Mount Laguna Danny & Aaron Dec 27 2009

Today My son Danny and I headed out to Mount Laguna to hike the Big Laguna Trail. When we got to the trailhead the weather was perfect, nice and sunny with patches of snow and just an almost cloudless blue sky. We headed out on the trail enjoying vast views to the west as we walked the west facing ridge through a beautiful pine and oak forest. I was so glad to share this experience with Danny. This was long overdue time spent together as we haven't been hangin' out much lately. And what a day. In the mountains! We enjoyed visiting the Frozen over Water of the woods pond and Big Laguna Lake. The was a lot of snow still on the North facing slopes and trails that we hiked. We gained some higher ground at one point and we could see all the way to the snowy peaks of Mount San Jacinto and Big Bear. After the hike we drove over to the desert view overlook and looked out thousands of feet below to the Anza Borego desert. This was a great day in the mountains.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope your holidays are filled with cheer and good times. Heres some pics of my winter solo hike up on Palomar mountain.

Palomar Mountain Summer and Fall 2009

I have been exploring several trails on the top of Palomar Mountain Southern California this year. This is the closest mountain to me. In about an hour and 20 minutes I can be at the trailhead on my way on a hike through thick forest of pine and cedar, grand meadows and small ponds, and small creeks flowing through canyons of granite rock and boulders at around 5000 to 6000 feet elevation. I feel like I am really living life since I have been exploring the wilderness this past year. I feel more fulfilled and more at peace. I mostly hike with freinds or family but sometimes I hike alone. There is something about hiking way out into the wilderness alone that helps to quiet the mind. Much of the time there is like a committee in my head and the mountain hikes have definitely helped quiet it down. Anyway, here's a few pics of Palomar Mountain. Ive seen a lot of wildlife up close up on Palomar. One day while hiking by myself I say down and ate my lunch about 15 feet from two owls that intently stared at me but did not fly away. Actually they got used to me being there and they started falling asleep while they rested on the branches of a fallen tree. Also I caught a Mountain King snake up there. I have been wanting to catch one of these all my life. My daughter Barbara actually spotted it. Also in the picture above, My girlfriend Linda ( Green Shirt ), My Mom Vicki ( White shirt ), and my daughter Barbara ( Blue Shirt ).

Matilija July 2009

I heard about Matilija Creek and seen some Photos and I just had to go check it out. I planned the trip for my girlfriend Linda and I to backpack up as far as we could go up the upper north fork of the Matilija creek. We did not see one other person the whole weekend. We had the whole canyon to ourselves. The creek and the landscape was beautiful. You can really see how the earths crust was tilted up to make these mountains. We hiked about 6 miles in all the way to upper Matilija camp. The serenity and isolation of this shaded camp next to the creek was perfect. We seen a couple of rattlesnakes on this trip as well. Always exciting. Anyway I have come to love the Matilija area.

Sespe Backpacking Trip June 2009

Its been about 20 years since I have been down tar creek trail to sespe creek. Linda, Wesley and myself headed out on a Friday morning from the trailhead and planned on getting picked up Monday afternoon. I learned a lot from this trip. Slight chance of showers means that it could rain hard for a while. We definitely were wet when we finally got to Sespe creek. The hike was more beautiful than I ever remembered it. I forgot how gnarly the rock overhanging cliff at the edge of Bear Heaven Looked. I had forgotten about the Tar Creek waterfalls as well. We camped out at a nice sandy camp beside Sespe creek. We explored downstream mostly making our way through huge purble and white boulderfields along the creek both downstream of the confluence with Tar Creek and Upstream towards the lower Tar Creek Falls. The sun finally cam out the 3rd day and the Creek really came to life. Watersnakes and Water turtles and Dragonflies coming out and Giant birds possibly condors soaring overhead. This trip really got me fired up to explore some more of the backcountry. It is now December 15 and since the Sespe trip I have been on 18 other hiking and backpacking trips since mostly Los Padres and Cleveland national forests but also two trips to Yosemite. I'll talk about those trips in other Blogs. Anyway here are some pics from the trip.