Mt. San Jacinto

Thursday, we did the two hour drive to Idyllwild on the pine covered slopes of the San Jacinto Mountains.  We spent two nights enjoyng the small town atmosphere, dining, and music.

We stayed in a little upstairs cabin at Silver Pines Lodge.

 Our cozy little room was reasonably priced.

We had a little deck, too.

 Since we had arrived at 10:00, we checked in and hit the trail up Devil's Slide Trail and over a ways on the trail to Tahquitz Peak.

Looking down on the iconic Lily Rock.

In the evening, we ate at Ferro Restaurant, and enjoyed the music of the trio playing.  Idyllwild always seems to have good music for such a small town, due in part to its big music and arts camps.

We got up early Friday morning and were on the trail at 8:00 AM. We decided to tackle the Marion Mt. Trail to the peak of Mt. San Jacinto.

You are responsible for knowing this (follow the arrow).

I think this might also be a bobcat stratch post.  We did see bobcat scat and tracks not too far away.

The Marion Mt. Trail is only 5.75 miles to the top of the peak, but it climbs from 6,280 feet to 10,834 feet in that distance, a gain of 4,554 feet!  We were not sure we would make it, and set a turn around time of 2:00.

A cheerleader along the way gave us a staccato drumming with his front feet.

Around 12:30 we could see over the other side of the mountain past the tram station and down to Palm Springs below.  The telephoto of my small camera makes it all appear a lot closer than it is.

At 1:00, we made the top.  I have to admit the altitude was really affecting me the last couple hours, making me have brief periods of dizziness, slight nausea, and pounding heart.  Gail was unaffected.
I guess I need more time to acclimate.

We ate lunch and enjoyed the clear sky views from the Salton Sea to the Pacific Ocean. The temperature at the top was in the forties, but the air was calm, and the sun warming. It was perfect weather for a steep hike.

At 1:30, we decided we better hustle down the mountain before it got dark.

 As the sun started to set, we got a little alpine glow going.

 We were still on the trail when the sun did set, but didn't have much further to the bottom.

Gail stopped me to point out this interesting mass of roots.

 We did it!  (but probably never again)

 We had a leisurely Saturday morning hanging around the lodge, enjoying the mild weather, and having brunch at Tommy's Kitchen.

Even a touch of fall!

We stopped at the Idyllwild HELP Thrift Store on the way out of town.  Gail was ecstatic to find this Ice-O-Matic like her father used to have.  What luck, it had just been donated the day before!

We stopped in Anza , an Indian reservation out in nowhere, on the way home.  I was hoping to find rusty metal tools, etc. for my welding projects.  I did find a few, but also found we had a totally dead battery when we got back to the car.  We quickly got a jump from a kind man, and made it to the only auto parts store in town, 5 minutes before closing, to get a new battery.  Lucky or unlucky?  I'm thinking lucky!

The Past Week, from Griffith Park to the Border

The following are a few snapshots from the past week.

 Thursday, we traveled to Griffith Park in Los Angeles with out dear friends and neighbors, Jerry and Wanda.  Thankfully, Jerry drove, and also narrated, as he and Wanda have both lived in that area.  It was a warm hike - you can see the Hollywood sign on the hill in the background.

Proof that I was there, too!

A zoom shot of L.A. with the old cell phone.  After lunch, we went into the Griffith Park Planetarium and saw the dramatic show.

 I spent the day Saturday at Border Fields State Park, right on the Mexican border.  This was my advanced tracking and naturalist class.  This area is great for animal tracks, as the border patrol drags it smooth on a regular basis, and you get plenty of fresh animal tracks without too many dog and human tracks.

Tracks of a bounding Desert Cottontail Rabbit.  Discussion ensued over whether these were more a gallup rather than a true bound.

We spent seven hours examining tracks of bobcat, coyote, raccoon, opossum, cottontail, woodrats, and pocket mice.  We also identified several skulls below fence posts where raptors dined on small animals.

