Reach The Beach

Last weekend Dad, Pam and I went to Point Reyes on a beautiful sunny Sunday, hiking down Abbots Lagoon. What can I say? This park is one of my favorite places of all time.

Owed T’ Alex

Labor Day weekend was fun. Dad and I went camping up in the Sierra Nevada near Lake Tahoe. The first night it rained pretty hard on us (luckily we were snug in our tent). It was the same storm that washed out all those folks at the Burning Man Festival.

The next day was still wet, so we drove down to Carson City, Nevada to visit Dad’s friends Jim (pictured) and Janet. It was fun hanging out with them and drying out.

Monday was beautiful so we hiked to the top of Mt. Judah near Donner Pass. All in all, a nice trip close to home.

Eastsiders

California’s Sierra Nevada is considered by many people (including me) to be possibly the greatest recreational mountain area in the world. The southern section of the range is unique because of its several hundred miles of unbroken wilderness (south of Tioga Pass). Unbelievable in a state as developed and populous as ours.

Dad and I are fond of approaching from the east side in Owens Valley because the mountain escarpment rises so dramatically. In July we camped along Bishop Creek (outside of its namesake city) and did some hiking in the high country. There is still a lot of snow up there due to the “atmospheric rivers” of last winter.

The behemoth in the foreground in the photo just outside of Bishop is Mount Tom (13,658 ft.). We didn’t climb to the top this time, but perhaps in the future.

Romeo And Juliet

By our tradition, it is de rigueur to stop by the Greenleaf Restaurant in Ashland, Oregon for marionberry pancakes. (Heavens, they’re tasty!)

We also like to check out the summer offerings from the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. This year’s program features Romeo And Juliet. I’ve heard that this play is about love. I know that there are different kinds of love. There’s family love, which I have in spades. There is love of this world and the precious planet we live on. (We need to see more of that.) There’s also romantic love, which I don’t know very much about but it seems like it can make people both happy and sad. One thing for sure- I would not want to have anything to do with a love where you have to kill yourself at the end of the play.

The Eye Of My Apple

Washington’s Yakima Valley is “home” to my favorite fruit snack- the apple. What I mean is that it’s a major apple growing region, so passing through here felt like a pilgrimage.

I used to believe that the Apple Goddess (health conscious cousin of the Ice Cream Goddess) dwelt at the summit of Mt. Rainier, bestowing her blessings on those of us below. Now, I am pretty sure that her spirit lives here as well as at countless grocery stores and farmer’s markets around the world.

Northern Sky

British Columbia’s Mt. Robson (3,954 m) is the highest point in the Canadian Rockies. It’s quite a sight from the visitor center in its namesake provincial park, so we really didn’t need to hike to it. I’ve noticed that the mountains around here really stand out. There’s no question that you’re in the presence of something really big.

By the way, this spot is the farthest north I’ve been to in my life so far (almost 53 degrees north according to the map). It feels like I’m at the ends of the earth, but in fact I am much closer to Davis, California than to the North Pole.

Athabasca Falls

One of the coolest sights in Canada’s Jasper National Park is this waterfall on the Athabasca River. It’s not very tall but you can see that there’s a huge amount of water flowing through. Kind of a miniature Niagara Falls. The water is a glacier-fed turquoise color. Beautiful!