossoms of sticky monkeyflower, and to admire the chemise in bloom. I always like to stop and smell the sage, and this trail provides both California sage and pitcher sage. As the trail transitioned to redwoods, with their understory of tanoaks and hazel trees, I spotted some hazelnuts that had already formed. Both western sword fern and the less-common California sword fern grow along this trail, sometimes side-by-side so you can compare them.
In .3 miles make a right turn onto the signed Tucker Trail. California angelica, a late bloomer, is displaying its white flowers on tall stems now. (Note that this is not the Angelica sinensis, sometimes called dong quai, used in Chinese herbal medicine, or the Angelica archangelica long grown as a medicinal herb in Europe.)
When you get to a sign that says Harry Allen Trail, stay left to get to Phoenix Lake. At the signed junction with the Bill Williams Road, you can circle the lake either direction. I went left, and found myself surrounded by a loveliness of convergent ladybird beetles. I have been waiting years for a chance to use that wonderful collective noun, and while I am unsure how many ladybird beetles constitute a loveliness, I can say these were streaming by at the rate of about 400 a minute.
Turn right on Gertrude Orr Trail. Along this trail, I noticed the webs of filmy dome spiders. These spiders spin a web shaped like an igloo, and hang under the apex of the dome.
Take the unmarked stairs heading down on your right, stopping to spot the tiny, delicate white flowers of the alum root. Miwoks ate the spring leaves boiled or steamed. At the bottom of the stairs a pale swallowtail was nectaring on blackberry flowers, and two Lorquin’s admirals perched on a willow, their host plant.
Cross a bridge and turn right on Phoenix Lake Road. Opposite the Yolanda Trail, acorns are already forming on the black oak. There is nothing but mud where Phoenix Lake should be at this point. As one hiker I chatted with said, “If anyone has any question in their mind that we are in a serious drought, take them here.”
Turn right to cross the dam. From the dam, I watched a Caspian tern persistently flying back and forth over the remaining water. I could imagine it saying to itself, “There has to be a fish in here, I must have missed it.”
Turning left on Harry Allen Trail, I watched an Acmon blue butterfly nectaring on buckwheat flowers. This ¾-inch butterfly can use buckwheat as a host plant, but this was a male just interested in the nectar. A gap in the guard rail and a bright yellow hydrant mark the place the trail ends on Crown Road. Turn right to complete the loop.
To reach Crown Road and Phoenix Road take Sir Francis Drake Boulevard to College Avenue. Turn right on Woodland Avenue. Turn right on North Ridgewood, left on Goodhill Road, then left on Crown Road. Continue to where Crown Road becomes Phoenix Road. Note: the navigation system in my car and MapQuest make it look as if you could take Upland Road to Crown Road to arrive at this junction, but you will find a gate across a fire road. If you end up at the fire road just past Coronet Road, you can park and take the short fire road to the start of the hike. Dogs permitted on leash, but note there is a lot of trailside poison oak.
Wendy Dreskin has led the College of Marin nature/hiking class Meandering in Marin since 1998, and teaches other nature classes for adults and children. To contact her, go to wendydreskin.com
