Ben Lomond Hike

A while ago, I went on a nice hike with some friends of mine. The peak we hiked was called Ben Lomond, which according to what maps I have seen, is somewhere around 6500 ft high. The trail is (according to the forest service website) 4.8 miles each way. I am lucky to be in a place where you can literally just step out your door and take a hike. This one was a little bit of a drive, but what's fun is that I have never tried this trail before, even though it's pretty close to the house. So it was a new adventure!

Unfortunately, there was a fire in the area about 5 years ago and so many of the trees are gone. There are a few left standing and some smaller ones have grown back, but it is strange to see the mountains looking so naked. However, the good thing* about this is that you can see all the really cool rock formations that were covered by the trees before.

*silver lining

Sometimes the trails in this area are not well maintained, but this one is set up for equestrian use, and so was pretty clear up until about mile 3 or 3.5. Then we had to bushwhack our way through some scrub brush to get past a certain area, but it was worth it. The views from the top were amazing. I will let the pictures tell the story.

Trail signage

Bear print

Does it look like this? Yup.

Looking up at the mountain. See all the cool granite boulders? And the burnt trees?

More granite. And a bit of foliage.

View from about 2/3 of the way up.

Granite awesomeness. Can you see those tiny people in the foreground (wearing purple)?

View from the top

View of the mountain from the bottom. We climbed to that very tippy top point.

The day after our hike, it snowed.

Which means that we have really good timing, because we would have been slogging around in the snow instead of just bushwhacking! I love living in a place where I can hike every day if I want to! Hiking is not only a great way to cross train, but it is probably one of my favorite activities!

Where do you like to go hiking? Have you ever hiked in the snow? Do you like rocks?

Where I Live

I did a post a couple of months back showing photos of the place where I love live. As you may know, I am now on the road and of course miss my home. So here are a few more photos, for me to remember home by and for you to see where I live. I think it is a wonderful place! (by the way, some of these pictures also just remind me that I miss my Nikon! Man...the P&S just doesn't have the same quality, really it doesn't.) 

View from the summit of Mt. Shasta

Pulga Bridge & RR Bridge

Front yard on Christmas Day 2010

Sierra Buttes Lichen

State Flower: the Poppy

Feather River

Hwy 70 and Onionskin Rocks

Donner Pass

Strange Yellow goo (mushroom?) on a Log

Where do you live? Do you take time to look at the beauty all around you? I would love to see where you live! Leave a comment and tell me where to look!

Where I Live

The Muses are doing a Where I Live series and I liked the idea, so I thought I would do a post of my own (yup, I am taking their idea and running with it). I may even make this a reoccurring theme.

Where I live seems like an easy thing to explain. Most people live in one place for months, if not years. In the last 15 years, I have lived in no less than 13 places. Between most of these places have been stints of travel, where I “live” in a hostel or a guesthouse, usually only for about 1 day at a time, sometimes five at most. So I really don’t stay in one place for very long.

However, between all these moves, different job locations and travels, the place I always go back to remains the same. This is where the love is; this is my family; this is “where I live”. 

Graeagle

Rock Creek

Salamander

The Feather River

Grizzly Dome

Pacific Crest Trail

Lupines and Mountains

Snowy Bridge

 Sorry about the heavy picture post but I think in this case, a picture IS worth a thousand words!

Rock and Roll

I have so much to say that I don’t even know where to start. It’s been two weeks since my last confession.

In case you don’t know, it is not always easy for me to get on the internet. You take for granted your smart phones and your high speed internet. I do as well, at times. However, now, today, I do not. I am staying with my parents for the holidays. They do not have cell service. They do not have broadband. They have a land line, which works most of the time (more about that later) and they have….bum, bun, buhhhh…..dial-up. Yep. Dial-up. You thought that most people in the world had high speed internet? Well, you are wrong.

When I am not at my parents, I am usually traveling. While most places do have faster internet than my parents (imagine that. Africa – Medium Speed. California – Internet like a turtle) it is not always easy to find a computer, or one that has the internet. Needless to say, I am not one of those bloggers who blog every day. Some people I follow even blog multiple times per day! How do they do it!? I don’t know.

