This is a gallery I have wanted to do for a long time, commemorating in pictures an unforgettable weeklong hike across the Santa Monica Mountains led by the incomparable Milt McAuley, author of wildflower and hiking trail books. This was back in the days when my knowledge of wildflowers was largely limited to the Santa Monicas because that's where I cut my teeth as they say on botany. Milt led a group like ours once every year, traversing the Backbone Trail in all its ups and downs, which he had had a lot to do with establishing, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to do this that one time and to have enjoyed the company of a person not only knowledgeable but happy to share a fund of stories about his life and about what we were experiencing as we walked. He was 83 when he led the Backbone Trek I participated in in 2002, and it turned out to be his last. The Backbone Trail is 67 miles long and passes through coastal sage scrub, chaparral, riparian woodlands, freshwater marshes and oak savannahs. Construction on the trail began in the early 1980's, connecting some newly built trails with some already existing trails and fire roads. One section that for us required a car shuttle has now been finished and opened in 2016. We began at the Ray Miller trailhead in Point Mugu State Park and ended at Will Rogers State Park, passing Sycamore Canyon, Sandstone Peak (at 3,111' the highest point of the Santa Monica Mountains), Castro Crest, Malibu Creek State Park, Saddle Peak, and Topanga State Park. We camped every night, and a truck transported our camping equipment so all we had to carry during the day was a backpack. Breakfasts and dinners were prepared for us. Most of the participants were only somewhat interested in the flora, and myself and one other person often found ourselves lagging well behind the group of 20 or so people in order to photograph the plants. It was simply an experience of a lifetime, and I took about 1500 photographs. In my early days I had not yet developed the habit of taking many pictures of each species, and because we saw so many plants and so many species this gallery usually includes a single picture only. I have also limited the number of non-invasive species of which there are a lot in the Santa Monicas, and those that are included are indicated by an asterisk next to the common name. Since this was a seven day excursion, this gallery is essentially equivalent to seven normal galleries. Not all of the pictures displayed here were taken on this particular outing. Some were taken on subsequent hikes on the same segments of trail. In addition to Milt's book, I was greatly aided in compiling this gallery by referring to Flora of the Santa Monica Mountains by Peter Raven, Henry Thompson and Barry Prigge, Flora of the Santa Monica Mountains by Carl Wishner, and Flowering Plants by Nancy Dale. NOTE: The Woolsey Fire of 2018 burned across much of the area and necessitated trail and park closures, but the Backbone Trail was officially reopened in July 2019.

California milkweed
Asclepias californica
Apocynaceae

Santa Susana tar plant
Deinandra minthornii
Asteraceae
[Named for Theodore Wilson Minthorn, 1886-1967]

Coulter's lupine
Lupinus sparsiflorus
Fabaceae

Hawkweed
Hieracium argutum
Asteraceae

California plantain
Plantago erecta
Plantaginaceae

Coast morning glory
Calystegia macrostegia ssp. cyclostegia
Convolvulaceae

Peninsular onion
Allium peninsulare var. peninsulare
Alliaceae

Scarlet larkspur
Delphinium cardinale
Ranunculaceae

The man himself, Milton Kenneth McAuley (1919-2008), born in rural northern California, grew up in Klamath Falls, Oregon, studied forestry at Oregon State, completed a Bachelor's Degree at the University of Illinois while in the Air Force, spent 20 years in that service stationed mainly in Japan and Labrador and then became an aerospace engineer and a maker of turquoise jewelry. All the while he loved the outdoors. He was one of 10 people who plotted out the course of the Backbone Trail, pushed assiduously for its construction, and for 20 years taught a hiking class for Learning Tree University and led hikes for the Sierra Club, many along sections of the trail he loved so much. For many years his self-published Wildflowers of the Santa Monicas was my bible, carried with me everywhere and thumbed almost to pieces. He lives on in the memory of thousands of people like me who came into contact with him only once or many times. I was lucky to hike with him on a number of occasions. He was one of the nicest guys I've ever met, and I miss him.