This is a handful of pictures and a couple of videos from this season of skiing (and an afternoon of sledding). Featuring… Darlene, Mike, Nanci, Rick, Maxine, Greg, Erin, Jon, Bill, Kat, Jim and myself.
Click through for the gallery:
Tag: California
Death Valley Super Bloom
Death Valley is in the midst of a rare “super bloom” of wildflowers right now. Darlene and I were able to drive down there for a brief overnight visit, camping along one of the backcountry roads.
Click through above to view my gallery of pictures. For more info on the current status, see the week-by-week wildflower update for this year’s bloom.
Skiing/Gaming Week in Tahoe
Here’s the pictures and video from our annual week of skiing and tabletop gaming, this year back in Tahoe again with Jon, Jim, Bill, Kat and Brin. We were unfortunately in a bit of a very warm and dry spell for California at the end of February. This kept us to the freshly groomed runs, rather firm in the morning, soft in the afternoon and refrozen over night, but we hit up Squaw Valley, Alpine Meadows, Sugarbowl and Northstar over the course of the week.
Into the Ventana Wilderness
Pictures from a four-day backpacking trip last week with Darlene, Laura and Rachel into the Ventana Wilderness, south of Big Sur and below Cone Peak – click through for the full gallery:
Tahoe Skiing
Click through for my gallery of pictures plus a video montage from this past weekend skiing at Squaw and Alpine Meadows with the Outdoor Adventure Club:
Eastern Sierra Colors
Darlene and I headed over to the Eastern Sierra for a few days last week to catch the fall colors of the aspen climbing the mountain valleys. We came over Sonora Pass, visited Bodie and camped the first night near Lundy Lake, hit Mammoth Lakes and then camped below Rock Creek Lake before finally having to make our way back via Tioga Pass and through Yosemite.
Seems like we might have been about a week early to catch the peak but it also seemed that a lot of the aspen were really dry and drying out quickly after turning yellow (skipping over orange and red), presumably due to the extended drought.
Click through for the full gallery:
Ghost Town
Bodie was a thriving gold and silver mining boomtown in the late 1800’s, home to many thousands (and many dozens of saloons) before falling into decline in the 1900’s. It was eventually completely abandoned in the 1950’s and became a state historic park in 1962. Many buildings remain standing and still contain the furniture, appliances, equipment, stores and even personal items left behind.
I’ve visited Bodie a number of times before, including in the winter, but this time was with Darlene on our way over to see the fall colors in the Eastern Sierra. My first visit was with my family back in 1979 so I managed to dig up and scan in a few old photos of me and my brother Glenn from 35 years ago.
Click through for the full gallery:
Whales at Moss Landing
There’s been loads of humpback whales in Monterey Bay this summer and Darlene and I finally had a chance to go on a whale-watching tour by kayak out of Moss Landing this past Sunday with Dave of Venture Quest Kayaks. Thanks once again, Dave! We had a great time and encountered numerous humpback whales diving and feeding together, once even coming up between our kayaks, as well as saw plenty of others off in various directions, blowing, diving and even breaching in the distance. After a snack break back at the boat launch, we headed in to the Elkhorn Slough with the aid of some handheld kayak sails.
In addition to all the whales, we also saw plenty of other wildlife: lots of harbor seals, sea lions, otters, egg yolk jellyfish, starfish, porpoises, pelicans, gulls, terns, sandpipers, cormorants and even an egret. A couple of people saw a mola mola pass under, but we missed that. D’oh!
However, our kayak was boarded in the slough by a sea otter “patrol” – apparently inspecting us for goodies… or contraband? (Check out the video below.)
We had so much fun on Sunday that we decided to sign up to come back the very next morning. On Monday, the entire bay was incredibly calm but we really had to work to find any whales. We had to paddle out nearly three miles into the bay to find them, but find them we did! Or perhaps they found us…
Click through for the full gallery of images from both days:
