Wrapping Up 2017

December began with me taking a day off work to officially change my name.  And it took almost all day.  Almost a month later, I'm still working through getting everything changed at work which has been quite the hassle.

Gil and I traveled to Houston for Christmas and had a wonderful time with family.  Gil's dad and his wife and Gil's sister and her family came to my parents' house for a family lunch on Saturday and we stayed up playing with the kids.  

Christina, Will, Cerise, Danny, Maggie, and John.

We took the kids to the zoo on the 26th.  It was an enjoyable if tiring day.

Will, Danny, Christina (enthralled by the silver back gorilla), and Maggie.

My parents' treated us to a show at the planetarium and afterwards we 'hiked' to the highest point in Houston.  I love the Hermann Park area and the Museum district part of town.

We got back to chillier temps in California and have been hibernating until we have to go back to work and school.

Pinnacles National Park

I visited Pinnacles National Park about three years ago.  My visit was much too short last time and I'd had it on my radar for a while.  Gil, always obliging when it comes to adventuring, was game for going too.

We were able to camp in the same campsite I had three years ago, almost to the day.  Due to our late arrival Friday night and the forecasted rain, we slept in the back of the car.  We were up early Saturday and headed out.

Our first adventure took us through Balconies Cave.  The caves in Pinnacles are all talus caves, or caves created when large boulders fell on each other.  

Gil going into the black abyss.

Kate's head poking out at the other end of the cave.

It was overcast and we got sprinkled on a few time but otherwise the temperature was great and the cloud cover quite pleasant.

 I love the views from Pinnacles.  I was hoping to be high enough to see the Pacific Ocean, but we were still to far from the coast.

 We took a portion of the High Peaks Trail which included quite a few of these railed and foot-hold carved portions of the trail.  These were especially fun to maneuver with some overly excited Boy Scouts running around on the trail.

We next headed down to Bear Gulch Reservoir.

 Then through the Bear Gulch Caves.

I had wanted to go back up and over the High Peaks Trail but Gil wasn't too keen on going up in elevation again so we stayed along the valley floor.  We had some fantastic green riparian vegetation along the trail.

We missed the middle section of the park and there are long 'wilderness' hikes on the north and south end of the central area of the park.  I think we could easily hike all the trails in this park in another two visits.  Plus, we didn't see the California Condors that call the park home.  We'll just have to go back.

It was a wonderful weekend.

Lassen National Park

I had been traveling or hiking or adventuring in some way nine of the last eleven weekends and was past ready for a weekend at home.  When I asked Gil what he wanted to do the coming weekend, he said, "Lassen".  Ten out of twelve.

We found a campground on the Mendocino National Forest that was still open for the season and made a reservation.  When we arrived Friday night, we realized we were literally a stone's throw from I-5.  It was the strangest, urban campground I have ever stayed in.  Early in the morning, a hover of  forest fire fighting helicopters started drafting off the lake next to us.

We packed up quickly and headed to the northeast corner of Lassen National Park.  We parked next to a beautiful lake and started our hike.

 The park is full of volcanoes and their expelled material.  It was like hiking on the beach, in coarse sand.  We got to the cinder cone and decided we should stand on top of it.  The line on the right side is the trail and it is steeper in person than it is in this picture.  It was tortuous going up.  For every step you took your foot slide back a half step in the sand-like lava rock.  I am proud to say both Gil and I did not stop to rest and even passed four people on the way up.

 We made it!

Looking down from the crater at the colors in the volcanic deposits, the different types of lava rock, and the tree line where the expelled material and lava flows did not reach.

 We slid our way down from the top of the cinder cone, had some lunch, then hiked deeper into the park in search of Snag Lake.  We hit the north end, stuck our feet in, then took a twenty minute power nap (at least I did) on the shore.  

 This was basically our view during our hike.  The landscape didn't deviate much.

We drove to the northwest visitor center and then drove south through the park.  It is a beautiful place.  

