Photos of Recovering Blue Sky Reserve and Mt. Woodson

It's hard to see in most of these photos the damage done by the fire. You really need to take this hike to get an idea of how a fire can completely destroy one hill and skip by a neighboring ridge, leaving it untouched. If you look at the photos I took last year you can see some of the effects of the fire. The trail through the Blue Sky Reserve runs just above a small creek, so it seemed to be greener along this part. On the way back I saw some unexpected animals. A man and woman each with a very large and colorful parrot on their arms.

I timed my hike perfectly - by accident. It was cool and overcast the entire trip to the top and then the sun came out. I knew the photos would look better with sunlight, but I took some when it was cloudy and on the way down I stopped to snap more pictures, but by that time I was feeling tired and soar. The photo above show the area near the top of Mt. Woodson that didn't burn. As you can see, the trail is surrounded by thick vegetation. When hiking on the trails that were burnt by the fire, the view of the hills and other trails were visible, making the hike seem like a completely different hike. I could see houses that I didn't know were there. I saw a bench with a cover sitting in the middle of a field. Lake Poway was visible from near the top of the mountain.

I know your number one question is "Did the shady tree survive?" The answer is "Yes"! However, it is almost unrecognizable, sitting all alone next to the big rock. It still provides much need shade. Also, the trail leading up to it has been modified. There is a dirt trail that zig-zags to the side of the rock, so you no longer have to climb up the rock, unless you want to stop, which I did. There were several volunteers on the Mt. Woodson trail fixing the trail by placing flat rocks in places where the trail must have been washed out. In fact, they were the same people I saw last year. The lower part of the trail near Lake Poway has been partially damaged by flowing water creating gullys, so I had to be careful where I stepped as to not twist my ankle. They have replaced and even added trail markers, making it easier to follow the trail. I didn't realize that the Mt. Woodson trail started at the junction about one mile up from the lake.

Blue Sky Reserve and Mt. Woodson Hike

I somehow got myself up at 7 AM on a Saturday and made it to the Blue Sky Reserve parking lot shortly after 8. I got there just in time as there were only a few parking spots left. I think a large group of people were meeting there to perform trail maintenance. Most of the hike was through areas that were burned by the Witch fire in October 2007. It look like the bigger trees survived but the smaller bushes burned, leaving the black branches you see in this photo. The photo also shows the new growth, which was very green, and in some places, surprising thick and tall. I'll post more photos later, because I am extremely tired and need to rest. I am out of shape as compared to last year and this four hour hike was a challenge for me.

Defaulted Property and Hiking

I came home from work today and noticed that the condo across from mine was empty. It looks like the owners moved out sometime recently, which is funny because they just moved in two years ago. After searching the Internet, I see that the house is owned by FEDERAL NATIONAL MORTGAGE ASSN, so I assume they foreclosed on the property. Even in 2006, I thought $430,00 was too much for this four bedroom condo, and I guess it was. It will be interesting to see what it goes on the market for - if the bank will try to re-cooperate its losses.

My plan tomorrow morning is to wake up early and go for a hike. I found out that the Blue Sky Reserve and Lake Poway hiking trails have been open since April 1st. They had been closed due to the fires in October of 2007. I plan to hike from the parking lot at the Blue Sky Reserve all they way to the top of Mt. Woodson, if possible. This will be my longest hike of the year, but I need to get into shape for my attempt up Mt. Wheeler in Great Basin National Park.