Here in California, in the mountains, in the “civilized” world, we can’t look at photos; we can’t check our Google reader; we can’t do much. So we just don’t do anything which includes the internet. It is too frustrating to try to get online. So we try to find other things to do instead. You would be amazed at what is exciting in these parts.

First off: Rocks.

My parents live on a very windy road. In case you don’t know it, it is in the Mountains near Sacramento. Think of Lake Tahoe. If you have been there, you know it is beautiful. There are endless spans of green pine, cedar and fir trees. There are peaked snowy mountains. There are windy mountain roads along gushing rivers. There are tiny mountain towns. People ski and snowmobile for fun. They sometimes have to do this to get to their houses because the roads are not plowed. It is the boonies. I love it. I think it is beautiful.

However, with beauty (and boonies!) comes danger. Snow creates accidents. Windy mountain roads are slippery. Mountains are full of…you guessed it. Rocks. Now you know where I am going with this story. Last Friday a rock came down on the highway and a lady ran into it and died. Yes, I said A ROCK. One rock! Here is a photo from the local newspaper.

On Tuesday my parents went “to town” (yup, we say that. We live that far out of “town”) to run errands. About 30 minutes after they left (and in the middle of a batch of cookies! Luckily the stove is gas!) the power went out. With it went the phones. This is the phone I was talking about before: the one and only phone, the land line. So I sat in the dark with no phone and no TV, trying to read my book with the light of two candles.

Yesterday (today is Thursday the 16th, who knows when this will actually be posted) there was another rock slide. This actually closed the highway. The big rock in the photo above was huge, but “luckily” only covered half of the highway. Mind you, there is not really a way around. If this highway is closed, you are SOL. Unless you have a 4WD vehicle, know your way around the mountains and are prepared to drive in snow, you have to wait. They said the road would be closed for about 3 hours. It was still closed today, 24 hours later.

So, we are on a roll. In the week I’ve been home we’ve had two rock slides, one causing a death, the other closing the one-and-only highway for at least 24 hours. We’ve had a power outage; we’ve lost our phones; we’ve had an unusual amount of rain. We’ve tried to trap a skunk (as of yet unsuccessful) and we’ve almost run over dozens of deer (without any luck).

Who says life is not exciting in the boonies without internet!?

F is For Family and Other Random Thoughts

Well I have a lot to say, but unfortunately have not had the time nor the internet to post it! So, for now, I will give you random blurbs.

-When I first got here, I spent some time with K's family, both new and old. It was great to see her and A, to meet the new baby and to see my other set of parents. We ended our visit meeting my Mom and Dad at Brocks in Yuba City, where we gorged ourselves on banana splits.

"grandpa" Dad

- Dad put me to work sheetrocking the garage. He always manages to put together a "To Do" list for me when I am home. Actually, it is nice to be home long enough to actually be able to help him with it! Usually its just a weekend here or there and we barely have time to see each other, never mind accomplish any tasks.

After sheet rocking the ceiling

 - I met N's new baby. He's very quiet, just what I like in a baby. We had a great dinner with them, got to see another one of my sets of "parents" and to meet the new fiancee!

C and N

- I went to NYC and MA. There were a few fall colors holding on and they were really cool to see, especially in Central Park. I ate a lot of pig at the annual pig roast and had a great time hanging with Mr Lovely's family, as well as my own, who I met up with for breakfast at Cape Cod.

Goats at the farm

Brooklyn Bridge, NY

Mystic, CT

 - Then I came home for Turkey Day!! We had a great time with the whole family, mostly on my Dad's side. We played many games; I beat the boys at cribbage; I had wonderful chats with my aunts, uncles and grandma who I don't get to see very often. It was great. Here is a photo of the family doing what my Dad makes us do (as always!), which was to "act silly". I think Uncle J (middle top) is the winner in the silliness category, with Aunt D (wine glass in hand) as a close second. What do you think?

Acting Silly!

So, sorry I bored you by putting EVERYTHING on the same post, but I am not sure when the next internet opportunities will be, so I am covering my bases! I do have so many ideas about what to write, all the time, but after a few minutes, hours or days of not putting it down on paper, I forget. Once I am at the computer, I forget. Hopefully I will remember some more and I will be near the computer and I will be able to get them written down.

Next up -- I am driving from Quincy, CA to Des Moines, IA to see my best HS buddy, Red! My journey starts tomorrow! I am very excited to be alone in the car with my loud music and to see my friend, who I have not seen in a LONG time (since last Christmas I think).

