First Hike of the Year

Last weekend, Gary and I took full advantage of the beautiful (65 and sunny) weather we were enjoying to get out on the trails. Hiking is one of our "things", and winter seems oh so long when we're cooped up in the house. This is the first hike we've done since I bought my D-SLR, so of course I was more than excited to try it out on the trail. So, I grabbed my camera, and Gary found us a great new trail in the Auburn area that leads us down to the middle fork of the American River.

Even though it's still February, spring is obviously pushing winter aside with full force. I couldn't get enough of the budding trees that lined the first part of the trail. In the picture below, I love the sense of motion as the tree branch "comes at you":


A little further up the trail, these leaves are already budding. To see the sun backlighting the buds brings back that glorious sensation of the sun on my face.


About 4/5 of the way down the trail, we snuck down the side of the hill and found THE perfect lunch spot. This is my new favorite place; surrounded by lush ferns and moss, a rushing creek at your feet with waterfalls bookending the site. There's a little ledge along one hill where you can sit and watch the water rush by. A little piece of heaven.


This next pic is kinda weird, I'm warning you now. When we arrived at the bottom of the hill, we discovered that a large swath of riverbed had clearly been underwater and just recently dried up. River rocks were either covered with sediment or decorated with bright green filaments of algae. I couldn't get over how similar the algae looked to hair, and how the rocks looked like the tops of heads. It was bizarre stepping across them and waiting for one to turn up and blink at me, as if out of a Harry Potter movie.


This was the view after we concluded our descent: beautiful, open, free, so quiet and peaceful. I often feel that these times in nature move my heart to bring me the closest to God. This is His handiwork; He is the one who invented these beautiful places that give me such joy.

Angel Island

For about the past month or so, Gary and I had designated last weekend to be our 'official backpacker's initiation camping trip weekend'. You see, we love hiking, and we love camping, but we'd not yet combined the two. And, since we have most of the gear necessary to make such a trip feasible, thought it to be something we should try.

Well, the short version of the story is that last weekend we had to be flexible and change our plans, and save the overnighter for another day. To be more honest, we had to change plans a few, ok, many many times. By the time we landed on "Plan W", or whatever it was, we found ourselves headed to the BART station to take the train to San Francisco, to take the ferry to Angel Island, to hike a trail with numerous expansive views of the bay. Trust me, I have no complaints, because we had a truly wonderful day in a gorgeous location. Which of course, merits one of my famous photo-blogs, so you can enjoy it with me. =)

Before we even got to the location, I had to snap this pic: I love the lines of the track, and the roof, and the sun, and shadows...


Once we arrived in San Francisco, we headed to Pier 41 and climbed on the Blue & Gold ferry. This is the view of the city as we pulled away:


We zipped right past Alcatraz. It seemed so close to the mainland!


Once we landed at Angel Island, we found the trail that would take us to the summit:


After hiking just a few minutes, you get a nice view of the harbor and the dock:


A few more minutes, and the view widens:


I would have walked right past this unique flower, if Gary hadn't stopped me:


After two hours of climbing, we were rewarded with a 360 degree view of the bay, the city of San Francisco, and numerous bridges.




The sun shone on our faces, and a gentle breeze kept us cool.


It's the little things, though, that take my breath away:


On this hike, Gary spotted all the cool stuff, including a pair of vultures, perched just 15 feet below our trail. Here's one of them, checking ME out:


Yep, I'm such a poser. Posing with the posies.


Humans weren't the only ones enjoying the fine afternoon. How cute is this family?


On the ferry ride home, we enjoyed watching the boaters sail by the Golden Gate Bridge.


There you have it... the Westons explore Angel Island!

Spring is here!

Last weekend, Gary and I took advantage of our Sunday-evening church plans to take an early-morning hike.


At long last, the weather has improved enough to begin our hiking for the year!


Because it's early enough in the season, the streams were running and the waterfalls were falling.


Wildflowers were springing up all around us.


Few things are as refreshing to my soul as breathing the fresh air and enjoying the natural beauty of God's creation on full display.


We even spotted some wildlife - a little hummingbird singing from his perch in the sky.


A great day on Mt. Diablo...

Mt. Diablo Hike

Last Saturday, G-Dub and I headed out to our local mountain to get in some hiking before the big trip to Yosemite (don't you think everyone should have a local mountain?). We ended up on a spectacular trail that took us through a gazillion wildflowers up to a scenic peak that looks out over the entire East Bay on one side, and beautiful rolling hills on the other.


Along the way, we encountered a fair amount of wildlife. My favorite was this quail, who played sentry for his lady while she gave herself a dustbath and foraged in the grass. Later on, I was thrilled to capture a pic of a hummingbird at rest - not an easy task.



I thought this would be a nice pic with all the orange wildflowers, but check this out... an unanticipated guest showed up in my 'self-portrait' - can you find him? I'm not sure if you can tell in this small of a pic, but at full size you can see him waving and grinning cheesily.


There's truly nothing like springtime in California!