Emerald Lake.

We stopped at Sulphur Works to enjoy the fumaroles and boiling mud.

Another great weekend but a very road and trail weary Kate by the end.

End of the Fiscal Year

I successfully finished my first year with the US Forest Service.  Wow!  I think this is the longest I have ever been in a continuous full time job.  Don't have the itch to leave but our seasonals still have another month.  I might find it odd when I don't leave with them.

End of the 2017 fiscal year came Sept. 30.  There were a lot of projects, inspections, interviews, follow-ups, and reporting (and stress, lots of stress) that came with it.  One of the biggest projects I helped with this summer was our Recreation Residence program.  We have forest land set aside where individuals may build a cabin.  The cabin is their property, but the land is still federal.  There are certain rules (colors, deck size, tidiness) that must be followed to maintain a permit to have a cabin on public land.  My coworker Nancy is in charge of the whole program for our district.  We have 664 cabins in our district alone.  It's more than a full time job for Nancy.

Each cabin is supposed to be inspected once every five years.  Doing a quick search I found cabins that had gone more than 10 years without an inspection.  I set a goal to get completely caught up with cabin inspections.

On Sept. 27, with three days to spare, Nancy and I completed our last 14 cabin inspections.  We were both thrilled.

We completed a total of 320 inspections this summer.  That's got to be a record.  Huzzah!

Yosemite Again

We both had hankerings for Yosemite and decided to head up at the end of September.  I was hoping to do a trail up in Tuolomne and Gil was wanting to go back to Hetch Hetchy.  The weather decided for us when it dumped the first snow of the season in the high country and Tuolumne was out.

We looked at a map and decided we'd aim for Laurel Lake.  (Note, the zig-zagging red near the reservoir is switch-backs, lots, and lots, and lots of switch backs.)

We stayed with friends in Mariposa Friday night and got an early start Saturday morning.  When we parked in the day use parking, the wind was fiercely blowing cold air at us.  It was quite unpleasant.  You can see a few white caps on the water.  Thankfully, once we got across the dam and through the tunnel, the wind stopped.

We survived the switch backs and had amazing views of Hetch Hetchy and hiked through some beautiful alpine meadows.  We reached Laurel Lake and had lunch.  It was cold and we kept moving to stay in the sun while we ate.

 

I love Yosemite!

Sailing on Lake Tahoe

My coworker Nancy and her husband Rich have a sailboat and a slip in the Tahoe Keys.  Nancy's been talking about taking Gil and I out all summer.  Finally, the weekend they planned to haul the boat out for the winter, and Nancy's birthday, we headed up for a day of sailing.

The weather was beautiful.  Lake Tahoe is massive and a stunning place.

Gil coming up out of the cabin.

 Gil and I with with Nancy.

 We sailed into Emerald Bay and docked.  Nancy wanted us to take the tour of Vikingsholm, a historic house on the shores of the bay.  We bought our tour tickets and wandered around the visitor center.  We still had some time before the tour so we headed up the trail to this beautiful cascade.

One thing I really enjoyed about the tour of Vikingsholm was the ability to wander around the house and grounds as we pleased.  We had a time constraint and there were barriers preventing us from going into certain rooms, but after a brief intro from our guide, the time and house were ours.  It is an interesting amalgamation of Scandinavian architecture.

 We got back to the boat and had lunch.  Then we hoisted the sails and sailed out of Emerald Bay.  I learned the finer points of tacking, or how you move forward when you are sailing into the wind.

 Rich coaching Gil on the tiller, wind direction, lines, and sails.  Gil, talented at everything he tries, sailed the boat out of the bay and onto the lake.

 My handsome and talented husband.

 I took a turn at the tiller.

We got back to to the slip, docked the boat, then had some pie to celebrate Nancy's birthday.  We all went out for pizza and enjoyed each others company.

A big
THANK YOU
to Rich and Nancy for a truly spectacular day!