July in Tahoe

Looking now at the highlights from July, it appears we spent a lot of the first half of it in the Tahoe area! Patrick is around there a lot for his job anyway, but our recreational activities took us there as well.

Our friends Phil & Vanessa were married at The Hideaway (check out the website- the place was awesome!), where we stayed in our tent on the grounds but had access to plumbing in the fantastic giant "cabin" the wedding party stayed in, built by the owners that live on the back of the property. The house was on a small lake, with an overlooking deck and an adjacent hot tub dug into the Granite bedrock, and there was also a "saloon" on the premises, with pool table, air hockey and a bar counter where Patrick and I set up the food for the cocktail and hors d'oevre hour.

Earlier in the day, we went on a hike in the back parts of the property. Here's a view of the cabin, from afar!

While exploring, I saw this crazy looking, but pretty plant (especially with the butterflies). There was a creek not far, formed from what was probably snowmelt, and it created little waterfalls over the rock faces. We just laid near it under the shade of a tree for a bit and I thought, "It doesn't get better than this!"

Something we thought was really unique, and awesome in concept, was between the dinner and dancing, all of the guests gathered on the deck overlooking the lake to light floating candles in honor of the occasion. Unfortunately, the wind or slight movement of the water choked the flames right out, so it wasn't quite the picture taking opportunity we all had hoped. But it was certainly fun for all of us to attempt.

I had to work Friday, the 5th, so we returned to Merced, but on Saturday we headed North again! I camped with Patrick and shadowed him as he scouted out a couple potential places for more work equipment installs.

In between Patrick taking GPS coordinates and making notes, I took a moment to marvel over the look of this twisted fallen tree.

Car camping is full of comforts!

And even at the crowded campground, we managed to get a spot on a rock outcrop that placed us high enough to see the surrounding hills hit with the setting sun.

After our day scouting, we hiked for fun to Round Top Lake. The sky was clear, the temp was comfortable, and the scenery was beautiful, with particular emphasis on all the wildflowers that were out. I think this is in my queue of fave expeditions.

And while the lake was nice, our actually objective was in scaling Round Top itself.

The view from 10,000 or so feet, after a successful ascent. (Although we did have some trouble in figuring out how to get to the actual top after running into some sketchy stuff we decided to avoid.)

Patrick is slightly camouflaged in the lower right.

The summit made an excellent lunch destination. Especially since my lungs needed a serious break! I felt like I had to stop every few steps on the way up, huffing and puffing!

I love seeing the distinction in colors between the two water bodies.

As I said, there were flowers everywhere, of many varieties and colors!

Couldn't help getting a close-up. Too perfect a subject to resist!

End of July we headed home to Michigan for a visit, so clearly we're not caught up on things yet. But I'm glad to finally have shared these photos with you. The sights were too lovely to hoard. :-)

Highlights from End of May & June

Once again, we find ourselves behind, so time to get up to speed! Here are a few things that kept us tied up during early summer.

Patrick is in our church's Men's "Summer Stretch" program again this year. Not everyone is an experienced hiker/camper, so one thing they did differently this year was work in a preparatory day hike to give people a small taste of what they can expect on the climatic several-day trek in September. 

Patrick has now seen the Yosemite Valley floor from a handful of different angles/depths than I have.

Just a few guys are pictured, but there are more than twice the bunch of last year, at about 30-40 men. That will be quite the coordination effort for the large hike later! They are concerned about obtaining enough permits.

Patrick and I spent 24 hours in LA to rendezvous with our family friend, Evander, during the screening of his thesis film at the UCLA Prom Animation Festival. Unfortunately his flight out of the country was just the next day so we didn't get much time with him, but we decided to check out a few sights before our return trip. We wandered the Farmer's Market building, where I saw this stunning tiled wall I thought my mom would like.

We also explored the LA Zoo, where we paid the additional $10 each to go on the Indian Rhinoceros tour. Our money earned us a close-up photo, and the chance to pet and feed half an apple to Rhonda; definitely worth the expense! It's not very noticeable in this photo, but her horn was lost due to cancer. However, she is in remission and leads the life of a princess, her attendants informed us!

