Some laurel sumac bushes are sparkling crimson mounds of new leaves, others are dull green, worn, tattered and faded clumps. Galls that look astonishly like tight, squat rosebuds, green at the base, lavender at the tips, grow on wild honeysuckle. Many of these chaparral shrubs feature a combination of adaptations. Sounds of the Chaparral Calling birds are constant trail companions at this season. Some liken this call to a bouncing ping-pong ball.
Soft breezes swish through the bay leaves.
Rocks scrunch under my boots on the trail. Hoaryleaf ceanothus, looking like misty white clouds against the hillside now, is easily picked out, but also nearly invisible at other seasons. Manzanita blooms,finishing up, form little apple-like fruits for which the plant is named in Spanish. Palos Verdes Peninsula looms in the southern distance, the higher portions of Santa Catalina Island faintly visible behind, and, to the southeast, atop Santiago Peak, an array of antennae glint in the morning sun. Down to the Bridge Ferns and lichens, refreshed by the recent rains, sprout from the flaky, frangible hillside just after the gate from Pinecrest Drive.