Morning at China Hole: too many flies buzzing around to enjoy morning here, so I try to pack up as quickly as possible and leave

Of course, this still takes me a while, and I eat a quick breakfast and make a cup of good coffee anyway. An early mountain biker comes down the trail and waves "hello" as he passes, the first other person that I've seen up close in a week.

View down the canyon behind my tent site at China Hole, Henry Coe State Park

Lee pointed out to me in an e-mail that the plants shooting up through the grass-like tufts here are a different plant than the tufts below (I had thought they were all part of the same plant).

A few yellowjackets are still buzzing around the ground near my tent, feeding on this "leaf"

It's not until after I take this close-up shot that I realize that this is not a leaf, but a dead cricket of some kind that the yellowjackets are slowly feasting upon. No wonder they're still here!

I finally get the 10-ton bike packed up and snap one last photo before departing China Hole

It was pleasantly cool overnight, but the canyon is heating up substantially now that the sun is starting to shine down here. Time to get out and away from all the flies here!

I start limping up China Hole Trail with the 10-ton bike

This lower part of the trail is rather steep, so excellent vistas back down into the canyon present themselves almost instantly.

I come around a switchback and can see back down to China Hole below

After a tough, but rewarding and enjoyable, week at Henry Coe Park, I hate to be on my way home, and leaving the Park behind me.

I bend around a switchback in another of my favourite stretches of China Hole Trail as I limp along upward

I'm a fan of chamise and ceanothus chaparral like this, which is a common vegetation type on hillsides in the California coast ranges.

China Hole Trail passes briefly through a stand of manzanitas

The trail will pass through a denser, shadier stand of manzanitas shortly, but there will be a bit a more open chamise chaparral on the way to there from here.

Rising higher on China Hole Trail, I still have some grandiose views down into the Coyote Creek canyon below

This won't last much longer though, as I enter more manzanita forest and get on the ridge that climbs toward Park headquarters.

China Hole Trail passes through a lot of chamise again before entering another manzanita-dominated area

The manzanita grove ahead is marked by all the lighter green leaves pushing above the carpet of chamise chaparral.

Now I pass through my most favourite part of China Hole Trail, "the manzanita tunnel"

The manzanita growth seems slightly less dense than what I remember from last year. Faulty memory perhaps, but some trimming may have been done, either by maintenance crews or last year's brush fire.

Looking back down toward the canyon across to Willow Ridge from Manzanita Point Road, about 1100 feet above China Hole

The road is actually flat for a brief stretch here on the ridge, but that doesn't last of course! The last couple of miles up Manzanita Point Road climb a few hundred feet more on the way to Park Headquarters.