Here's to a month full of great friends and family and Fun! For pictures, see my flickr site.

The Joy of Cooking

I got home on Monday night. By Tuesday at noon I had made an apple cake, almond cookies and chocolate chip cookies. I hadn't realize how much I missed doing domestic things! And it's the kitchen I missed most of all. I like to cook; I like to putter around getting things ready; I don't even mind doing the dishes. And no, we don't have a dish washer. Well we do actually and it's name is...Me.

I've been extremely busy since I've been back. Aside from cooking the above mentioned items I also made a successful chicken pie (with crust! I'm a little surprised and proud it turned out okay), helped build a lumber rack (yes my dad put me right to work), sheetrocked the garage (another one in dads to do list), gone through my mail (ug 6 months worth of junk) and tried to get some organizing done of things long since forgotten.

It's nice to wear clothes that haven't been worn for the last six months, to sleep in the same bed for several nights in a row and to putt around getting organized rather than stuffing your clothes back into your pack, putting on the same dirty holey outfit and climbing on a smelly tiny bus.

It's nice to be able to bake cookies even though I don't even want to eat them instead if trying to figure out if I am going to eat at that chutney restaurant or make a pb&j sandwich.

It's nice to sit on the couch in a warm room watching The Great Race for the hundreth time, the whole family shouting "push the button Max!" along with Jack Lemmon (if you haven't seen it, it's an oldie but goodie. It's very silly).

It's nice to have my computer and my big camera (I really missed the big lug), to take a million photos of a bug without making anyone wait for me and  to sort my photos right away.

It's nice to visit with friends who I haven't seen in so long and to hug their new babies and to laugh with them and to feel like I never left.

It's nice to be able to pick up the phone and call people whenever I want and we can talk for a minute or an hour or forever.

It's really nice to be home.

Hawaiin Shirts and Naked People

Whoa, what a week!

First I flew home from New Orleans, packed up my stuff, had dinner with my friend Nadine who is pregnant with her first child. A boy! Yay! She is still the same old friend that I have had since...well...forever. She and I have known each other since we were born. I don't have a photo...I did take some but I did it with the big camera....who is now sitting in my mom's closet gathering (yikes, I hope not!) dust.

I visited with my mom, which was great, but too short, and then headed to Sacramento for Uncle Jay's Celebration of life, a Hawaii themed Memorial. It was great. Many good people, drinks were flowing and everyone wore a Hawaiian shirt, just like Jay would've wanted it. Here is a picture of me, my two cousins, and Mr L enjoying the party.

Next we headed to San Francisco for some nakedness in the Bay to Breakers. It was great! We were joined by many friends, including 7 month pregnant K (I see a theme here...) and her new Husband A. The costumes were awesome. I did not dress up this year but had a great time getting ideas for next year. My favorite costume was either a king skipping along with a hunchback following him clacking two coconuts together (clip clop, clip clop -- you guys know that one? that joke is "not dead yet") or the oil spill -- two guys wearing black trash bags, joined by a red pool floaty noodle. Here is a picture of Alamo Square and the dreaded Hayes Street Hill.

Then it was off to Petaluma and the Lagunitas Beer Fest with my brother, who is a beer connoisseur. It was a little strange. The title was the Beer Circus, and it definitely was that! Ladies on stilts, bearded ladies and tightrope walkers mixed with 40 year old heavy metal rock bands and beer. Hmm... It was a great time and I found a penguin who was willing to take a photo with me. I am not sure what a penguin has to do with the circus, but I love Penguins, so I was stoked.

The next day I hit up the dentist one last time before the big trip and then...it was off to Europe. Woo hoo! Here we go....

Go Car Go

Last weekend we had an Ice Cream Social for about 60 pre-war vehicles. Among them were many Packards, Cadillacs and Lincolns as well as one each of Nash, Franklin, Stutz, Bentley, Rolls and maybe one Chrysler. The oldest car there was from the early 20s and the youngest in the 40s. The folks in these cars, The Classic Car Club of America, did a tour around California and Nevada called the “Far Out West CARavan”, starting in Sacramento, going on back roads through places such as Yosemite, Lake Tahoe, Mammoth Mountain and Reno, and ending back in Sacramento 8 days later. You can read about it in the Feather River Bulletin. You can find more photos HERE.

