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!

Backpacking

My backpacking pack has been staring forlornly at me since the snow melted.  I've been wanting to go backpacking for a while now but it is hard with work and church responsibilities.  Gil and I decided Labor Day weekend was our chance.

We were packed and ready and left right after our church meetings on Sunday.  We headed up into Sayles Canyon on the Eldorado.  We parked at the trailhead and were off.  We hike about two hours before we worried about losing our daylight and quickly found a place to set up camp.

The next morning was beautiful and we continued our loop.

 Part of our route took us for about a mile on the Pacific Crest Trail.  One of these days I'm going to hike the whole thing, or at least the Sierra section of California.

We got to Bryan Meadow and enjoyed the beautiful meadow and surrounding rock.

On the way down, we had wonderful views of Horsetail Falls across the canyon.  It started to cloud up and we were fortunate to miss the rain.

 Horsetail Falls. 

It took forever to get home due to the traffic headed back to Sacramento and the Bay Area from Tahoe.  I was surprised by how sore I was the next day and realized I hadn't been hiking as much as in past summers.  Getting out and having an adventure was definitely worth it though.