Four Day Weekend

Well, I was hoping I wouldn't waste away my four day weekend, but now that it is almost over, I feel like I have. Not entirely my fault, as I wasn't expecting cold and rain every day. The pool party I attended yesterday was really fun, but with the colder temps, both outside and in the water, I only spent about two minutes in the pool. The spa was popular due to it being much warmer, but one can only take so much hot water. So those of us who were still there later at night sat around the fire pit to dry out - until it started to rain around midnight. That signaled the end of the party. Saturday I bought a new pair of hiking zip-off pants and kind of fixed a friend's computer. Turns out it wasn't broken, just a pesky pop-up add that even after turning on the pop-up blocker, still persisted. Friday I had a treadmill stress-test and the doctor gave me an "A". I wasn't ready for how fast and steep they take the treadmill and don't normally get my heart rate above 200. I still have red marks on my chest where the nurse drilled the electrodes into my skin! So today I slept in, did three loads of laundry, took a nap and then went for a bike ride, so at least I accomplished something, including filling my car with $50 in gas. I forgot that there is a limit on how much you can charge for gas on a credit card. Another reason to use Costco gas, but they were closed today and my Mustang kept "dinging" me, indicating it was time to fill up the tank. This should be an interesting week at work. Last week about ten men and women in suits from some government agency showed up in the morning and proceeded to raid two offices and after a few hours they left with boxes of documents. Nothing news-worthy - yet.

Google Earth and You Tube

I have been using Google Earth for some time now. It is a great program that is useful in planning trips, both driving and hiking. Google is constantly adding more information, or layers to the maps, and one of the new layers is You Tube videos. I had recently created a You Tube account but had not uploaded any videos to it. After reading several help sites, I finally figured out how to have my videos show up in Google Earth. It was quite simple. First, upload the video to You Tube. Then, select the option where you enter the date, time and location of when/where the video was taken. To select the location, you drag a balloon icon on a Google map and place it at the location. The map is kind of small and it took some time to find the exact location. Then, if you wait about 24 hours, the video will be available on Google Earth. You need to select the You Tube option in the Gallery list to see the You Tube icons. Just click the icon to play the video. I have uploaded about six videos so far. For the fun of it, see if you can find them. They are under my username "reelds9", and can be found at Cedar Breaks National Monument, Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, Kennecott Copper Mine in Utah, Iron Mt. in San Diego and the Virgin River Gorge Drive on I15.

PCD, Air and Wine

Not only are my dreams out of control, but so is my CD buying. Because of XM and digital music from my cable TV provider, I have been buying less CDs. But every so often, BMG (mail order music service) has deals like buy one CD get four free. That works out to about $8/CD including taxes and S&H. I'm always looking for new music, rather than adding to my current collection of albums by Chicago, Rush and Styx, so I bought some albums that are outside my normal music taste. I got PCD by The Pussycat Dolls, Good Girl Gone Bad by Rihanna, Heros and Thieves by Vanessa Carlton, Pocket Symphony by Air and Frank by Amy Winehouse. I liked Amy Winehouse's breakthrough album so much I decided to buy her first album, despite what her dad says. Rihanna is R&B, but I really like the songs from that album, like Shut Up and Drive and Don't Stop the Music. Air is a group that plays dance/chill music and as for PCD, you can make fun of me if you want, but I like their singing. Vanessa Carlton is the only artist I already have albums from and they are all good.

Killer Robotic Monkeys

So, I need to watch what I eat before going to bed. When I'm dreaming about being attacked by monkeys with robotic enhancements, it's time to rethink either my diet or what I watch on TV in the evening. Somewhere in that dream was a good plot for a B-movie. I wish I could remember more about the dream so I could write a script!

Monument Valley

So I dug this photo out of my photo albums. Apparently, I have been to Monument Valley. The photo is dated Sep. 1992, so that must have been the trip where we went to Natural Bridges, Great Basin, North Rim of the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon. Boy, don't we look young? The funny white specks on the photo means that I need to clean my scanner.

Heat, Bike Ride and Trip Planning

Talk about a lazy Sunday afternoon. I didn't even leave my house until 5:30 when I went on a bike ride to Mirimar Lake. I just sat around in my air conditioned house all day, watching TV, sleeping and planning my Summer vacation. I made hotel reservations for four nights in Utah and Colorado near Arches and Mesa Verde National Parks. I've been to Arches before, but I was too sick to even get out of the car and I don't remember much about that trip. I'm looking forwards to Mesa Verde. It is a big park and I should probably spend more than one day there, but looking at my vacation, I'll be spending a lot of time alone and will be ready to visit some friends or just come home. The last leg of my trip is still unplanned. I'm leaving my options open. I'm skipping the leg to Salt Lake City since I'll be going there in August for a family reunion.

