A MEMORY FROM 2016 - CENTRAL COAST CALIFORNIA - VISIT WITH MY SISTER

 So in January of 2016, I went up for a week to the San Luis Obispo area where my sister lives to spend some time relaxing, walking, eating and just enjoying her company.  So one day she has a doctor's appt and i stay back at the house but then decide to go on a walk.  

I was coming back from a beautiful walk through a nearby neighborhood close to where she lives when all of a sudden I was accosted by these little monsters.  They were bold and insistent and I must say i feared for my life until they proved to be nothing more than little playful babies, lolol.  Look at these cuties!!  

The last photo is the mom who wasn't particularly happy that they were interacting with a stranger - she thought she had taught them well about stranger danger.  She barked at them to get back in the yard and sat there  in the street looking so exhausted by it all.

BAD CHOICE

So I made a not too smart choice to go down the mountain to a trail I had no idea what it would be like.   I think it was over 85 degrees but it felt hotter in the direct sun.  We found the Parkland trail and headed up.  It was hot and within not even a hundred steps we would have started an uphill incline.  We turned around and chose to go the other way on the trail  because I already was hot and forgot my water bottle.   We kept going for awhile on that trail and it turned into a nicer walk which ended near a bridle trail which we took to come back down to the car.  By the time we got back to the car I was definitely over-heated and vowed to only do these kinds of trails in winter or maybe an early evening walk in spring through fall.  

We got in the car and wanted to drive around to see if we could spot any more trails for future reference.  

I love the look of heading out east on Baseline and you see Big Bear in the distance looking all big and bold.  Probably too many photos but for future reference I'll look back and not so fondly remember this really short hike.  This is the drive that took us to Parkland Trail.

HAPPY SPRING -

 From here on out I hope to post photos on my blog to remind me of where I am going to be during the next three seasons before winter shows up again.  I told myself at the end of fall last year I was going to try and find different trails to walk on - trails that I don't already know about.  

Today, since we are going down the mountain to Aldi and  few stores, I tried to find a trail somewhat close to where we will be.  I found one and it will be fun to discover what its' like.  It's in the foothills over near where I posted photos this last month about the casino.  

Yesterday we went to "Silverwood Lake" which is a huge lake and our overflow water here at Lake Gregory eventually goes down to Silverwood where there is a dam and a lot of different trails we have yet to discover.  We only went  on the  power company's, Edison, utility road that eventually goes to their towers.  It goes on a long way but we did a short walk because at one point it dipped down and I didn't have hiking shoes on so didn't feel like taking a slide down the trail.  You can see in the photo how far this road goes up through the foothills.  

Here are a few photos from yesterday.  It wasn't until I saw the photos i realized Mike's shirt matched the lake. We were able to see the lake from up above.  We have a good view and could see across to the high desert.  A few years back a huge fire ran through some of this area.  

I'm looking forward to our trip out today to see what this trail we found on the internet ...will actually look like.  

EVERY MONTH A TRIP DOWN THE MOUNTAIN

 I basically posted these because of the colors.  I get tired of posting photos with snow in them.  

We go once a month down the mountain and get on the freeway and head east for about 10 minutes or so to go to some of our favorite stores.  Aldi is one of them.   I don't know if you have them where you live but their prices are amazing.  We also have narrowed down what we buy at Wal-Mart so we are normally in and out in  15 minutes.  Then there is a  Ross and an Applebees in the same shopping center.  It feels good to get out of a small town and do a little shopping.  These photos I took a week or so ago  as we left the shopping area to go home.

So my son John works at a big Casino recently renamed Yaamava but was named San Manuel.   In the photos I'm showing first is of the casino but this one structure up there in the next photos  I finally found out it is the Tribal headquarters .    All this property in the hills there  belong to the Indian tribe of San Manuel.  They even have their own fire department.  There are many beautiful homes in those hills.

The last three photos are taken as we are getting off the freeway to go to the shopping center.  They aren't on Indian land but I love the views.  That mountain in the distance with snow on it is Big Bear. This top photo was taken from the passenger side as we were heading east and i had to take the photo through the windshield.  i was surprised it turned out.

SNOWING NOW AND WILL PROBABLY BE ABOUT THE SAME AS LAST SNOW THAT WAS FINALLY STARTING TO MELT

 Here are a few pics from the last one.  I love the view out Red Rock turnout and in this photo the altitude here is about 4600 or a little more I believe.  In these photos you can see that the day after our snow the hills below had nothing as it was already starting to melt.  We, however, keep our snow for what seems like a month after it falls.  I've probably said before, I never want to live on the shady side of the mountain again.  At least our days our longer and we are getting more sun shining into the yard to melt the snow quicker.  

Happy Tuesday and all that it means this year - lots of 2's.

Oh yeah, every time I walk by this tree on the trail this rock in the middle of it is smiling at me or maybe smirking.

I don't know who that guy is in the bottom photo but he is definitely enjoying the view.