THE COMING OF AUTUMN

Rex Burress

“Sing a song of seasons; something bright in all...” said Stevenson. Some claim that autumn is the best season, and it is upon us in September 2016. Only the quality of the prelude to winter-unveiling will reveal if it is the “best.” “And sweetest the golden autumn day/ In silence and sunshine glides away...”

Like “it's always sunrise somewhere,” per John Muir, Autumn is always best somewhere. The Colorado aspens, the Missouri maples, the New England hardwoods--somewhere the conditions will be right if you can hit the two-week period of peak color.

The place for one of California's best displays of aspen is in Lundy Canyon next to Mono Lake. A flaming forest of yellow and orange trees extend their beauty from along the rapid stream, right up the encasing canyon walls like an overflow of clinging mosses, adventurous but limited by the need for moist soil.

I connected with fall color once during the last week in September, 1987 when I camped along Lundy Creek, and was overwhelmed by the golden glow radiating from the foliage. By October the leaves are mostly gone since it gets cold early in the high country. The prairie dog-like Belding Ground Squirrels were taking their last looks as they prepared to hibernate, although they were probably not looking at the trees.

During 1965, on my first rockhound trip with Lee Merrick, we camped at Dead Man's Pass in the Mono Lake vicinity during early September, and washrags froze in the camper! But aspens were coming on and vied with rocks for attention. It's difficult to say which is the loveliest, spring flowers or autumn aspens. Adaptation of plants and animals to this planet and its circumstances is most wondrous, and gives substance to the thought of life on other planets in the universe, that might have intelligent creatures in a different kind of way. We may never know what human-like creatures live in the cosmos. Could heaven exist out there somewhere? Beam me up, Scotty!”

The upper part of Feather River Canyon presents another fine Californian autumnal show. Cottonwoods, dogwood, maples, and Indian Rhubarb cluster along the water. The hills around Quincy become peppered with warm color of black oaks as they intermingle with the green conifers, especially in the forests around Oakland Camp on Spanish Creek. The Indian Rhubarb can be bright red if you catch it before the first good frost. Freezes and frosts can quickly transform deciduous plants into a leafless stage of waiting for spring.

Quincy, CA is so enthralled with regional autumn color they have a “Leaf Peeper” web site and photographers search for outstanding submissions almost like camera club competitions.

Butte County towns and cities have become very colorful in autumn when introduced shrubs and trees start their leaf-fall. The Chinese pistache in particular, leads a parade of red and yellow plantings in Oroville that have enlivened the community and made the city into an autumnal showpiece on par with Nevada City, plus there is the river's drama.

One could do worse than stroll along the Feather River and watch for signs of the season! Check out the Oroville Nature Center riverside this October and see the “Little Red Tree”-pistache growing alone in a rock crevice on “Stony Island, or see the colorful array of willow and grape thickets.

Tree leaves, returning salmon, and migrating birds all add to the renown of Autumn!

“The same leaves, over and over again, they fall from giving shade above,/To make one texture of faded brown,/And fit the earth like a leather glove./Before the leaves can mount again,/To fill the trees with another shade,/They must go down past things coming up,/They must go down into the dark decayed./ They must be pierced by flowers,/And put beneath the feet of dancing flowers./However it is in some other world,/This is the way in ours.”--Robert Frost