My bike ride ended up being shorter than I had planned. I found a short-cut home from the lake that was half as far as the normal way I ride there. The trek around the lake was nice, as the temperature wasn't too hot and the path was not crowded at all. In fact, the water level in the lake looked a few feet lower than before, and I only saw one boat in the water.

I was invited to go camping this weekend at the La Jolla Indian Reservation near Palomar Mountain, but I just wasn't motivated to go. I'll be interested to hear about the trip, since that reservation was almost completely burned by the fires last October.

So now four days of work followed by a four day weekend. How nice. I don't really have anything planned, other than being invited to a pool party on Sunday. I won't be leaving town, so I'll try to maximize my time at home doing something fun and constructive instead of sitting at home and taking naps.

Edit:

After talking to my brother, it seems that we did not go to Arches National Park, but Natural Bridges NP. I really was sick on that road trip.

Thule 963 Bike Rack

Today I bought my 3rd bike rack for my Rav4. My first bike rack broke the first time I used it. My second rack I used several times until I bashed my nose into it, after which I destroyed it. This new rack holds two bikes and when not in use the rack folds down flush with the spare tire, which will keep me from having another nose emergency. The rack was very easy to install. I just had to remove the spare tire, place the bracket on, replace the tire and then attach the main rack. It seems to be fastened securely, but I haven't actually tried using it with my bike yet. I know I'll need bungee cords to keep the bike from moving around. The rack can be locked in, but I'm afraid that if I lock it and the lock breaks or I loose my key, then I won't be able to get the spare tire off. It will get tested well during my two week summer vacation road trip.

Updated 07/13/2008: The Thule rack worked great on my 2800 mile road trip. It held my bike securely, with the help of two bungee cords. I'm very happy with this purchase.

iPod Classic

I jumped on the bandwagon. I bought an iPod today. I got the iPod Classic 80GB, which has a 2 1/2 inch LCD screen. It can hold 20,000 or 100 hours of video. Now, I'll never fill it to capacity, but it is nice to have that option. the 160GB version was $100 more and didn't seem necessary. I downloaded a few albums to it today, including some from They Might Be Giants, as you can see. I have yet to listen to a full song, but the audio sounded good so far. No video yet. I'm not sure I could watch a full length movie on the small screen, even on an airplane, but I might try next time. Tomorrow I'll connect it to my new auxiliary adapter in the Mustang and see how it works. My motivation for buying the iPod was an e-mail from my sister who said Rick Steves had audio tours of Italy available for free on iTunes, and since we will be going there this November, it sounded like a good idea.

Five More Joshua Tree Pictures

Getting ready for the hike. Actually, I was the only one who had to get ready. Once we arrived at the trail head, I had to take out and adjust my hiking poles while everyone else took off. I always over-prepare for even the smallest hike.



It looks sparse from above, but the camp site served its purpose. It gave us a place to eat, sleep and relax.


Chris and Molly at the Lost Horse Mine.


A photo of the desert near sunset with a Joshua Tree in the center.

Woody was the only one who scrambled up the big boulder at our camp site. The rest of us just gave him assistance on how to climb up and get back down. I would have climbed up too but it was more difficult while holding a beer.

Joshua Tree Photos Part 3

I took this photo at Keys View, where you can see Mt. San Jacinto on the left, San Gorgonio on the right, and a Joshua Tree in the middle. That brown haze in the valley is smog from LA.

One of the more colorful flowers I passed by during the hike to the mine.

We never found the lost horse, nor did we find any more gold.

From a distance he was just a silhouette. With a little Photoshop work you can see some detail.

You are not supposed to feed the wildlife, but come on, who could resist this cute little squirrel?

