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Jason wrote: EDIT: OK, you snuck one more in while I was typing. What kind of trees are in the second photo?

Manzanita? I really don't know but I did a Google search and it looked similar

"leaflets three, let it be!" That's poison oak alright! I have tons of it on my property. It has red leaves when first starting out in the spring, then bright red again in the fall. Otherwise, it is a pretty, soft green. Be more careful in the fall and winter when the leaves are gone. A broken branch or twig will still give you a dose of the stuff. My dad, came up one winter and hacked a bunch out on my property and burned it. He didn't know it was poison oak. The smoke is also reactive. His lungs got it good. Every bit of skin exposed to the smoke; eyes, ears, etc. Were a mess. I'll take some shots of it on my place for comparison and post up here.
Wib, collect that Stout!
BTW by the bark, the tree with moss on it is a live oak, so called because it looses leaves over the entire year and not dropping them all at once. So some are always on the tree; hence the name live oak.

Is that manzanita or mandrone? Both are wicked because the branches don't snap and break when bent. Don't follow too close or the branch the fellow in front bows out of the way will come back at you!

Jason: Poison oak can grow as a bush, a vine if near a tree or something it can trellis on, or even as a ground cover if grazed by livestock. Just check the leaf patten. Also in the late summer, it will have white berries on it.

My employer provides imunization shots for the stuff to the tree trimming crews. It lets you build up an immunity to it. My wife is naturally immune to it. She could (but doesn't) chew on the stuff and not get it. About 10 percent of the population is immune.

canyncarvr wrote:I don't know about that being poison oak, Wib. It looks more like Live Oak to me.

But....I'm often wrong about it. It doesn't HAVE to be little shiny,waxy, red leaves to be poison oak.

That first pic looks like all the poison oak i've ever seen (and been covered in).

-Maurice

Madrone is lighter colored and usually bigger
And I think it usually grows on the northern, wetter side of the mountain

Thanks for the info. I only had 3 cases of it last year.

The leaves of Madrone have absolutely no similarity to Manzanita. The stuff we were riding through right there was manzanita.

Here are some good pictures of poison oak. Note how many pictures don't look Wib's picture, although one does.

My point mostly was poison oak surely doesn't always look the same.

I looked around the web for some live oak pics..they do not grow in 'leaflets of three', and besides that, look a whole lot like laurel (which is what I always get mixed up name-wise with madrone). So...I stand corrected.

Madrone grows into an actual tree looking plant. I've never seen manzanita more than a bush. May have several inch-thick limbs, but it's not a tree by any stretch.

So that's manzanita bushes we are shown riding through in the photo Wib put up?
I'm guessing due to the drier conditions down where I live, it doesn't get that big. Either that, or it all burns up before it gets that old. Nice link CC, thanks!

Hereis a decent picture of a Madrone tree, and here are some pics of leaves and bark of the Madrone.

Yep, it was Manzanita. (Right Wib?) ;)

Not to be confused with Mtn. Mohogany, another bush that's common around these parts.

Oh, check thisfor a good manzanita pic. Look familiar?

More nice links to the photos. I think it was the moss hanging on the manzanita that threw me off.

With a literary license to steal other people work, I am starting a poem to recall the events that took place on this ride. Set to the tune of "The Cremation of Sam McGee", here's a prelude:

There were strange things done in the woods for "fun"
In hills that are laced with gold;
Those two days of trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The John’s Peak hills had their own wild thrills
But the wildest they ever would ever see
Was the ride through the heat, poison oak, and mesquite
Four KDX's headed up by CC.

(I know, not too much heat or mesquite, CC, but it's just a beginning)
maybe the line should be"Was the ride through the rain, and the blood and the pain" but there wasn't much rain either. Hmmmmm.......
There's work to be done.
Should I continue?

Is this a 'no touch' day for 'ya?

As long as the 'strange things done' doesn't include any of Wibby's pics, you're good to go!

..thru the rain the blood and the pain....well, that's just funny! I mean...it sounds pretty tough!! Everybody but Marty had a pretty good time!!

I could not have come up with that if you gave me a week!

**edit** I like the green machine version better.

Still editing; better re-read it! Maybe I should write it with Marty's crash as the main theme? But that happened early in the weekend, so no.

Yes: No Touch! Too much snowmelt!

...And the fish and the chips were delightful,
The cave, while quite dark, not too frightful;
From granite to dirt, so fun that it hurt,
And the company of green looked just right-ful!

A limerick! Well...almost.


Riding out of Bunny Flat on Monday! C'mon down (or up)!! Taking a whole fam damily that's never been on that side before for a sight-seeing tour.