Spring is making a brilliant appearance with a wider display of colorful flowers and varieties than I have seen in years. The trails along the Pleasanton Ridge are bursting with yellow, blue, purple, orange, and red wildflowers ranging from the usual California Poppy and Bush Lupine to some reds that I haven't yet seen before or yet identified. The great rains and regular storms I'm sure have helped bring out varieties or the intensities we're now enjoying. Rides this time of year are both eye-candy and filled with fast and grippy trails with a mix of wet-stream crossing and puddle hopping and splatter.
And while the fields are blossoming with flowers so to are they filling with critter crap. While not nearly as colorful as the vegetation, there certainly seems to be something bringing out the crappers! I don't know if it's approaching mating season or lots of border skirmishes taking place between rivals marking territory, but it makes for some shitty riding at times. A quick scan of scat pages leads me to believe most of it is bobcat and some coyote. (I almost linked in a pic, but prudence got the better of me.) Almost all the piles are in clusters and rather prominent compared to the past few weeks of riding. One location of many poops is an area that I've seen a large bobcat in previous rides. A few tracks in the mud confirmed that one was definitely a small bobcat.
Trails, despite the rains, are in great condition and a fun ride. More rain threatens today so flowers will linger and poop will amass.
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