Seeing the Sierra’s

Huntington lake

After leaving Millerton and Speleoed I had several days to kill before I had to be in Sacramento and as the weather in the valley was predicted to be getting warmer I headed east to the cooler mountains to escape.

Almost directly east led me to Shaver lake, from there it was a short drive on to Huntington lake.

Shaver Lake

The campgrounds around Huntington lake weren’t open yet though so it was on to Mono Hot springs.

This meant an opportunity to try out the bug on some offroad trails, the short section leading up to White Bark Vista was a fun challenge being deeply rutted, full of large rocks and very steep, but the bug flew up it no problem.

Coming down from white bark vista/Dusy Ershim trail

At Mono hotsprings it’s amazing to find a resort with cabins, a store and restaurateur (not open till memorial day weekend) after driving along a very narrow and bumpy road. There was lots of space for camping and folks were very friendly as they pointed out the locations of the various hotsprings baths.

Ahh

There’s even the nearby icy cold stream in case the hotsprings are too warm for you.

cool stream

Mayfly

After a couple of days enjoying this tranquility I headed down to continue my trip North. This time going through Oakhurst on my way to brave the crowds of people visiting Yosemite.

First though, I had to try one more offroad trail- Bear diversion, much easier then white bark it was still fun.

bear diversion ohv trail

On the way to Oakhurst I stopped at North fork. The center of California (not sure how they’re measuring that)

center of California?

Then it was on to Yosemite.

stream in Yosemite

bridal veil falls

It was difficult getting a shot of the falls as the wind was blowing large amounts of water at me!

Along the way to Mirror lake

Mirror lake

After Yosemite I spent the night at the nearby Yosemite bug Hostel, a great experience which not only had the usual hostel dorms and open kitchen but a great restaurant if you didn’t feel like cooking.

I made it to Sacramento in time for Bills 80th birthday, a great MLG get together. I also Joined Ron for some great beer tasting and an outing to Natural bridges before it was time for me to head south again.

I once more decided to take the scenic route through the mountains but this time I headed even further east towards Nevada and the 395.

Alpine meadow

I stopped in Alpine county to enjoy a hike through an Alpine Meadow.

Mono lake

And made it to Mono lake in time for some evening light.

Mono lake

Night sky, Big pine Ca.

That night I slept under the stars near Big Pine and woke to a beautiful Rainbow.

Rainbow

I made another stop before heading home but I’ll write that up later.

View Larger Map

Speleoed 2013

Millerton cave

Since this years speleo-ed was being held at Millerton cave which is closer to my new home in Bakersfield then Sacramento I figured I should be sure and attend. Also since the following Friday I wanted to be in Sacramento I decided I could continue heading north and maybe see some sights on the way.

Since Millerton is a cold water cave I always enjoy my trips there but of course speleo-ed is about the presentations and a chance to meet up with other cavers. As usual the presentations were great, the biggest problem being that I couldn’t see them all. I stuck with the expeditions track and really enjoyed all the lectures.

Saturdays dinner was a fundraiser for the NCRC and the food was great, the business meeting even kept to a self imposed time limit(almost) so that folks could go sample beer. During the meeting a couple of motions were passed to send money to the Oregon grottos to help with graffiti removal and the mapping of the glacial cave they’ve been involved with. Both are great projects and I look forward to hearing how they progress.

Western regional SpeleoEd

Sunday it was time to go caving. The weather was suprisingly cool which meant a late start down the trail didn’t leave us dripping with sweat, yet the beautiful sunny day still caused me to look forward to getting into the water.

cool water

In the cave

millerton cave

We made our way through the middle section of the cave and back again, along the way we spotted the usual dead mice, a couple of snakes, frogs etc. A garter snake was still alive in the cold water so we placed it in a nalgene bottle I had in my pack and released it outside of the cave. We also spotted a large gopher snake just resting on the trail an the way back.

Hello, Gopher snake

After a great day caving it was time to head over to Prather for a delicious dinner at Velascos restaurant. Next I was heading  East towards Shaver lake to escape the heat for a few days before heading to Sacramento, but I’ll write about that later.

Music Man (jr.)

Waiting for her part, Outside the theater

When we heard Michael was going to be in a play we packed up the car and drove to Greenville, this was no mean feat as it meant a straight drive of eight plus hours but my Mom and I split the driving up so it wasn’t too bad.

We arrived just as the play was starting so we missed a few minutes at the beginning but still enjoyed most of the show.

Michael in costume

 

Backstage

The next day was another performance but this time we kept Mathew occupied by walking across the street to watch the local voluteer fire departments train.

training day

 

 

Matthew

Mathew also enjoyed a little drum practice while we waited for his brother to finish.

The following day we decided to take a drive up to Antelope reservoir, where I was lucky enough to get pictures of an Osprey, pelicans

and some turkey vultures.

Osprey

Turkey Vulture

 

Looking back at the dam

 

All too soon it was time for the long drive home but it was a good trip.

 

 

 

 

 

Condors

Condor

While I didn’t get a good view of any Condors at Pinnacles, shortly after my arrival in Bakersfield my Aunt invited me to get a great view of some.