Seeing the elephants was another high point, especially with it's full tusks!

I am not sure I've seen a koala bear in person before, but they reminded me of teddy bears for sure.

This giraffe family was fun to watch. The little tyke spritzed about, the mom followed after, and the dad trailed behind. They didn't have far to walk but they always took every step in any direction together.

On the way back to Merced, we were stuck in traffic due to a fire. We saw the plume of smoke from quite far off. As we crept/waited, about 15 emergency vehicles passed us in the shoulder of the highway, and helicopters would periodically fly by, headed in the same direction. Eventually we were close enough to see flames still alight at the top of the hill and a group of firefighters hiking up to it. If you glance through the car window in the bottom right corner, you'll notice a glimpse of the completely charred truck we suspect caught the hillside on fire.

I turned 29 this year, and celebrated by making a double batch of confetti cupcakes in ice cream cones, decorated with pink frosting and 7 sprinkle varieties. It took me 3-4 hours to do so, with help from a friend, but they were completely delicious and cute as a button!

July review is headed your way in the near future!

More Catching Up!

Patrick gave an update on his work life; as for personal, it's also included a bit of outdoors.

For Easter season we chose to forgo crucifixion and instead opted for a burning at the stake. Followup included a casket forged of graham and chocolate and burial via mandible.

We spent a lot of time in the garden again this spring, prepping beds and planting veggies. A pleasant surprise was the poppy seeds I planted last year (with little success) apparently spread and mutliplied this year all along the perimeter of our apple tree and leafy edible greens. They added a lot of glam to the yard!

Our pal, Matt (in foreground), acquired a small retired wine barrel. Since we all lacked equipment to brew enough for the barrel, there was a conspiring and sharing of resources (with our friend Phil, in background, as well) to brew the full amount to fill it!

Even Liliann (Matt's 3-year old) joined in the festivities. A fun day of collaboration, and of course, refreshments alongside!

Speaking of Liliann, I spent most of the Saturday before Mother's Day helping distract her on a weekend field trip Patrick & Matt were assisting with. I was a little nervous since my interaction with youngsters is limited, but she's a real cool kid and very well behaved. Plus I got a colorful finger-painted 'Thank You' card delivered to me the next day- can't beat that!

The next day, Liliann wasn't around for me to distract, so I needed distraction. Thus playing with the macro feature on the camera while trying to keep this dude from crawling in my bag.

I got the chance to see Patrick in a teaching role, as he showed students from UC Davis how to take a flow measurement of some sort using a particular set of equipment.

I keep getting exposure to new types of plant life out here. These looked like flying saucers.

Patrick and I had carpooled with a coworker of his named Erin (and her dog Sage- lower right corner), so once the field trip was done, the three of us chose to explore a little before heading home. There was a short hike Erin had heard of with a nice vista. We aren't quite sure if we chose the intended trail, but it lead us to a great view regardless.

Our perspective from our perch.

I just thought this rock looked interesting. Probably would have been good for bouldering too!

Our personal travels also took us to LA recently, so we'll have something on that in the future as well. Notice I chose to omit the word "soon" since I've learned my lesson on throwing that around. I'd rather not risk being a liar anymore! :)

Catching Up

This is the first in a couple blogs from me (Patrick) updating/documenting everything I was up to this past winter and spring...  This is what I've been doing at work.

 Found this site destroyed by a tree (foreground) in Sierra NF. I had fiberglass all over me for 3 days after fixing it.

 Chillin in the sun wiring up a datalogger.

A couple of our many methods of travel in the winter time.

On a snow survey in the Stanislaus NF.

Got a few new toys... er... tools for work.

We rednecked our snowmobile trailer so that it could haul pipes this summer.

Dragged the new hires on a 2 mile hike with bags of cement.

