Fall Creek Trail

For Direction and Review at Yelp Click here.

Located in Felton, CA the Fall Creek Trail is a scenic trail in the Fall Creek section of Henry Coe Redwood State park. There are several options – a three mile loop trail taking one to the ruins of a Lime Kiln or the 7 mile trail along the Fall creek running adjacent to the creek amidst redwood forests and passing by an abandoned barrel making operation which used to serve the Lime Kiln operation.

During the winter there is plenty of water in the creek and little cascades are formed all along the trail as water rushes down fallen logs and boulders in the creek.

A few interesting encounters..

Lady-bugs

Ladybugs overwinter in the forests of Santa Cruz mountains. We saw a couple of colonies of ladybugs. There were hundreds of them together, especially on the south-facing portions of logs where afternoon sunlight was bringing warmth. An exhibit at the start of the trail mentions that the term lady-bug for this beetle is of European origin. In middle ages the farmers prayed to Mother Mary to save the crops from infestation by pests. The bugs arrived from the sky and destroyed the pests and were named “Beetles of Our Lady” and eventually lady bugs.

Their red color wards away potential predators. If a predator does dare to consume them, the toxins from the exoskeleton are yuk.. So, next time it does not happen.

 

Banana Slug

We saw four of these at different locations along the trail today. As the name indicates, they have a banana-like color. No exoskeleton. Their protection is the slimy skin, which also helps them to slide along the forest floor and stick to the tree trunk as they climb up.

These slugs are about 4 inches long and move very slowly. They are the campus mascot of UC Santa-Cruz. Found from southern Alaska to Santa-Cruz mountains, this species is native to northern Pacific coast.

Lime Kiln

What is lime : CaO

How is it made: CaCO3 heated to 900-1000C to give CaO + CO2

Why they need it in 1880s: For Mortar, the binder that makes sand stick together after adding water. So, the powder of CaO had to be shipped in wooden barrels in a relatively water-proof containers. Now CaO is used in many applications – perhaps also in your antacids.

More about early Lime Kilns here.

Under these arches would be burning Coal and wood, used to heat pulverized lime-stone (CaCO3) for three days, fed by two men working 12 hour shifts to keep the fire going, until the temperature was hot enough for long enough to make lime. The whole operation of loading a batch of limestone and removing the lime took about a week.

Barrel Mill Site

All that remains is these ruins witness to the operation of making barrels from the lumber in the forest. By 1920s the deforestation of Santa-Cruz mountains was almost complete and there was little wood left to sustain the operation. Most of the redwood trees in the forest are second growth and it is good that they are under the state park system, eg Henry Coe and Big Basin redwood state parks.