Episode 18: Mountain Spring

A partly cloudy and warm spring afternoon beside a mountain spring in the Shasta-Trinity National Forest in Shasta County, California. I recorded this right where it burst forth from the ground in a tall stand of old growth Douglas Fir, Ponderosa Pine, Incense Cedar, and Sugar Pine. The Black Oaks, Pacific Dogwoods, and Bigleaf and Vine Maples in the understory had yet to leaf out, and the first fern fiddleheads had only just begun to unfurl in this beautiful and secluded area of densely forested mountains located a short distance from the Pacific Crest Trail. The spring, one of several in the area, forms the headwaters of West Trough Creek, a cold and shady tributary of Squaw Valley Creek, itself a tributary of the McCloud River.