My Birthday 2012

This year for my birthday I decided it would be fun to go to Gray Lodge Wildlife Area.  I hadn't been there for decades, but remembered it as being very pretty due to the proximity of the Sutter Buttes.  Also decided I would like a cheesecake for my birthday cake.  There is a great recipe online for a cuppucino cheesecake that F made for her junior recital.  I made it myself, because I didn't trust Ted to make it without modifying it too much.  As it was I modified it quite a bit myself because it is so rich plus I was lacking some key ingredients, like the espresso powder. and it still turned out quite tasty.
We left here about 10.15 and picked up F at her apt in Sac at 11, dropping off the cheesecake for later.  Well actually what with one thing and another we didn't really clear the city until 11.30 at least.  Drove on up the highway without incident.  Had a heck of a time getting our money into the slot in the Iron Ranger.  Had to resort to quarters as didn't have enough $1s, finally just put them in one at a time.
Took a short walk on the nature trail, had lunch, drove the auto tour, and then walked the other nature trail. 

Day was hazy but mostly clear skies and moderate temps.

Had a great time and saw a lot of birds.  My favorite were the snipe, spotted by a sharp-eyed F.  I'm sure we could have driven the loop again and seen some birds we missed the first time around.

Lots of geese, but only in some spots.

I loved these hides, they are really well done.

Sharp-eyed F spotted 3 snipe at one of our stops on the auto tour.  Who knows how many we missed.

We took our last walk starting at about 4 pm.  The great horned owls were already starting to hoot, and they kept it up till after moonrise.  The moon was full and we got to enjoy both sunset and moonrise. 
Had a great dinner at Star of India in Yuba City.  Finished up with the cheesecake at F's.  My birthday cheesecake has slowed down my effort to shed the extra Christmas weight.

First post of 2012-Cold Canyon New Years Day Hike

Ok so this hike was actually Jan 2, but we were all busy recovering from our late night on New Year's Eve, plus our hiking group had various conflicts for New Years Day, so Monday it was.  Pam, Ted, and I met up with Frances and Doug at the trailhead at about 11AM.  Took us 35 min to get there, F took an hour.

This trail is very steep in sections.

This years hiking group, I'm behind the camera

Weather was perfect, not too warm.

The views never get old.

Due to our recent Mt. Diablo climb we were in pretty good shape, and nobody was sore the next day.  We heard some wrentits and Ted saw and heard a California Thrasher.  Unfortunately, Pam and I missed that.
Previous New Years Day hikes at Cold Canyon 2010, 2011

Update in response to comment

Vertical exaggeration turned to 2x.

I guess our legs can detect changes in elevation that are too small to see in the charts!

Last Post of 2011

Take Eagle Peak Trail first. Come back on Mitchell Canyon Trail, unless you enjoy steep downhill.

Didn't have time to post this earlier what with all the New Years Eve prep.  Had a great Holiday Season.  Lots of fun and games.  Today just hanging out, picking up the Christmas mess, watching football, recovering from the rich food of the past week.
F wanted to take a hike on her birthday, and told us to pick the hike. Chose the Eagle Peak-Mitchell Canyon Trail on Mt. Diablo.  Even though it's close we have almost never gone hiking there (well, a couple of short walks on trails at the peak).  One of the web sites we saw said it was a 5 mile hike and another said 8 miles.  Turns out the 8 miles was correct!

As soon as we reached Eagle Peak a clould blew in.

This was quite a hike!  Even in the dead of winter it was very fun, required lots of exertion, we went through lots of different vegetation, and saw lots of very fat birds.  The food must be plentiful at Mt. Diablo. Took an hour to get to the trail head in no traffic.  Finished off the day with yummy Indian food.  Every one of us was sore the next day!  However we are looking forward to more hair of the dog and our Cold Canyon hike on Jan 2.

The trail track from the
GPS viewed in Google Earth

A crown! and counting breaths

Need to write this before I forget! Last Thursday I had an appointment to get an old crown removed.  Decay was evident below the metal of the crown in the xrays.  I was quite anxious. But it was NO BIG DEAL.  Note to self, don't bother getting anxious about this kind of stuff.  Afterwards I went over to Raley's and bought myself a nice bouquet.

On the weekend we went to a  party given by a colleague.  His wife is a very interesting person.  To bad we don't live closer, as I would love to have her for a friend.  She told me she has started walking and she counts her steps, to turn her walk into a walking meditation.  She walks between 5,000 and 6,000 steps a day.  I was flabbergasted that she could concentrate enough to count up to 6,000. 

I decided to try this on my bike ride.  I quickly decided that counting my pedals was a non starter, but I did decide I could count my breaths. For beginning, I decided to just count my breaths on the ride up the hill, not the whole trip.  I start at the gate at the bottom of the hill.  I bellow breath, otherwise known as back breathing.  First time up I counted 560 breaths.  Second time 590, but I was ticked about something and kept getting distracted.  Third time (today) I counted 550 breaths.  Ted also counted his breaths today and this is the really interesting part- he counted 415 breaths.  So even though my time up the hill is faster, and Ted is 6ft 5 compared to my 5 ft 4, and about 80 pounds heavier, he had over 100 fewer breaths.  I don't know enough physiology to totally get this.

Catch up post

It seems like so long since I wrote in this blog and that so much has happened that catching up is impossible, but I see that my last post was Nov 3 and this is only the 28th, so it hasn't even been a month. Wow.

At the end of October we went curling at the local skating rink. We had a lot of fun. Not something to do on ar regular basis I'm afraid, my knee hasn't been the same since.

Squinting at the skip

We also have been doing a ton of fieldwork, went to to three different Frances performances in Sacramento, and had a computer fail. And the chain on my bike fail.
Slowly putting things back in order now.

Gulf Fritillary and Warm Weather

I was enchanted to see this Gulf Fritillary on my zinnias when I got back from Wisconsin!  I'd never seen one before, but I recognized it right away as being in Common Butterflies of California by Bob Stewart.  I think one of my neighbors has a passion flower vine.  We had a nice week of warm (80F) weather for the week after we got back.  It was just like summer!

Oct trip to Wisconsin

Arch 0, Ambulence 1

We arrived Wednesday in time for dinner, since Mom and Dad ordered Chinese in Minoqua and we picked it up on our way through. Early Thursday we were awakened by Dad on the phone to 911. Mother couldn't catch her breath. Mom was hospitalized until Sunday afternoon, when she was finally able to bust out. Needless to say I spent a lot of time at the hospital, including Saturday night in a nice comfy hospital bed they brought in for me.

Plenty of seasonal chores

Ted did most of the raking by himself the first day while I was at the hospital, but I was able to contribute on a couple of the other days. Eric arrived Saturday evening, stopping off at the hospital on his way through while I was there. Ted brought me dinner and he and I ate with Grandma.

Liz and Grand-dad enjoy the view

The lake was beautiful as always, and I really enjoyed getting up each morning and seeing what it was up to. 

The tamaracks and poplars were at peak color.

Ted and I got a couple of walks in on the local nature trails even with all the hospital time.

Eric finds the walleyes.

And I am happy to say that Eric got in some fishing too.  Unfortunately Grand-dad had a return of the amiodarone lung poisoning while Grandma was hospitalized, finally going to the emergency room at 3.30 in the morning on Wednesday (the day we left).  Ted and I stopped in at the hospital on our way back to Minneapolis. Grand-dad was released Thursday or Friday.
The parents, with Eric's help, moved back to P.E. on Oct 30.  Eric will stay till Nov 4, and Sue and Al plan to come for the weekend.