Tina's Hiking Binge

Sometimes when I have a long weekend, I attempt to hike multiple days in a row, thus Tina's Hiking Binge.  This long weekend I was able to hike 28 miles- 6 Thursday night, 6 Friday morning, 10 Saturday, break on Sunday, and 6 Monday.  And 4 on Tuesday, so if you count that, it's really 32 miles.  The point actually is trying to train a bit for our Sierra trip in a few weeks.

Thursday evening I met Ingrid and Ina out at Mission Trails.  We intended on doing the Rim Trail but it ended up being a giant wonky loop and I have no clue what trail or trails we were actually on.  That's the fun part about hiking with Ingrid.  You can always count on an adventure and some off-roading. The weather was cool and cloudy but very humid.  We took a little break to eat a snack and we got into analyzing how Ingrid eats her peanut butter sandwiches.  She eats them in a circle instead of side-to-side, if you really want to know.  And no jam, only peanut butter.  She also butters them with the bread on top of each other instead of side to side.  Yes, we really got into examining it.  LOL. 



Friday morning I met Georgia to hike Mt. McGinty.  I was thinking I was going to hike at a pretty leisurely pace since I had just done 6 miles the night before.  Georgia had different ideas and climbed that hill like a mountain goat!  She worked me!  We had intended to do 12 miles but we couldn't quite figure out which trail we were supposed to be on that would spit us out at the right place so we turned around to be safe.  At the top of Mt. McGinty there is a memorial to Julian Fraire and we read through the register.  It looked as though his dad set up the memorial and writes letters to his son when he climbs the mountain.  They used to climb it together.  I looked up Julian online and he was killed in a car accident this past March at 16 years old.  Very poignant and sad:  http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Julian-Fraire-Steele-Canyon-High-School-Vigil-252724231.html



An old mine:









We climbed back down, kind of bush-whacking at some points because the trail wasn't clear.  We kept talking about turkey burgers and couldn't wait to get down and get one. When we were done, we went to Brody's in Jamul and had turkey burgers and tator tots.  YUM!



Saturday morning Dennis, Pico and I went out to Mt. Laguna to hike the 10 mile PCT/Noble Canyon loop.  It was a beautiful day, sunny, and spring flowers were blooming.  It heated up very quickly though and Pico only made it about 2 miles.  I ended up carrying him for the remaining 8.  It was good practice for backpacking with the added 12 pounds.  The views out over the Anza Borrego desert were stunning as usual.  Lots of greenery was growing back in the burn section so that's good.  Truth be told, I could have been done at 5 miles.  My legs were so fatigued.  But I had 10 in my mind so that's what I pushed for.  Dennis was amazing. I don't know who can have back surgery and then bust off 10 miles 5 months afterwards without any training.  He really is an athlete.  And he wore his ankle brace so no sprained ankles this time around.  I was happy to see the truck at the end of this one.

























Sunday I decided I was too tired to hike so I went out to Rocksanne's and saw her new colt Zorro.  SO CUTE!







Monday morning Nancy and I met Laurie out at Cougar Pass at Daley Ranch.  I had no idea such an extensive trail system existed here.  I had only been to Dixon Lake and thought that was it for Daley Ranch.  I will make sure to add this to my hiking circulation to explore these trails.  It was setting up to be a hot day so we got hiking early.  Maco, the service dog Laurie is training, came along with us.  He's so sweet.  Laurie and Nancy have Flat Stanley's that were made by an Alzheimers patient group on Facebook so we had fun setting up different scenarios for Flat Stanley to share with them.  Laurie lost her sunglasses and we backtracked to find them and Flat Stanley spotted them in the trail. 



They are also into geocaching so we made several stops to find caches and sign registers.  A cache has stuff in it called "swag."  You can take an item but you have to leave something in return.  Some of the stuff is just crap but once in awhile there's something pretty neat in there. 



At one point, Nancy was looking at geocaching way points on her phone and trying to talk to me at the same time and she fell down.  She gave us quite a scare.  Scraped up her knee and hand and her shoulder was already forming a bruise by the time we were done.  She is fine but her iphone screen was shredded because it went flying and landed face first.  We made it back to the cars with great relief.













I went home and ate chips and salsa, home-made potato salad, bbq Hebrew National hotdogs, and drank an ice cold corona. 



In less than two weeks Nancy, Carolen, Don, Di, and I will be backpacking from Red's Meadow to Tuolumne.

YEEHAW!  Livin' the dream, baby!

PS:  one more picture just because he's so stinkin' cute.

Poetry Break

To Imagination

When weary with the long day's care,
And earthly change from pain to pain,
And lost and ready to despair,
Thy kind voice calls me back again:
Oh, my true friend! I am not lone,
While thou canst speak with such a tone!

So hopeless is the world without;
The world within I doubly prize;
Thy world, where guile, and hate, and doubt,
And cold suspicion never rise;
Where thou, and I, and Liberty,
Have undisputed sovereignty.

What matters it, that, all around,
Danger, and guilt, and darkness lie,
If but within our bosom's bound
We hold a bright, untroubled sky,
Warm with ten thousand mingled rays
Of suns that know no winter days?

