The great thing about Northern California is the fact that when it is 40 degrees outside, you can drive and to the mountains and go hiking and swim in a beautiful lake, like this one. This is Aloha lake in Desolation Wilderness. It was gorgeous that day, and the water was COLD!

Oh! Neglected Blog.

So! I guess I've been too busy doing stuff to write about it here. Last weekend Edward and I went to Point Reyes, walked along the San Andreas fault, and then made it to the coast. It was a spectacular day.

For Memorial day weekend we went hiking in King's Canyon.  It was spectacular.  We only saw one rattlesnake.  We also saw some parasitic plants ("snow plant").

As some of you know, I’ve been doing lots and lots and lots of hiking this past winter. Edward and I celebrated our birthdays in February by going out to Yosemite and hiking up Yosemite falls. This past weekend we made it out to the northern part of Yosemite and did a nice 9 mile hike by Hetch Hetchy. Here are some photos that do the beauty of Yosemite little justice.  

After we encountered the rattlesnake (see previous post) we decided that hiking close to Davis was a BAD idea… until Zack called on the same night suggesting we go hiking the following day in the same area. The Sunday hike, however, had no rattlesnakes at all. Just nice flowers and generally great California weather. It was just past Sacramento on the way to North Lake Tahoe. We ended up hiking down to the American river, sitting there and having our lunch, before hiking back up to the car.
 

Sara :  0
Rattlesnake :1

Nope.  I'm not kidding.  We were out hiking around Cache Creek again, and Mr. Rattlesnake was sunning himself in the trail.  Since we had surprised it, it wasn't really ready to move much.  It just sat, coiled up, shaking its tail at us.  Even when we threw rocks at it, it totally didn't budge.

 

This is a picture of ‘furious’, one of my three gerber daisy plants that I’m keeping alive (with Edward’s help…. of course). Look at how flowery and happy it is! Look at how not dead it is! Hopefully, this means that I’m forgiven for killing all of those previous plants, as well as Oscar 1 and Oscar 2.  

 So, this should give ye an idea about what the hike thingy described below is all about.   pretty much, we walked to up there.  it was steep, at times.  at other times, it was not so steep.  c'est tout.

This weekend, Edward and I went a-hiking. There hasn't been much snow as of late, so even though we had gone snowboarding the last two weekends we decided instead to stay in the warm-and-sunny part of California.

The hike that we ended up doing was by Cache Creek, and it wasn't too hard (even for lazy bastards, such as myself). It was only an 8 mile hike (uh, that is like 12.5 km) and we ended climbing 2200 feet. Say what you will about California (and Californians), but it is pretty bloody nice to be able to spend the day outside in a t-shirt in JANUARY. Take that, winter!

Other highlights include a sign that was advertising "Donkey B-Ball"! Why didn't I create Donkey B-Ball. I am so googling "Donkey B-Ball" after I finish writing this. Hopefully, I'm not setting myself up for yet another disappointment.

Well, I’m happily back in California. I’ve been back for almost two weeks, and have been doing all sorts of California-esque things.

To make things even better, I’ve been snowboarding every weekend thus-far with E. Needless to say, my ass is adequately bruised. I really like the whole “winter-in-California” thing, where I can still ride my bike to school during the week and head out to the mountains for winter-fun on the weekends. Apparently, this winter sucks-ass for snow… which means that the conditions are just like back east!

Also, it has been “pretty damn cold” in Davis. We’ve even had frost!!! One morning last week I saw a woman cleaning the frost off of her windshield by spraying water from her water bottle onto it. Uh, Lady, there is a MUCH better way to do that.