I call them creeks, but riparian zones hold a special place in my heart. I more or less grew up in the creek bordering my grandmother's farm, often biking or walking the ten miles to get there if I couldn't get a ride. These zones are fantastically rich in birdlife and harbor an amazing variety of plant and animal life.
For the second month in a row, the deadline passed for this article as I was backpacking, this time along the creek that drops into Big Falls behind Lopez Lake here in San Luis Obispo County. This riparian system, including Lopez Creek and its tributaries may be one of the finest in our area. I don't think I've ever seen Lopez Creek dry, even in the most meager of rainfall years.
The trail through the Big Falls area is densely wooded with massive oaks and sycamores and big-leaf maples. The birdsong was amazing, with Black-headed Grosbeaks, Warbling Vireos, several species of warblers and wrens — including the gorgeous song of the Canyon Wren — all vying to delineate territories and attract mates. Several large trout languished in the larger pools.
This lower portion of the creek is often populated by the local college crowd on weekends, so I headed past the falls, as the whole point of a backpack trip is to get away from all that. Above the falls, the trail quickly leaves the water course. I explored further, but could not find a reliable water source, so I backtracked down to the creek and found a place to spend the night.
With nowhere to go, and all day to get there, I spent a considerable amount of my day observing the life in the pools and rivulets in the short section of sandstone before the creek drops over the falls. Here again, the birds were alive with song, diminishing only in the hottest part of the afternoon. I found a few bedrock mortars along the creek, and knew that that portion of the creek had been enjoyed for many, many years.
I became fascinated with the diversity of life in those small pools. I startled several Western Pond Turtles from their sunning spot as they splashed into the pools and disappeared under the water. There were a large number of snakes in that short section of creek, most of them Two-striped Garter Snakes, and one other species I think was a Coast Garter Snake. I was on the lookout for, but didn't see any of their cousins with the buzzy tails.
On one particularly close encounter with a snake lying in the water, I approached within inches and thought it was dead until I lifted the leaf covering its head and saw the active forked tongue. Of course, I had to touch it and it inflated itself to show bright yellow markings in the newly exposed areas between the scales — no doubt trying to frighten me — then slowly swam away.
California Newt
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The California Newts were numerous both along the trail and in the ponds. I "wasted" a large amount of time watching them exploring for food along the bottom of the pond, lifting leaves and other detritus, or coming to the surface for air, propelled by their slowly wavering tail.
It was the enormous diversity of insects though, that fascinated me most of all. The large Flame Skimmer dragonflies were everywhere, the females dipping their tail ends into the ponds laying eggs, and the bright red males waiting on the pond plants with outstretched wings or scurrying after females.
There were many Water Striders riding atop the surface tension of the water, but, if closely observed, still made small dimples in the surface and threw six oval shadows onto the bed of the creek. Underneath them, Water Boatmen lay suspended in the water column until using their outsized rear legs to "oar" to a different spot.
But perhaps the oddest insect of all were the tiny, shiny black Whirligig Beetles, who would gather into small groups and franticly circle each other, some clockwise, some counter, and seemingly never bumping into each other. When they were not spinning in tight circles, they would often follow the water striders, grab onto their legs, and move them a few millimeters. I could only guess that they were testing them as a food product.
As the sun was setting and the temperature dropped, the birds made another surge in song, and as night fell the Common Poorwills and Western Screech Owls began their chorus.
There may be more enjoyable ways to spend a day, but off hand, none come to mind. If you too wish to visit Big Falls, bring a sturdy vehicle. There are thirteen creek crossings to reach the trailhead.
