Nicer Weather means Hiking and Geocaching.

This post is about geocaching, so if you're not into that, feel free to leave.  I won't be offended. 

Today, I went on a short hike today to test my stamina and also to scout out a spot for a hide that I've been working on. It was a short hike, but the views were worth the effort as seen by the shot I took from the trail.

One of my goals is to hide quality hides and to hide approximately 2 per month. For obvious health reasons plus weather related issues, I've only been able to hide 6 caches this calendar year, but now that the weather is better and my health is improved I can get back out and hide some more caches. Today was a start.

I found a spot that has a fairly nice view and with the type of camouflage I felt I did a pretty good job of hiding this one in plain sight. I haven't submitted it yet mainly because I want to hike back up there again to test the coordinates and to work on my stamina. Today, I walked about 500 feet further uphill before I turned around and headed back down for the day. I don't want to over do it on the first foray back into hiking.

So tomorrow, I'll head back up there to test the coordinates and see if I can get further up the hill. Oh, and as a public service announcement for those of you hitting the trail - be on the look out. I saw lizards today and unfortunately I found a two and a half foot dead rattlesnake. I much prefer the live variety to the dead one and I know some of you think I'm weird that way, but I'd much rather prefer a snake over any kind of rodent. Needless to say I was a little sad to see this guy at the side of the trail, but he was providing sustenance for other creatures, so it's all a part of the circle of life.

Snap Away!

I haven't participated in P.J.'s photo blogging challenge in a couple of months, mainly because I don't like to force my photography, rather I like to let my photography happen and see if anything might fit the theme for that particular month. Needless to say, nothing in my photography in the last couple of months has really fit recent themes, but this month's theme was Snap Away! and I figured anything I took this month would probably work and I've got a few nice shots that I can write about. 

Hopefully, this will get me blogging again as it's been almost two months since I've written anything here too. Got into the doldrums with not being able to do much of anything and just didn't really feel like writing anything. I have a variety of subjects I still have in the back of my mind that I want to write about, most notably I'd like to finish up my 2017 road trip. When last we left our intrepid explorers, they were in Abilene, Kansas. But that's for another entry. This is for the photo blogging challenge.

So here we go.

Bobcat Fire

As anyone knows who follow the news at all, the west coast of the United States has pretty much been burning out of control. This shot, which was taken on September 9th, is looking over my garage. The Bobcat fire started on September 6th, so it was relatively new at the time I took that shot, but it just exploded over the past three weeks. As of this writing, it has burned 114,000+ acres and is now only 63% contained. And this is just one such fire in California, let alone the rest of the western states. If you click on the link and back out of the map a little bit, you can get an idea of what the fire situation is like in the western United States. It's brutal and we really have just started fire season now!

Mushrooms

Mushrooms don't seem to last very long in an urban area. People like to kick them over as soon as they come up. These particular mushrooms are actually creating a lopsided fairy ring. Unfortunately, the groundskeepers at our local park mow the grass on a regular basis, so the mushrooms don't last very long. The day after I took this shot, most had been kicked over, probably by kids, but they wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway because the grass was mown about two days later. Still it's interesting to see how the grass to the right, and inside the fairy ring, is slightly greener and always taller than the grass on the outside. I'm not sure if this is a product of the mushrooms providing extra nutrients to the soil or not, but I enjoy watching them pop up.

Watch where you walk

Last week, I went on an extended hike for the first time in awhile, due to the excessive heat we've been having here in California. We're having more right now, but this is sort of a "last gasp" of summer before it really gets cooler. Earlier, it was just damn hot, triple digit type of heat.

The reason for this shot, is more of a public service announcement more than anything. I've already posted this shot on Facebook for my friends and hiking buddies, but everyone should consider this shot. First, if you look closely, you will see that this is a baby rattler. How can you tell? First, there is little to no rattle, but it has a nice triangular shaped head, so I knew is was a rattler right away. Second, if you look at the footprints, you can see the snake is very small, compared to the footprints. Adults will get several feet in length. This one was no more than a foot long, just sunning itself in the middle of the trail.

When I hike, I usually scan several paces ahead of me, just in case I encounter something like this, so I was aware of it and stopped short. People not paying attention might have stepped right on this one. Once I got my shot, it decided that I was bigger than it was and it turned tail and headed back into the bushes and I made a wide berth around it on the other side of the trail. Thing to note is, not more than 100 yards (meters) to the right of this shot are residential houses. We live in their homes, so we should not be surprised if they show up in our back yards.

