Work Weekend Wannabe

With our snowmobiles out of commission at the moment I've been getting anxious because all the fieldwork that needs to be done has not been getting done.  Therefore, I came up with this great idea to snowshoe into our southern sites with a bunch of equipment and do an overnight camping trip to get some fieldwork done during each day.  After all, how long could it take to snowshoe 6 miles?  A couple hours?

It seems I misjudged that.  I especially misjudged how much work it is to drag a sled while cutting new trail.  The first few miles of the trail is frequented by locals and people staying at the nearby lodge and was trampled down, making it easier on us.  However, once we got off the trail and started through fresh snow, that all changed.  It opened our eyes as to how out of shape we are...  We stopped near my first work site and set up camp because it was late in the day and we were pretty tired.  Day 1: no work done.

Based on the fact that we didn't get any work done on Saturday, I decided that we should at least download the data from both sites.  This meant hiking the additional 3 mile round trip to the farthest site in the morning and then downloading data at the site near where we camped.  We got started late (of course) and 2/3 of the way to the farthest site we recalculated how long it'd take for us to work there and get back to the camp site.  We had set a time for when we had to leave camp in order to get back to the truck while still daylight (per winter fieldwork protocol set by SNRI) and it turned out that we'd be past that time if we kept going at the pace we were.  So we turned around.

We decided to pack up camp before heading to the next site.  As we were walking to the work site, I realized that everything looked different... I hadn't been out to that particular site during the winter and if you didn't know, 4' of snow changes the way everything looks.  There were creeks and little hills that weren't there before and any of the identifying vegetation was covered up.  I didn't want to go hiking up and down the hillside and waste a bunch of time since we were fast approaching our cutoff time.  So I said "screw it," dumped some of the equipment in an instrument box near the road, packed up the sled, and headed back to the truck. Day 2: no work done.

In short, we chocked this weekend up to being a work-out and camping weekend.  It was nice to camp in the mountains (our first camping trip in CA) and we needed the work out, but I needed fieldwork done and that didn't happen... oh well.  I'll wait for the snowmobiles...

Atalie on the trail-- her first snowshoeing experience!

In camp trying to get frozen wood to light- didn't work very well.  It provided some warmth but we had to "baby" it a lot to keep it going.

Since the fire wouldn't stay lit without work from us, we decided to get in the tent early and try our hand at some Mahjong.

On the trail Sunday morning-- this is where we turned around to head back to camp.

Trying out some of the local cuisine.

Packing up the sled for the walk back to the truck.

Me pulling the sled on the walk back to the truck-- it was much easier since I offloaded some of the batteries and the trail was already cleared by us the day before.

Atalie posing above a little creek.

Checking out a snow cave that some of the lodge folks built.

Atalie was getting nauseous on the winding roads on the way back so I gave her the pilot seat.

Mirror Lake

A week after we returned from Michigan, we embarked on one of the few day hikes in Yosemite accessible during the winter. It was sunny, lovely weather for a stroll around Mirror Lake, and it wasn't occupied by many people.

Of course, it was chilly nonetheless! The snow plowed up in the parking space next to us looked freezer-burnt, with thick chunky crystals.

We ate a packed lunch in the car before finding the trailhead. The too-tame crows herded around us when they saw us arrive in the lot, and this one kept jumping on the car hoping to get our attention. You're not supposed to feed any animals, including the birds, but as we saw a man & his son throwing bread at them, it is not always a respected rule. The birds' behavior demonstrated that particular man was clearly not the first to do so either.

I like that this sign didn't just warn us this was a mountain lion area, but gave us instructions for avoiding or dealing with any confrontations. It didn't sound like we were all that endangered, in any case though.

We climbed on this boulder from land, but it mostly sits in the "lake" so we could peer overhead into the waters. It's actually a creek that was dammed up by a rockslide. Nature is correcting itself though, and it's slowly rerouting, meaning the lake will eventually become Mirror Meadow.

Half Dome overlooks the lake, offering a different, closer view of the rock formation. The reason it is called "Mirror" Lake is because it reflects this popular backdrop.

For a while, the park workers combed the bottom of the lake to slow it's return to meadow, preserving the famous reflection. However, they have discontinued this in favor of resuming the natural process.

Just past the lake the trail contained a warning that the trail was closed a mile ahead due to a rockslide that occurred in 2009. We had not expected that since our hiking guidebook didn't mention it, but then again, it was written in 2005. This increased our walk a bit since the hike was supposed to be a 4.2 mile loop from & back to the trailhead, but we decided to go as far as we could (which was past the halfway point) and turn back.

Observe a few sites along our path:
(Remember you can click on any of the photos to enlarge them.)

Lichen lines a lot of trees with a pretty green fuzz. I say "pretty" because it looks so bright against the reddish color of the trees, and the texture is like loofah, not like squishy moss.

Lightning strike?

A long stretch of snake grass along the trail-side.

Peeking at Patrick through the trees as he crosses a charming bridge, with pretty scenery to gaze at on either side.

