2/18/2017 Evan Gillham
Hood Mountain
Location: Sonoma County, Near Kenwood
Area: 3.72m (2)
Elevation Range: 720 ft - 2,733 ft

I chose Hood Mountain as my NABS because I love hiking in that region of the county and I want to get to know it's trails better.

Hood mountain has a lower density of variety in habitats but still contains such areas as dwarf forest, chaparral, and Riparian zone. In addition to these there is a rather unique habitat on the south western portion of the park which consists of a chaparral like area covered in rock outcroppings and small tree stands (Ecology of the southern Mayacmas Range, Lumina Technologies, Santa Rosa, Ca). Today's Hike took me through predominately oak woodland and a Riparian zone containing copious quantities of ferns. The whole area is extremely green and muddy due to recent rains. Most of the trees have lost some branches and a good portion of their leaves due to high winds yesterday making ID more difficult in some cases. Almost all flowering plants (notably Ericaceae) have lost any flowers or buds they may have had. The dominate trees in the Oak woodland are Pseudotsuga menziezi (Douglas Fir) and Quercus agrifolia (California Live Oak) with a sprinkling of Aesculus californica (California Buckeye). The understory of the oak woodland was primarily Umbellularia californica (California Bay) and Geranium robertianum (Herb Robert). The Riparian Zone was populated by predominately Dryopteris (Wood Ferns), and Notholithocarpus densiflorus (Tanoak).