Reason, indeed, may oft complain
For Nature's sad reality,
And tell the suffering heart, how vain
Its cherished dreams must always be;
And Truth may rudely trample down
The flowers of Fancy, newly-blown:

But, thou art ever there, to bring
The hovering vision back, and breathe
New glories o'er the blighted spring,
And call a lovelier Life from Death,
And whisper, with a voice divine,
Of real worlds, as bright as thine.

I trust not to thy phantom bliss,
Yet, still, in evening's quiet hour,
With never-failing thankfulness,
I welcome thee, Benignant Power;
Sure solacer of human cares,
And sweeter hope, when hope despairs!

-Emily Bronte  (1818-1848)

Mt. Islip Backpack

This weekend I joined a group from the Sierra Club for a one night backpack up to Mt. Islip in the San Gabriel mountain range.  We met at the Escondido park and ride and a few of us milled around waiting, not realizing there was a second parking lot where the rest of the group was waiting.  Eventually, we figured it out and got on our merry way.

We made it to the Islip Saddle parking area and were prepping to start the climb up- lo and behold here comes some thru-hikers!  I was SO excited!  We gave them chocolate chip cookies that Miriam made and they were over the moon about it.  We met Almost Awesome and Possum- a married couple from Tennessee,  Johnny Rocket, and Blue Skies.  So fun to chat with them!  I believe I saw about 16 thru-hikers total over the course of 2 days and I was able to talk to 5 of them. 

After the thru-hikers left, we started climbing the mountain to Little Jimmy camp about 2 miles up.  The first mile was pretty steep and an excellent work-out.  My pack weighed 35 pounds with everything including my new bear can which was required in this area.  Let me say now, bear cans are a pain in the ass.  I guess they are a necessary evil.

There were some pretty fast hikers in this group and they quickly left me in the dust.  There were several people  behind me that fell further back so that left me in my own world.  I leap frogged with Paul a bit but otherwise was to myself most of the way up. 

There were quite a few boy scouts doing a weekend backpack as well so when we made it to Little Jimmy camp, it took a minute to figure out where we could pitch tents. 

After we got camp set up, we climbed 1.5 miles to the top of Islip peak.  The peak sits at 8250 feet and I could feel it mildly in my breathing.  It held breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains and the Mojave desert to the north.  There was an abandoned stone cabin at the top as well.    According to the Angeles National Forest website "One of the earliest two-way radios used by the Forest Service was located at this lookout for fire reporting during the 1930's. Forty years ago, there were many more lookouts on various peaks of the Angeles National Forest, but the increase in smog decreased visibility so much that their effectiveness was greatly reduced, and they were closed.”

A black and cream butterfly fluttered around seemingly out of place and odd at this elevation.

We stopped at the spring on the way back to  Little Jimmy camp and filtered water.  There was a line of boy scouts waiting for their turn.  They were all very polite.  The littlest ones were so cute.

We got back to camp and started setting up for dinner.  There was a dude sitting at the picnic table next to us who seemed to be on the look-out for thru-hikers.   He asked a group coming by if they were thru's and they said Yeah they were through.  LOL.  They weren't thru-hikers but they were through for the day. 

We saw a dad and his little girl climbing up the trail.  She had a tiny little backpack and a sleeping pad she was carrying. I would guess she was probably about 5 years old.  So frickin' cute I couldn't even stand it. 

Our fearless leader, Kelly, took Miriam and Chin to go on a night hike.  I opted to stay and chat a bit with a thru-hiker who had arrived named Big Stick (because he carries a big stick).  He was also wearing a skirt.  For some reason, I thought he had a British accent but when I asked him where he was from, he said Sutherlin, Oregon.  No one else in the group thought he sounded British but I definitely know that is not how an Oregonian sounds.  LOL.  I drilled him with questions and he was an interesting character, having youth and brashness on his side. 

I went to bed about 9am and the gals were still on their night hike.  I was exhausted from not having slept the night before.  We had some partiers in our condo complex that were loud until about 4:30am and I did not sleep one wink.  Needless to say, I slept like a rock in my teeny tiny tent and super cozy sleeping bag.  The night was warm probably in the 50's.

My phone completely died overnight despite having it in airplane mode and charging it with the solar charger so I was unable to take any pictures the second day.  Which is pretty sad because Big Stick would have made for an awesome picture.

We got our coffee and breakfasts going, packed up, and headed back down the 2 miles to the parking lot.  We were amidst a stream of exiting boy scouts so it was one long string of people moving down the mountain like ants marching.

When we got back to the cars, we decided we should eat at Grizzly Café in Wrightwood instead of hiking more.  LOL.  So we headed down and had an amazing lunch.  I had the Western Burger with bacon, onion rings, and bbq sauce. I wish I had a picture it was so good.

Wonderful backpack with great company!

This is Almost Awesome.  Her and her husband have a blog here:  http://awesomepossumexpedition.blogspot.com/



Almost Awesome and her husband Possum below.  He had an AMAZING beard.  The guy on the far right that I cut out of the shot unintentionally is Johnny Rocket.



Blue Skies