Warning signs asked us to please not try to cross the rockslide area for our own safety. I had wondered prior to arriving to this spot whether we'd see any evidence of rockfall, or if the trail would stop you far enough away for extra precaution. I'm guessing this is indeed the outskirts of the zone, since you'll notice the sign in the middle and the fence have been crushed by fallen trees!
On our way to our hike, we just missed the shuttle bus that would take us to the trailhead, so we walked the mile or two extra. On our way back, we took the bus, but we got off too early and ended up walking most of the way back! Haha :) At first we were annoyed since we were tired, sore (hadn't gone on a hike in a while), and wanted to be back by 5pm. But we were rewarded on our way with a mystic view of Upper Yosemite Fall as fog settled in around a snowman occupying a portion of the valley floor.

An unexpected delight on our way from the bathrooms to the car. Sunset's crimson beams hitting Half Dome. Below is slightly closer up:

Everytime we're there, it looks a little different, but always magnificent!

Home for the Holidays

Lucky for us, the university is closed the week of Christmas, and Patrick's job is flexible enough he could take the whole week off prior too, since 1) that was the cheapest flight option & 2) we were excited to spend nearly 2 weeks in Michigan!

Our flight got us into Grand Rapids at 11:00pm on December 20, and our connector was in Dallas/Fort Worth. It's a bit more scenic of a route than I've seen by air yet, especially in the evening. The moon shone over a lake behind the lit up city, but it was difficult to capture in a photo, so you'll just have to settle for the moon. :)

We had to leave the next morning for Okemos since Patrick had a doctor's appointment, so we stayed for a couple days, helping decorate his parents' tree, visiting with his family, and hanging out with the Layman/Hensley clan.

We had a pizza party with the Laymans/Hensleys, with gingerbread decorating entertainment to follow. Patrick and I are getting pretty good, and creative too. The gumball corners are stuck with chewed gum to the base. hehe :) We brought this home to my family, but instead of serving as a nice holiday centerpiece, it turned out to be a torture device. My sisters in particular desperately wanted to eat it but I told them they had to wait until after Christmas!

Christmas eve & Christmas morning we were in GR again, visited my best friend and met her youngest baby born in September, and enjoyed a few lovely family meals on the Christmas china. Normally we go to my dad's family party on the 24th, but he had to work the nights of the 24th and 25th, so instead we attended the candlelight church service, which I really enjoyed (had the best Christmas sermon I've heard yet). Our dog Shay had been very, very sick in the month before we arrived, but thankfully she received the right treatment in time for the holidays. She's like a new dog now, and as always, is soooo happy to have the whole family together. :)

Every year we seem to be more spoiled- my parents got us a TV! Heaven knows ours was needing replacing, but we surely didn't expect such a gift. And we seemed to get a million other gifts between the two of our families (we traveled to Okemos again that afternoon), including original artwork by mom, housewares, the ever useful $, games, and a new suitcase which turned out to be very helpful carting stuff home. :)


Unfortunately, Patrick's sister Sally didn't arrive until the 27th, since her flight was pushed back nearly a week from the Heathrow airport weather delays. We changed our plans a bit so we could see her, to a pretty consistent "2 days in GR, 2 days in Okemos, repeat" schedule. Despite a last minute invite, a handful of our GVSU pals were able to meet up with us for a cozy breakfast at Panera on New Years Eve, and we caught up with Patrick's former adviser and his wife over a lunch at Founders.

That night we (along with my mom, Britt, and Aunt Cheri) visited my Grandma at the rehab section of the nursing home (where she is recieving post-surgical physical therapy), had a jewelry-making party (Patrick pardoned himself for a bit to check on the Red Wings game), and played a couple rounds of Scrabble Slam. The visit was short since we needed to pack for our early morning flight.

We stayed up until 2:40 in the morning, but aside of a 10-minute break to watch the ball drop and yell "Happy New Year!", our late night was spent purely on making all our presents fit in our bags without breaking or going over the weight requirement. The alarm clock got us up at 4 in the morning, so this picture (taken at 4:30 just before we left) is of some sleepyheads!

We didn't expect the airport to be as busy as it was so we were very stressed. One of our checked bags hit 50lbs and dropped to 49 a second later, so we were right on verge of having to pull something out/repack. The line to the security gate was long, and I was pulled aside to have my backpack searched by hand after the scan couldn't read an oddly shaped item. When Patrick heard "final boarding" for our flight on the intercom, he ran ahead to the gate and the woman said I had four minutes to get there. I arrived just a couple minutes later- whew!

We dozed part of the flight, got some breakfast tacos & French toast in DFW, and enjoyed a beautiful view of the Sierra Nevada mountains on our way to Fresno. We were originally pleased we'd be back during the afternoon, but it ended up taking all our willpower to stay awake until 8:00pm! Our trip tuckered us out, but it was well worth being home with everybody at Christmas. :)

Pre-Christmas Festivities

We've been busy lately (same as everyone else, I'm sure) so we're trying to play catch-up on the blog to cover pre-Christmas, Christmas, and our recent events in the next couple of blog posts...

We decided to make a gingerbread house again this year (we skipped last year).  It was fun, but seemed more like work this year than in the past.  This is me assembling the walls of the house.

Atalie making the final decorating touches to the house.

 Backside of the house.

We invited some of my co-workers over for a house-warming/make-your-own-pizza party and played Pictionary-- it was a blast!

This is for Jackie E...  This one invaded our house and was crawling on the carpet- ew!

After all this fun, we headed to Michigan for Christmas with our families!