Friday, October 25, 2013

25th Anniversary!

Happy 25th Anniversary to us!  Wow, that's a pretty long time.  We went to Temecula Creek Inn and spent a couple of days relaxing.  We ate a lot.  I looked through the pictures and realized there was a lot of food photos.  LOL. 

Here are some pictures of the hotel and grounds.  We had a nice secluded view from our patio.

















The grounds had roses all over the place.  The streets were lined with roses and they had a little plaza area full of roses where I assumed they have weddings.  I went crazy taking pictures of roses!





















The first night we ate dinner at the Claim Jumper.  The second night we had a fancy dinner at South Coast Winery.  Then for breakfasts, we just ate at the hotel restaurant with views that overlooked the golf course.  It was SO relaxing!  Here are the fabulous food pictures:


















I love these little cast iron pans they served the food in.



We went to Old Town Temecula and walked around.  We tried to go hiking at the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve but we got yelled at by the Ranger for having a dog.  AND they wanted to charge us $3 per person.  No thanks! 

















And of course, the requisite photo of Pico :-)




And a requisite photo of Little Kahuna :-)





Sunday, October 20, 2013

PCT 10 Mile Hike from Barrel Springs

Again, I had signed up for a meet-up group but decided it would be in my best mental interest to go it alone.  I declined my RSVP so someone else on the waiting list could go. 

I had a bit of a problem finding the Barrel Springs trailhead and didn't get there till 8.  The meet-up group was milling around waiting for their shuttles out at Warner Springs to be set up.  They were going to hike north on the PCT to Eagle Rock.  I was going south.  I noticed Scowling Red Lipstick Lady staring me down as usual.  I've been on a few meet-up hikes with her and she always gives me the evil eye.  I've tried smiling, saying hello and good morning, and I get nothing but dirty looks back.  It's weird.  She also wears red lipstick to hike.  Who does that?  Anyhow, I ignore her and get on the trail and start walking.  I noticed a backpacker still sleeping in  his tent a little ways in and I was so into scoping out his tent set-up and that I missed the trail and ended up on a goat path instead.  I climbed up the side of a hill on what I thought was the PCT, only to run out of trail at the top.  Oops.  I guessed I better go back down and start over.  The backpacker was making his breakfast when I walked back by him.  I scoped out his stove set-up and saw that it was an alcohol stove. 

Finally I got on the right track and immediately walked through a giant crap ton of poison oak.  ARGH!  Oh well, just kept walking.  The terrain on the south portion of Barrel Springs is very uninspiring.  The trail winds back and forth like a snake, along one ridge after another.  Going south is mostly uphill although at a gentle grade.  At 5 miles I took a break to eat my PB&J and then headed on back.  It got pretty warm but there was a nice breeze throughout.  Lots of grasshoppers and butterflies out and about.  I was so tired and the terrain so boring that I busted out my sansa music player for the first time ever hiking.  I listened with just one ear bud in so I could still hear my surroundings.  I haven't listened to this thing in forever so the music on there was pretty amusing.  I went from Eminem to Kid Rock to Black Eyed Peas to Madonna to Kool and the Gang etc.  The transition that made me laugh out loud was Dolly Parton's "Love is Like a Butterfly" to Lady Sovereign's "Love Me or Hate Me." I was cracking up at the vast difference:








So back through the field o' poison oak I went and then investigated the "water source."  Not sure if this is actually a "spring" and hence the name Barrel Springs.  The water had tadpoles swimming around and yellow jackets swarming.  It actually looked pretty decent though and I would totally drink it after filtering.  Especially if desperate.

Made it back to the trailhead in 5 hours flat. I washed my poison oak legs off with some water I had in the car and then lathered my legs up with hand sanitizer.   Hopefully that will mitigate any devastating poison oak effects- fingers crossed! 

It was a chilly 47 degrees when I started and 81 when I finished. Then what?!   Slurpee time!