PHOTO BLOGGING CHALLENGE (JUNE 2019): GET OUT AND PLAY

So I haven't done this in a couple of years, but since I have a new blog, I thought I'd get back into this again.  The theme was relatively easy to cover this month, since it was pretty much in my wheelhouse considering the circumstances in my life at the moment.  This month's theme was "Get Out and Play" and I did that a lot this past month.

1. Foggy morning

For readers of my other blog that haven't come over here yet, I retired at the end of May after teaching for 36 years.  I can really get out and play all the time now.  This particular photo was taken on Monday, June 3rd, the first day of my summer vacation since I don't technically retire until August 1st. The fog is actually the key to this photo.  This is a fire road loop trail in the foothills north of the town I live in in California.  This is the sunny side of the trail.  Coming down the other side you descend into a creek ravine and there's lots of trees there, so I usually just do the loop counter clockwise so I can finish in shade.  I didn't need to do that this time, but I'm really glad I did.  Hiking is one of my passions and I'm trying to build up stamina even more for longer hikes in the future. This, being the first hike of the summer, was a short hike by my standards.  But at the 2 and a half mile marker, I came upon a bear walking up a side trail.  For those of you who are familiar with this loop, this is really close to civilization, but there he was, a bear on my first day of vacation.  And, no, I was too interested in watching it that I didn't even get any photos of it.  By the time I thought about taking a shot, it was up on the ridge above the main trail, in heavy fog, behind some bushes.  Even if I had taken a photo, it would have been a grey blob.  So, you'll just have to trust me on this one.  Talking with rangers after I came down indicates that they think there's at least 3 bear up in the foothills calling this spot their home.  I've been hiking up there for the better part of 15 years and this is the first time I've seen a bear.  I probably have a better chance of seeing a rattlesnake up there, yet I haven't seen one of those either.  And so it goes.

2. Halfway through

One of my other passions is geocaching, which I do a lot.  Some people would say I'm obsessed about it.  I've been finding caches in the  wild and in the urban environments since 2001, before the hobby/sport/game was even a year old.  The nice thing about geocaching is it usually involves hiking, so I'm all over that.  Or at least getting off of your butt and out in the environment, even if it means just looking around town for things hidden then.  I prefer going out on geocaching excursions with other people.  This particular hike would have been really frustrating since we ended up with a lot of DNFs (Did Not Finds) for the day.  Eh.  That happens.  

As you can also see, I upped my mileage for this one.  Technically, this was a little less strenuous terrain-wise since it was all on paved trail, but it was definitely longer.  This was taken at mile marker 6.5 and we'd actually walked beyond that marker before we turned around and went back down the canyon we in which we were hiking.  I also hide a cache up in the canyon.  Curiously, no one has found it yet.  That is usually a rarity as there are always cachers out there who like to be First to Find on any cache, but since this particular hide is a 4 mile hike one way, it's going to take more than one cache to lure many people out there.  Had I hidden two or three caches out there, all of them might already have been found.  But just one?  I suspect it will sit there until the fall now before someone ventures out to find it.

3. Pacific Crest Trail

When I was younger, I really wanted to hike the entire Pacific Crest Trail.  I still do actually, but life is in the way.  I don't think my wife would take kindly to me taking off for five to six months to be by myself in the woods.  Although today it's probably much safer than it was 40 years ago, it's still a challenge.  The trail is 2650 miles long.  700 of that is hiking pretty much through desert landscapes.  You hike 1700 miles before you even leave California.  It's a rugged trail to say the least.

This doesn't mean I've given up on the idea, it's just on the back burner.  Right now, I've been pretty satisfied just getting out and hiking sections of it, like this one north of Big Bear Lake.  Taking a weekend backpacking trek or possibly a five day trek is not out of the realm of possibilities.  I'm sure my wife would rest easier if I went with someone else.  Any takers?

4. Checkerspot butterfly

Photography, another passion of mine has changed over the years.  I've started an Instagram account called @dogzonwalkz where I literally go out and take photos of dogs on walks and post them to my account.  Feel free to follow along there as well.

I've always enjoyed photography and this month, I went back out and started exploring other areas that I've neglected in the past, particularly, nature photography.  While out on that geocaching hike earlier in the month, we were literally swarmed by flocks of butterflies.  We counted 7 different species of butterflies as we hiked in the canyon. I didn't have my main camera with me because I was trying out some new trekking poles, plus I was geocaching, so I felt that leaving the large camera at home was the right thing to do.  All I had with me was a point and shoot and my iPhone.  This Chalcedon Checkerspot on a berry blossom was taken with my point and shoot.  There was another instance where I had a chance to get a shot of one of the other types of butterflies and I couldn't get close enough to get a shot like this since all access in was through a large patch of poison oak.  Nope, I did not want to go there, which means there's still a place for my larger camera and its big zoom lens.

5.  Muir Woods National Monument

Growing up, my dad would always take the entire family on camping trips and most of those camping trips revolved around seeing some kind of national park in the western United States.  I continued that tradition with my kids and took them to many of the places I'd been to as a kid.  I also took them to new spots, places I'd never visited or camped at previously.  Joshua Tree National Park comes to mind very quickly as one of our spring trips.  Another spring trip was to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument.

One spot that I never visited, nor took my kids to see was Muir Woods National Monument.  I finally got to visit it when my wife and I went up to visit my daughter and son-in-law last week in the Bay Area.  We had tried to visit it last summer, but didn't realize that you need reservations for parking in the park, or to get a shuttle down to the monument and the place was sold out for the week we were there.  Once we finalized our travel plans this year, I went ahead and booked a parking reservation for the monument and we were good to go.

The park is very peaceful and despite the number of people in the park on the trails, it never felt like it was crowded, nor were the crowds disrespectful of the environment.  Most walked quietly taking in the glory of the coast redwood environment.  If people did talk, most talked in low whispers out of respect for everyone around them.  Other national park places I've been to people haven't shown the same kind of courtesy, which is why I really enjoyed myself while we were hiking along the trails.  My daughter said she enjoyed watching me just enjoy the moment.

And that's that for this month.  I hope you enjoyed these offerings to the Get Out and Play challenge set up by P.J. on his a Lil' HooHaa.  Check out some of the other photographers and how they interpreted the challenge for this month.

I apologize in advance if I don't comment back on any of your comments.  For some reason, I haven't been able to do that and if anyone else who uses Blogger can figure it out and help me out, I would greatly appreciate it.