Embrace the shaggy

My last haircut was on February 12th. For those of you keeping track at home, that's 7 and a half months, for a guy who usually keeps his hair closely cropped, it's pretty much out of control at this point. I haven't felt comfortable going back to my barber to get it cut and so it continues to grow. This shot was taken on September 1st, so it's had another month to grow since then and it's almost as long as it was when I was in college, when it was "fashionable" to have long hair. I've been told to embrace the shaggy and I have done that, but my wife still likes a clean shave as opposed to a "Grizzly Adams" type of look, and so I still keep my face shaved for her sake.

I have had a beard from time to time, but the last time was the year before I retired. I shaved it off on the last day of school 2018 and haven't had one since. A co-worker said I reminded her of the movie character Benjamin Button, because it appeared that I was aging in reverse as I approached my retirement. Whatever works I guess. I wonder if it still looks like that however?

My better half

I took this photo when we were celebrating my youngest's birthday. My daughter ordered Ding Ding Dongs from a local bakery. We used to live right next door to the owners, so we're trying to support our friends and some local businesses at the came time. Cucamonga Cakery has a Facebook order form where you can order and then pick up on Saturdays, so if you live in our local area consider supporting a local business. Now after my shameless promotion, back to my better half.

She has become harder and harder to photograph over the years. I'm not sure what it is, but I used to be able to get, what I considered really good photos of her, but recently, I haven't, which is why I'm very pleased with this shot as it's one of the best photos I've taken of her in probably five years or so.

And there you have it. This is my five shots for P.J.'s photo blogging challenge for the month of September. Please stop by his site and check out how others interpreted the same theme. I hope you enjoyed my shots and I have to admit, I really enjoyed going through the shots I took this month to come up with five that I could really write stories about. Here's looking forward to writing more about more of my wanderings.

Nature

It's time once again for the monthly photo challenge by P.J.'s A lil' HooHaa. When I first saw this month's challenge, which is Nature, I thought to myself this one is going to be very easy. But then I didn't anticipate what was going to occupy most of my month and that definitely got in the way of me going out and taking a lot of photos. I still was able to get out and take some photos, just not in the quantity that I anticipated. You'll see what I mean as you scroll down through the text and photos.

1. Suburban rattlesnake
This one is a little bit of a cheat, but it relates to a story that happened in September, so I'm counting it.  I actually took this photo on August 25th and also blogged about it. But that's not the end of the story.  You see, I love snakes. I'd much rather encounter any kind of snake than what they eat, which is mostly rodents. Now, don't get me wrong, there are plenty of rodents that are very cute and fun to see in nature (squirrels and rabbits come to mind), but anything that will control the rat and mouse population in my mind is a very good thing.

This is where this story takes a different course, because a week later in the first week of September, I spotted this same snake, but it was 10 feet below me in a drainage canal.  This wasn't really a very good thing, because unless it was able to find some way out, the snake was going to probably die prematurely.  I thought the only way this snake was going to escape was for someone to throw a large branch that it could then crawl up on and get out of the drainage canal.  (First off, let non-California readers know that drainage canals here mean flood control.  They are normally dry except during the rainy months of December through March.) Dropping a branch into the canal wasn't going to be practical, so I resigned myself to the fact that the snake was probably going to die.

That is until about a week after that I was walking in the same area and noted a side drain that I knew led up into the spreading area below the dam that the main drainage canal serviced.  Cool.  That meant that the snake most probably got down there by that side drain which also meant that it could get back out of the canal the same way.  Nature finds a way.

2. Ouch
First thing I have to say is getting old sucks.  But it beats the alternative. Nature has dictated that aches and pains take longer to heal as you get older and you get mysterious maladies that for the life of you, you can't explain how it happened. I'd love to say I injured this while out hiking, like I fell getting to a great overlook and strained my knee. Perhaps I strained it while running a marathon, but those of you who know me well know that I don't run. I much prefer taking a much slower route everywhere when I'm on my feet.  Nope, as best as I can tell, this happened as I turned to get out of my computer chair and I strained the right knee as I twisted on it.  I've done the same maneuver countless number of times in the past and nothing has ever happened, yet this time, nature decided to tweek my knee, which in turn has really curtailed my outdoors walking for the past month.

The knee is getting better, but it's definitely not 100%. Last week was the first week since the injury that my FitBit has registered three days in a row of 10,000 steps or more, so I view this as a major accomplishment. I'm taking it easy because I don't want this to become a longtime problem.  I have things to do and places to go, one of them being Denver in the middle of next month and I want the knee to be good for that trip.