More Joshua Tree Photos

We went for a short hike from our camp site to some near by rocks, where there was a natural window that everybody got their pictures taken in. I'm sitting in an awkward position with a beer in my hand and Woody is smiling in the background.

I needed a new non-backpacking tent. My old three-person tent that I bought in 1995 had one too many holes and broken poles. I bought this tent at Costco that is 8X8 feet. It is larger than my last tent, and gives me room for my queen sized air mattress plus room on the side for bags and stuff. The only thing I don't like about it is that the entire top is open mesh. The second night I put up the rain fly, which not only covers the open areas, it adds a nice vestibule in front which provides a shaded place to put a cooler during the day.

While hike back from the mine, some hikers walking the other way warned us of a rattlesnake coiled up on the left side of the trail. We would have walked right by without seeing the snake because he was so well camouflaged in the grass. I used my zoom to take this photo because I do not like snakes and I kept my distance. However, he never shook his rattle as a warning to the seven city-dwelling people staring at him. Of all the hiking I've done recently, this is the first time I've seen a rattlesnake.

I've taken better sunset photos than this. I'm still getting used to the settings on my camera. At sunset, the landscape was gloing yellow and was quite pretty. The temperatures dropped quickly after the sun set. Also, the wind picked up in the evening but calmed down after dark.

The local flora was very diverse in Joshua Tree. At our campground, the vegetation was very sparse and more desert-like. At the higher elevations there were many more blooming flowers and thicker, taller and green plants.

Photos From Joshua Tree

All the camp sites at the park seem to be around big rock formations like the one I'm standing in front of. We stayed at the Belle Rock camping area, which had a total of 18 camp site. If you pick the right two spots, you have some privacy and are less likely to have complaining neighbors. We were lucky, the camp sites on either side were very quite, and if fact, so were we. Also, the park rangers drove by several times a day and they never stopped to tell us we were violating some park rule. The big excitement at our site was when a maintenance truck caught on fire. There were able to put the fire out, but then came the park range, then a tow truck, then another maintenance truck to finish the job (clean the bathroom) and later someone came by and put yellow tape around the site of the fire.



Like I said, it had been 15 years since I had been here, and as it turns out, I ended up going on the same hike I did back in 1993. It was my idea to go on this hike. I knew it was not too far or strenuous and the Lost Horse Mine is kind of interesting. Even though I felt like I was dragging some of my friends along, everyone had a good time. The mine looks as I remember it. As far as other changes to the park in the last 15 years, I'd say the most noticeable are improved roads and better bathrooms. Most of the roads looked newly paved and the bathrooms smelled better than my car, not that my car smells bad. Otherwise, the park looks the same. I'll have to dig out the photos I took before and compare them to the ones I took this weekend to see if anything has changed. For one, I know my hair will look less gray.

The rest of the group sitting on a wall above the mine. After the hike, we went back to the camp site, ate lunch and relaxed. For dinner on Saturday night, everybody cooked up all sorts of food. I brought my own food, but there was so much food I didn't need to cook my own meal. We had red beans and rice with sausage, carnitias and all sorts of toppings and sauces. I just put everything in a tortilla and ate it as one big burrito - very tasty and filling. On Sunday, we all work up fairly early, ate a small breakfast, packed up our tents and left by 10 AM. We were in four cars and all left at different times but then re-grouped at Chris's house where the weekend continued. We showered, ate more of our camping food and listened to music.

Weekend at Joshua Tree National Park

I just got home from spending a weekend at Joshua Tree National Park. It was a very enjoyable camping trip, and I took lots of photos, as promised, like this one that I snapped on the way outof the park this morning. The meadow was filled with yellow flowers blooming among the Joshua trees, with snow-capped Mt. San Jacinto in the background. I'll post more pictures tomorrow, after a good nights rest and a full day of work.

Camping At Joshua Tree National Park

I will be camping this weekend at Joshua Tree National Park. I haven't been there since 1993! I doubt much has changed, after all, it is a desert. I will take lots of pictures for blogging.