She had great tickets to see Bakersfield’s hockey team the condors play. It was a fun match and of course there were a few scuffles but nothing unusual for a hockey game. The refs were actually pretty good at stopping things quickly during the first half but by the second they were getting tired which allowed this:

scuffle

It was a fun evening. Though a couple of weeks later it was topped by the tickets my parents had for a Merle Haggard concert.

Fox theater

He’s getting on in years but still really put on a show and the people of Bakersfield showed up in force to support him.

Merle Haggard

 

They played straight through for a couple of hours, he even brought out a fiddle for a couple of numbers at the end.

The crowd was enthusiastic and it was a great show.

Things are looking pretty good in Bakersfield, I’ve found a small mobile home I’m fixing up, and  have completed getting signed up for classes at Bakersfield College.

 

 

 

 

 

Monterey

Monterey at night

After our hike in the pinnacles Dan, Martin and myself had a nice quiet day in Santa Cruz, we visited the art museum, wandered around down town and played the new board game that they got.Then I was on the road again this time a short drive to Monterrey. I was staying at the Monterey hostel so it was a short walk down to the waterfront by cannery row to take a few night shots.

seal pup

The next morning I headed out along the beach to where harbour seals had gathered in a cove with their new pups.

I also walked along Cannery row and photographed some of the historical buildings such as “Doc’s” laboratory, this is Ed Rickets original  Pacific biological laboratories building.

Pacific biological laboratories

Pacific Biological laboratories

By then it was late enough in the morning that the aquarium was opened and so I decided to go on in and take a few more pictures.

Monterrey Aquarium

Monterey Aquarium

Monterey aquarium

I still had one more stop before heading on to Bakersfield, but I’ll write about that next time.

Pinnacles

Pinnacles National park

Pinnacles National park

After departing Sacramento, I headed to Santa Cruz where Dan and Martin had kindly agreed to put me up for the weekend. We considered going Kayaking but the weather didn’t look favorable so we opted to do a little hiking at Pinnacles instead.

It was a perfect day for hiking sunny and warm but not too hot.  As we walked we counted the numerous types of different wild flowers that were in bloom. I think we counted around 16 different ones.

wildflowers

wild flower

wildflowers wild flowers

We continued up to the peaks hoping to spot the California Condors. When we stopped to eat lunch I was observing a patch of lupine when it began to move! I observed the plant move a couple more times before I saw the culprit. A ground squirrel was busy eating the lupines.

Ground Squirrel

ground squirrel

Near the top we spotted two men who were tracking condors using a radio receiver. They assured us there were several in the area but we only managed to spot one out in the distance. We did see a lot of turkey vultures soaring in the thermo-clines though.

Soaring Vulture

soaring vulture

Turkey Vulture

turkey vulture
We continued on to explore the balconies cave and admired the gate system that we speculated allowed debris to exit the cave when it was flooded with water in the winter. after going down through the cave we returned by taking the cliff overview trail that went back over the cave.

In the cave

in the cave

waterfall in the cave

waterfall in the cave
Along the way we observed several climbers still climbing the rocks as twilight settled in.

climber

We made it to the parking lot as it got dark and it was time to head out in search of an excellent dinner at a Mexican restaurant on the way back to Santa Cruz. It was a really great ending to a wonderful day.

So long and thanks for all the chips.

And peroshkis, samosas, kebabs, dim sum……..

One of the things I’m definetly going to miss besides all the fantastic people I’ve met here in Sacramento is the food.

Living here we tend to take it for granted but we are very lucky to have such a wide variety of cusine. I won’t be able to visit all my favourite restaurants before I leave, time money and my stomach won’t allow it. I’ll try to hit up several and write them all up here. Not in any particular order I’m afraid. ‘Ill even throw in a write up about some I dont get to this time around.

Since there’s so many good restaurants in the area I’ll start off just by listing some in no particular order

OZ on Bradshaw in Rancho Cordova, try the various meat you grill yourself at your table, yumm.

Grilling at OZ

Cafe Orleans in Old Sacramento, best spot in town for gumbo,  etc

Indo cafe in old Sacramento, great Indonesian food, just for fun ask for “the gatekeeper’(it’s not a food item)

Pyramid ale on K.st is a good place to go for a beer and sandwich, I recommend the beer sampler though we didn’t like the apricot ale the rest were great.

La flor Pupusas grill on Fulton ave is my favorite spot for tamales and pupusa.

Sher-E-Punjab on Fair Oaks blvd in Carmichael has some good Indian food its a buffet and I’ve gone there quite a bit since its so close.

Firebird restaurant on Manzanita in Carmichael has a wonderful lunch buffet, a good way to try different Russian dishes, I really like the cabbage rolls.

Silver garden and Mongolian BBQ on Madison Ave. is the place to go for Mongolian bbq and you can always order off the menu for those who prefer other dishes.

If your looking for a great burger you cant go wrong with California burger on auburn blvd in Citrus Heights and they have a wonderful Greek salad.

Lalo’s restaurant on 24th st has fantastic authentic Mexican dishes, I really liked the Molcajete

MOLCAJETE at Lalo’s

 

So do you have a favorite place to eat? Let me know in the comments so I can check it out the next time I’m in the area