Know what this is?

Those are from a bobcat dragging a rabbit between its front legs.  You can see the smaller hind foot of the bobcat on top of the rabbit drag (its hind legs dragging).  The two long straight depressions are just marking off the area so no one steps on it.

We found this very complete coyote skeleton.

 In my garden art welding class, I completed my first big project, a spider.  This is my booth, no one else uses it.  The hours fly by in class!  One of the nice things about it is there are only three of us students in the class, and one has already taken a welding class, so it's like having two teachers!

The spider came home Monday.

Well, got to get ready for tonight's class!

A Day at Anza Borrego Desert

Yesterday, I drove out early to the desert, hoping to get some reptile photos, and maybe some Bighorn Sheep photos, too.

 I headed up Palm Canyon.

The view looking back out of the canyon.

 The only reptiles I saw all day were a few very common Western Side-blotched Lizards.  I think many reptiles are starting to go underground this time of year.

I did see a few Rock Wrens bouncing around the boulders.

There were also a few Black-chinned Hummingbirds.

Palm Canyon always has water, and is a good spot to see Peninsular Bighorn Sheep.  I couldn't find any, and returned back down the canyon.

 When I got back down to the campground area there was one perched on a rock near a group of people intently observing it.  Once again, it seems like the most wildlife is in the campgrounds!

Next, I drove eastward and found a wildlife preserve off limits to vehicles.  I hiked through the sparse vegetation until I reached these dunes.  It was 93 degrees, but a "dry" heat.

There were a lot of cool tracks, like these Gray Fox tracks.

Near the top of the dunes, posts marked the end of the preserve, but that didn't stop this motorcyclist from roaring through the preserve anyway.  I was eating my lunch under the shade of a mesquite bush and surprised the heck out of him by standing up and aiming my telephoto lens at him.  Then I started to wonder if that was too bold a move,  A few minutes later apparent friends of his in a Jeep came into the preserve, and I heard him tell the Jeep people that they needed to stay on the other side of the markers.  A little eco victory!  

I headed back to the car and drove out to The Narrows, and hiked a short loop.

I went past the end of the loop up this little wash.

In small caves, I saw a couple Desert Woodrat nests.

I ended the day searching in the San Felipe Creek for a rock for a project I'm working in my Garden Art Welding class.  All in all, a good day of exercise, sun, and nature.

Halloween in Colorado

Last Thursday, Gail and I traveled to Colorado Springs for our annual Halloween extravaganza with Andria, Dave, Nora, Soren, Susanna, Stella (cat), and Yukon (dog).  I took a few random iPhone pics.

Seven Bridges Trail

 The weather was perfect for hiking, and we took advantage of it.

 We hiked up about 2,000 feet to this ridge with its large aspen groves.

 On Saturday, we took an early morning hike on the Interman Trail.  That's Garden of the Gods in the center of the picture.  We went cross country up a peak, climbing about 1,700 feet.  Away from dogs, bikes, and hikers, we found interesting scat of bobcat, cougar, fox, and bear.  I will do a separate scat feature at a later date.

Baggin' the peak!

 Nora getting ready to take exuberant Yukon for a walk.

 The kitchen is the hub of activity, and the kids get to participate fully.  Susanna decorating ghost cupcakes, Soren looking on, and Andria multitasking as usual.

 Susanna shows off one of her ghost creations.

Voila!  Andria and Susanna with ghost cakes.

Susanna insisted on doing her own pumpkin cutting.  She made a fine cat!

Gail and Susanna had a blast playing "dress up"...

...and doing art.

 Monday, we had a little time to hike around Garden of the Gods, a large city park.

 Halloween, and Gail and I charge out the gates.

Happy Halloween from Colorado Springs!  For an incredible Halloween story starring the above characters, go to Andria's blog at this link        http://nora-and-soren.blogspot.com/