PCT – Near Soda Mountain + Little Hyatt Reservoir

We had quite the crowd of eager Wildflower Walkers at the Rite Aid parking lot at 9am – 16 total – anticipating lovely weather for an outing. At the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument to Hobart Bluff PCT trailhead we shared names with newcomers then split into two groups.

What we found as we started were hundreds of Snow Queens in all their glory, and soon we knew why: lots of snow on the trail. We did find an adorable Yellow Bell Fritillary, however, in a sunny field. But within less than 3/4 mile we had to turn back to due to very risky trail conditions.

Undaunted, we headed over to the PCT trailhead to the Little Hyatt Reservoir for better pickings. The birders — Jon, Collette, Kay and Patricia — happily trailed the rest of us, looking up with their binocs as we all looked down.

Once we got out of the forest and reached the meadow above the reservoir after our lunch break, excitement began to build as we finally started to see some more wildflowers. (We also ran into an old man of the forest with his dog; Dan I think his name was. Seemed harmless.) The highlight was finding Brown’s Peonies blooming away and the promise of Washington Lillys and Corn Lillys to come.

The rather short list of flowering plants we saw were

Hike Leader: Liz