Mission Trails San Diego May 23, 2010

Spring is still somewhat hanging on at Mission Trails. It was my first time hiking there and I really enjoyed it. The plan was to go with my daughter Barbara and my coworker Storm and his friend but they all bailed out on me so I ended up doing the hike solo. The San Diego River flows through this area and it was still flowing pretty good. There were still some flowers in bloom but you could tell they will be baked up pretty soon in the hot sun in these lower elevations. Anyway I got some great pictures. Check em out.

Tar Creek Backpacking Trip May 9 & 10, 2010

Hey Everybody, I went on a killer backpack trip overnight to Tar Creek in the Los Padres National Forest. I went with my two brothers Rob and Wesley and my nephew Josh. This was Josh's first backpacking trip like this. He is sixteen years old. It looked like he really enjoyed it. We all had a really great time. We had the canyon completely to ourselves for two days. This was our first time there for all of us. We had to do a little route finding but we made it all the way to the main falls down toward the confluence with Sespe Creek. This Place is truly beautiful. It's one of the most unusual canyons I have been to. I have seen pictures but to visit this place was truly amazing. The water was flowing well and the waterfalls were huge. We got to swim in some of the best swimming holes around and we even did some jumping off some 10 to 20 foot tall boulders into some of the really deep pools. The wildflowers were still in near full bloom and we see quite a bit of wildlife like a water turtle and her two baby turtles, a Gopher Snake that we caught and let go, a ribbon snake, rabbits, squirrels, frogs and several kinds of birds and bats. Also ther was no moon so me and Josh stayed up late and seen one of the most star filled skies that we have seen. This was a great trip. I can't wait to go again.

Spring Wildflowers 2010

I have truly enjoyed the changing seasons over this last year. I have really noticed this spring and how beautiful the changing landscape has been over this last couple of months. Here are some snapshots that I have taken recently of this years wildflowers in bloom.

Matilija Backpack March 26, 27 and 28

Finally! Made a trip up the main for Matilija Creek with my brother Rob and my friend Mark. We hiked in about halfway on Friday evening and made our own private little camp in a spot on a side of the creek that looked like people have not been for quite a while. We packed in some good food and ate like kings. I was blown away by the beauty of the twisted tilted up landscape with the creek cascading into beautiful deep aqua and green pools. Lots of flowers were blooming everywhere under a cloudless sky all weekend. We made the hike up to all of the waterfalls on Saturday. They were totally amazing. We caught a water snake and seen several others along the way as well. We had a great time, laughed a lot, and really enjoyed being out in the mountains.