It's Wabbit Season...

Shhhh...Be vewy, vewy qwiet...We're hunting wabbit... That is what I felt like when I went up to Lower Bucks Lake and Three Lakes this weekend. It must be fall, because there were hunters everywhere.

The photo to the left is taken in the Feather River Canyon. I went home last weekend for a nice relaxing weekend and of course Dad had a barrage of things planned for us. On Friday, we went for a drive to the small town of Greenville (by neighboring, I mean 40 miles away. This is how it is) to visit with friends and scope out the changing foliage. Then on Saturday we went up to Three Lakes and did some hiking and some more foliage spotting (see photo on right - taken by Aunt S).

Being there and seeing the changing colors of the leaves and smelling that smell in the air reminded me -- even though right now in Louisiana it is in the 80s, in the rest of the world, it is fall after all.

Go Fish!

Fishing...is something I have not done in a long time... When I was a kid, my dad and I used to go all the time and sit next to the Feather, put a hook up some poor worm's little butt and cast off. I remember (from pictures mostly) catching lots of shiny, happy, rainbow trout, gutting them, frying them up, eating them...Mmmmm. Good times! And fishing is so relaxing; you get to sit by a moving body of water, in the shade, daydreaming and enjoying being "one with nature". At least that is what I thought until two days ago, when I once again went fishing with my dad.

First there was a 3 mile gruelling uphill-both-ways hike to the summit of the mountain. Then the trail dips down and starts heading downhill and you think "joy, a reprieve!" But it is not meant to be. The trail that we were hiking on has not been maintained in probably 20 years or so and about 6 years ago there was a huge fire, which wiped out the brush...but, the brush grew back 10 times worse the next year. So our whole downhill "easy part of the" hike was spent bushwhacking through scrub brushes, branches and woe-of-all-woes POISON OAK. Yes, poison oak. And you go to avoid one clump of it just to fall off the side of the trail, then when you try to clamber back up onto the trail, you have to grab ahold of something and what is near you? Poison Oak.

So we finally battle the horrid poison oak, branches and scrub brush (and lose horribly - I am wounded, scratched and bleeding) and get to the creek, which is nice and shaded and cold as ice. Now, things have changed a bit since I was a kid. Where we used to stick the hook in a nice fat worm and let it lazily drift around in the water, now we actually have to have a bit of finesse! Today, we fly fish.

Now, fly fishing is not a lazy, relaxing sport. You have to sneak up on the fish and whip your pole about and then just at the right moment, set the fly right on the water so the fish thinks it is a bug and then.....when the fish takes a taste, you snap the pole backwards, hook him and haul him in. This is easier said than done. First, sneaking up on a fish when the sun is almost above your head is not an easy task. We also took the dog with us and she wants to be right smack dab in the middle of the action, so she spooks the fish away as well.

next, when it comes to whipping your pole about, I though if you just snap it back and forth, you were doing things right. Apparently there is a method to it. The only thing I am good at when it comes to that is getting the hook stuck in _____ (insert area here - trees, rocks, bushes) or getting the line tangled up on itself. In fact, if there was one thing I could wish for when I was fly fishing, it would be a little "cabana boy" who untangled/unhooked my line for me while I relaxed with a cold beer. This would save me a lot of time, and also this could be a way to put the relax back in fly fishing.

Lastly, the hook and haul in. I hooked a bunch of fish but many of them decided to let go at the last moment. Even when sometimes I hooked and began to haul them in, they decided to let go. So the ratio of fish hooked to fish hooked, hauled in and not wiggled away at the last minute is like 10 to 2.

I ended up catching 3 fish so all in all it was a good time. Until the walk back. We had to bushwhack back UPhill to get to the top of the mountain. We were tired and so kept misstepping and falling off the edge and so having to grab onto even more poison oak than before. By the time we reached the top, I was feeling more like rolling downhill than walking. Then I looked at the dog. She is about 10 years old now; the last time we took this hike, she laid down in the middle of the path and refused to get up. This time, although she is in better shape, you could still tell that she was not a happy camper.

Finally, we all made it to the bottom of the hill and I finally got to have that cold beer, although my cabana boy was still nowhere to be found.