1980 R.L. Mumme 27 Journal Hastings Reservation 11 Nov Not much done today: watched some at Gate & Westgate, partially dismantled the swimming hole dam (sob!), went grocery shopping early in the day. Wrote letters, german, etc. Called Scott. 12 NOV China Camp - Pine Ridge, Los Padres National Forest, Monterey Co. I accompanied Jim Griffin on the 16 mile Pine ridge hike, all around 4000' elevation. The acorn crop was phenomenal, as we were stepping on fallen acorns all day. Golden Oak is by far the most common oak along the trail, and they all seemed to have a big mast year, [illegible] as the Q. chrysolepis at Hastings. Tanoak was locally abundant, and tanoak acorns were littering the ground in some areas. We only passed a few Black Oaks but, like at Hastings, they all seemed to have big years. Interestingly, all 3 of these have acorns that take two years to mature, [illegible] thus set seed at the same time (spring 1979) that Valley Oaks, Blue Oaks, and Live Oaks set seed for their mast year in 1979. There may be something to this climatic factor business. I also mentioned to Jim that at Hastings, Q. lobata did OK at low elevations (along the creek) but stunk on the hilltops (1980). He pointed out that the valley crops had been frozen out several years in a row, but there was no freeze in 1980, suggesting that the low-lying trees also had more stored reserves. Hmm! Another point: 2 year acorn trees tend to occur at higher elevations: Shorter growing season -> 2 year maturity perhaps? Also on field trip saw 10 Varied Thrush, 3 fox sparrows 4 Hairy Woodpeckers, 5-6 group of AW (one with atleast 7 birds) etc.