As for what I'm doing now... I've been gone 3 or so days per week the past 3 weeks and don't really see an end in sight.  It's been fun but is starting to take it's toll since nothing ever goes as planned.  Our slogan on the project this summer is "it's always something."  On the plus side, the weather has been awesome and the mountains are as beautiful as ever!

Going Solo

Back in February, Patrick was gone a few weekends for various expeditions, so I decided to get brave and have a couple of my own. Plenty of my friends have been on solo hikes, but I had not yet done any outdoor trek alone so I decided it was time to give it a shot! As my family knows, I am completely navigational-challenged so I first chose a hike Patrick and I had been to twice. Remember last spring the photos of all the orange hillsides covered in poppies? It was a little early for the bloom, but I knew I'd be comfortable venturing there, at Hite Cove.

'Signage' (aka a giant metal pipe) pointing out some of the mining equipment ruins.

 

 I felt lucky spotting this pretty, lone succulent adorning a rock face lining one side of the trail. I was tempted to pluck it to accompany the ones I have at home, but decided it would be better to leave for other passer-bys with sharp eyes to enjoy.

The flowers weren't out, but some berries were. They provided a lovely contrast against the green/brown atmosphere.

 

Sometimes it's easy to get tunnel vision on the trail, but I tried to take a moment every now and then to look at the dynamic skyline around me.

I was struck by how vivid green this section of stream and bordering moss were.

Made it to the mining camp without a problem (Patrick and I had a tough time finding it the first time.) Time for a photo to commemorate my first solo hike. I realized later that I think I had this same outfit on in the picture with Patrick here. :)

Felt like I was the lady walking up the stairway to Heaven. Kinda hard to capture in the photo, but the sunlight was casting this awesome aura being filtered through the branches and dully reflecting from the stone trail.

 

Lichen is like...

....nature's graffiti!

After my hike, I hit up Prospector Brewery in Mariposa, where I had the amazing limited time Vanilla Bean Porter to toast my success. Poor Patrick- I talked up the beer for two days straight until we went back there together. The keg had blown that morning. We hope they make it again next year, so he can get a taste and I can get more!

A couple weeks later I felt empowered after my first experience to strike out solo again. There is a path that follows the road to Yosemite National Park, just on the other side of the Merced River that I thought would be a another fail-safe route to follow w/o danger of getting lost, and I had a pretty good idea of where the parking lot and access to the trailhead were. I had the right parking lot but it turns out I missed the trailhead and followed a road up and around the backside of the hill (instead of along the river/highway side). I passed a few different groups of dirt bikers and ATVs, but it was miles by the time I ran into other pedestrians. I thought I should have reached the turn-around point by then, so I asked the hikers if I was close. Luckily, the man and woman seemed to be regular visitors and told me that I was close to a junction, and depending on which way I went, the trail could keep on going all the way to Tahoe! But since I told him I didn't plan on going there that day, he recommended veering to the right, up a short steep hill and a little further, for a peek into YNP with a view of El Capitan. It was a nice late-lunch spot, but I felt so exposed that it left me with a vulnerable feeling and I was on my return hike shortly thereafter. (El Cap is where that hill in the foreground overlaps with the hill in the background- near the white spot.)

I had some beautiful intakes of sky on my way back, but I should've brought sunblock! This hike gave me my first layer of "sunkiss" for the season.

A lot of the hike wasn't like this area in the photos. It followed 10-20' rock walls that harbored deep terraces above them, and rock perches or dugouts where I could just imagine a mountain lion having a fabulous vantage point. I think it was mostly my imagination getting the better of me, rather than there being any real threat (although there are warning signs posted in the Park, which I wasn't far from), since I ended up on a trail I didn't quite mean to be on and signs of other people were scarce most of the time. It kept me from enjoying this hike quite as much as the first one, and because of the slight anxiety, I took almost no breaks so I was pretty beat by the end of the 10 miles! Even so, it was nice to get outdoors, and I was rather proud of myself for making the venture, which might not be so bold for others but was for me!