Borego Palm Canyon March 20, 2010

My daughter Barbara and I took our friends George and Courtney out to Borrego Springs to see the desert flower bloom and to take a hike up into Palm Canyon. We started out at the visitor center and walked along the flat trail across the desert floor enjoying an abundance of flowers blooming everywhere. Yellows, Purples and Reds all around in the middle of this hot desert. It was really beautiful. Some cactus were just starting to bloom but not quite there yet. Anyway we kept going and made our way up the canyon. We couldn't tell from a distance but when we started to get a little ways up in we found a creek flowing very nice with lush green vegetation, tons of flowers and spectacular views throughout this canyon. About a mile an a half up into the canyon we reached an oasis of palm trees, several different small waterfalls with a creek flowing through some of the biggest boulders I have ever seen. We had lunch inside of a room in the palm trees and cooled off by the creek. We all had a good time and I now realize just a little more of just how beautiful the desert can be.

Mens Mountain Retreat March 5, 6 and 7

Hello Everybody, I went to a men's retreat up on the top of Palomar mountain. We stayed at a really nice retreat center. The fellowship was great. Good fellowship with the guys. The food was incredibly good and we ate like kings. We arrived on Friday as a cold Winter storm was about to move in over the mountain. The first day was sunny and then massive clouds and cold air swept over the mountain creeping up through the valleys. The next day Saturday it started raining and hailing. There was not a lot of wind though. It was all coming pretty much straight down. Saturday night it snowed. It was really great to see the snow coming down as I haven't got to see it actually snow in quite a while. Anyway, during Saturday me and a really cool dude Joe that I met geared up with warm clothing and our rain gear and some necessary emergency items in the backpack and set out on a hike. The mountain was extremely beautiful as we hike and it rained and hailed off and on. We seen a couple of deer and every creek and rain runoff creek and spring was flowing good. We hiked somewhere around a five mile loop I think. We lost track of time and we had to hustle back to the retreat center as fast as we could to get back before dark. The next day it was snowing lightly as we made our way off of the mountain. This was a great mountain adventure.