3. Sunset

The nice thing about nature, even though you may have limited mobility, it somehow comes to you. That's not the case with this next photo, but I think you get the gist of the statement. You don't have to be out in nature to appreciate a nice sunset. You could just step outside your front or back door and the sunset is right there.

This past weekend, I went on an overnight road trip to Paso Robles to view Bruce Munro's Field of Light at Sensorio.  The website describes the Sensorio as being comprised of "an array of over 58,800 stemmed spheres lit by fiber-optics, gently illuminating the landscape in subtle blooms of morphing color that describe the undulating landscape." My daughter and son-in-law went there earlier at my suggestion and they both loved it. I was planning on going earlier in the month, but my injury set me back a couple of weeks. My daughter suggested that I get there a little before sunset. The lights of the artwork aren't as readily apparent, but the sunset that nature provided helped set the stage for what I was going to see later on.

I've always been intrigued by temporary pieces of art like this, especially environmental art that attempts to blend the art into the landscape. I had just graduated high school when the artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude created their Running Fence project in Northern California. I didn't go see it though it was but a half day's drive from where I was living at the time and I regret not going to see it. When they created their Umbrella Project for Southern California and Japan, I made it a point to get out there and see it, at least the California edition of it. It was wonderful. And I also know that art is a form of beauty that is in the eye of the beholder. Some people will look at it and think, "really?"  For me, I love environmental art such as this, so Sensorio was right up my alley and I made it a point to getting up here to see it.

4. Saturn and Jupiter
Nature is not limited to what is on the earth, but also what's in the sky, even to things that we can't even see. While at Sensorio, the night sky was also on full display. Had I gotten there a little bit earlier, I might have gotten a quick glimpse of Venus and a small crescent moon, both of which were preceding the sun through the sky. Once the skies became really dark, as I walked through the field of Sensorio, I was also treated to Saturn and Jupiter.  For those of you non-astronomers, Saturn is the fainter white dot in the upper left, while Jupiter is the much brighter white dot to the right and downward from Saturn. Both planets can be seen very easily in the night sky right now and I felt the two planets viewed above the field of lights was just nature trying to enhance the human-made artwork.

I ended up walking through the fields on the paths for a little over two hours and these two photos are just the tip of the iceberg of the ones I took. I'm still going through all of my shots and processing them. I suspect that in the near future, I'll have an entire blog entry dedicated to the field of lights, so stay tuned.

5. Pelicans on a sea stack
As I made my way back home the next day from Paso Robles, I stopped along the way several times to take in the sights and to do a little geocaching. This particular spot was where there was an earth cache. Earth caches are virtual caches which don't have a physical container. You have to answer geology related questions after viewing the area and reading about the area on the earth cache page.

This particular earth cache dealt with some sea stacks that are just off the coast near Pismo Beach, California. The geology of how these are created is very interesting and I really enjoyed doing this particular earth cache. Once again, geocaching brought me to a place that I might not have visited were it not for this silly hobby that I so enjoy. Most likely, I would have barreled down the freeway at top speed, looked at the ocean as I drove by, but never really stop and appreciate how nature fashions the shoreline like it does. The topper of it all were all of the pelicans that use the stacks as a roosting area. As you can see, there were scores of the birds. The earth cache page also says you can see cormorants and California Gulls on the rocks. I did not see any cormorants, but there was at least one gull who had chosen to roost on the fence next to the bluff where this photo was taken. That gull must have been well fed by humans in the past, because it had no fear of me whatsoever. I believe that I could have pet it if I'd wanted to, but I resisted that urge. 

And there you have it.  These are my interpretations of the them for this month of Nature.  Please check out P.J.'s for his interpretation of the theme for this month.  At the bottom of that page, there will be links to others who have participated in this monthly challenge. As always, please leave a comment here.  I try to respond back in a timely fashion. I promise, I won't bite.

The Suburban Jungle

Just because you happen to live in suburbia and are hiking/walking on a paved trail, does not mean you need not be watchful of your surroundings.

As I came down the Thompson Creek Trail this morning, about halfway through my morning walk, I spotted a gathering of people, all of whom had their phones out.  Gotta be an unusual animal of some kind.  

Yep.  Just your average Southern Pacific Rattlesnake slithering from one little haven to another, across a cement bridge and then over to another spot where it could hand out for the duration of the day that was promising to get nice and hot.

Here's a link to a YouTube video that I took right after I took this still shot.  The agave plant where the snake eventually took refuge is literally up against someone's back yard wrought iron fence.