Might as well start with our overnight trip to Tahoe National Forest back in August. Patrick had been wanting to take me up there, and scheduling field work over the weekend made an economical and practical time to do it.
We arrived late Friday night and couldn't quite tell what our campsite looked like until we had breakfast. It ended up being the perfect size for us, had vegetation giving us privacy from the other campers on one side, and was close to the outhouse & water pump- all making it a penthouse for car camping. :)
No need for Patrick to follow the rules- he set them!
Beautiful day for adjusting a solar panel.
I pretty much just retrieved items for Patrick when he needed them, and spent the rest of the time at this site (and others) taking photos or loading the truck with wood for our fire pit (we don't own one yet, but we WILL!).
An interesting flower in a pretty color that caught my eye along the forest floor.
These looked so much like edamame or some sort of pea. I was really excited at the prospect of collecting some once they matured more, but I couldn't verify what the plant was when I got home. I spent a decent amount of time trying to identify the plant by its leaves online, but edamame leaves don't look like that and the closest results that came up were marijuana! To be on the safe side, I shall refrain from foraging for now. :(
We passed this whisky bottle hanging in its cradle from the tree limbs on the edge of the main road. What the heck? Are we in Arkansas again?
Drilling a hole to run tubing/wiring to the land-based instruments from the sensor in the water.
Wait- where's water world? I don't remember warping to this level in Super Mario Bros!
We had a spectacular dinner when we arrived back to camp that night. Chicken always seems best when cooked over a fire!
While we waited for our corn on the cob to cool, we trekked to the top of a nearby hill to observe the sunset.
There's just no competing with the color spectrums that appear in the sky!
Time to finish our meal, enjoy the warmth of the fire and our view of the luminous moon (it was huge & bright that night) before going to bed.
The next day while Patrick was hooking up some wiring, I got distracted by a visitor crawling between his computer and the bucket it was set upon.
I transplanted the creature to a nearby tree via floating stick. I imagine that would be a rather terrifying form of travel but it didn't seem to phase the caterpillar.We didn't complete as much work as hoped for due to forgotten objects, a few obstacles and random circumstances. For instance, we found ourselves in the middle of a mountain bike race routed on the back-roads we used to access Patrick's sites, and later that day we nearly collided with a motorcyclist hugging our side of the road around a corner. His bike tipped over and he skidded beyond our view under the front of our truck. Luckily Patrick wasn't going too fast- all his speed was in his reaction. We patched the fellow up and had an interesting conversation, and later he mailed us a replacement first aid kit. It was a rather odd but rewarding weekend as I went to Tahoe National Forest for the first time. :)
4 comments:
The plant that you could not identify is called a Lupine. They grow in Michigan as well, but are like a weed in warmer climates such as Mexico. Those are seed pods seen on the plant and if you clipped them and let them dry, you can plant in the spring and propegate this lovely flower....don't try to smoke it. Those were beautiful sunset photos!
spawn of mothra, terrible enemy of godzilla and mankind, beware california
relieved you got out of there safe
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