Sacramento conservationist Steve Evans wrote the book on top area hikes

At one point during our hike, as we gazed across a vast grassland in the 40,000-acre Cosumnes River Preserve, I posed a question to Steve Evans, the leader of our group: How similar was the landscape we were seeing, compared with what it was hundreds of years ago?

"The preserve is a great example of what the pre- European Central Valley used to look like," Evans said. "It's nearly pristine, yet next to a major metropolitan area. Other than the slight droning you hear from (Interstate 5), you feel like you're walking back in time."

That was the mood of the day in February as Evans, a veteran conservationist, led and lectured our party of six during a stroll along the River Walk and Wetlands Walk trails, four miles in all. This is a fine hike for birders – the preserve is home to 250 species of migrating birds – and families. The time to visit is now, while the weather is mild and many species of migratory birds are in residence. The trails are flat and wander through ever-changing terrain guaranteed to keep the interest level high. As Evans put it, "Not everybody wants to hike 10 miles at 5,000 feet."

Evans is the conservation director of the 6,000-member Friends of the River, a Sacramento-based nonprofit organization whose mission is "preserving and restoring California's rivers, streams and their watersheds, as well as advocating for sustainable water management."

So, just how many miles of river are there in California?

"That depends on what you call a river," Evans said as we walked along. "We did a database search of all the state's rivers and streams, and it came to 194,000 miles. If you talk about major rivers alone, it's more like 30,000 miles."

Still, that's huge. But after all, Evans is a big-time player when it comes to California conservation. In keeping with that, he's also the author of "Top Trails: Sacramento" (Wilderness Press, $16.95, 361 pages). In it, he describes 43 hiking trails that range from easy to difficult, the result of three years of research and hiking. The trails are in the Sacramento Valley, along the coast, in the foothills and in the Sierra Nevada. We chose this one from his book, and Evans agreed to give us a personal tour.

The 80-mile-long Cosumnes River, Evans said, is "one of the few undammed (and un-leveed) rivers in California, because it's relatively small and isn't fed by a lot of snowmelt. It's still connected to its floodplain, so it feeds a lot of wetlands. In winter and spring (when parts of the preserve can be underwater), the floodplains play an essential role as a nursery for young salmon and steelhead trout. Larger rivers have been cut off from their floodplains by dams, and that has hurt fish populations."

Our walk took us by the Cosumnes River and alongside wetlands – acres of land covered by water – and sloughs where the riverside (riparian) forest was thick with willows, buttonbush, box elder, cottonwoods, reeds and cattails. On higher ground, we strolled through shaded forests of valley and black oak, kicking our way through dried leaves and acorns, and out into open grasslands that are the home of an oak savanna. The dark, twisted trees – hundreds of years old – were too numerous to count.

Surveying that savanna, Evans noted that "any open space in the valley that was dry enough for oaks to grow got cleared years ago. The land was used either to grow crops or to build houses. There aren't very many places like this left."

Parts of the hike looked to be straight out of the Florida swamps. ("This is California's Florida," one of our group observed.) The native reeds could double for sawgrass, and that log floating in the slough current could be a gator. Farther on, the grasslands resembled an African veldt. As we walked through them, we almost expected a pride of lions to step out of the bush.

But let's mention the actual local wildlife in the preserve – mostly birds, of course. The area is part of the Pacific Flyway, a major route for migrating fowl.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Allen Pierleoni,