Back to reality...

65° today and the melting continues. Of course it's not going fast enough for me, but whatever.... I decided to go for a walk up the Bizz Johnson Trail today, and I did just that. I ran into one bum who I see around there all the time. I'm not sure if he was the guy who was living in a cave up there last winter, but I saw him at the beginning of my walk and I never saw another soul until I got back to the parking area at the Millers Trail Head. I can't say the walking is easy but there was quite a bit of the trail totally thawed out as you can see in the pictures.

There is supposed to be a little storm coming in tonight and tomorrow so it was great to get out and take advantage of the nice day. I feel so fortunate to be able to get out when the weather is nice, as opposed to having to hope the good weather and my day off just happen to coincide. I used to live like that before I retired and as a result, a lot of the outdoor activities I enjoyed took place in inclement weather. Now I can pick the good weather days to go fishing, biking, or any other thing outdoors.

I am thankful daily for even the little of life's good times, like watching a hawk soaring overhead or laying in the sun getting a tan. Ya gotta love that!

Lake Shasta

Drove down to Lake Shasta this morning to go ride the Clikapudi trail and do a little fishing. The lake is lower than I've ever seen it at this time of the year and I'm not sure I understand why, since most of Northern California has had more precip this winter than average. It wasn't raining today though, and the temperature was probably in the high 60's to low 70's. It was real windy from the north, but it was still warm enough that I didn't need to wear a sweater, my t-shirt was good enough. I only saw one other person all day along the trail, a lady that was out jogging.
Some flowers were starting to bloom so I tried the macro mode on my new camera. I have no idea what these flowers are, but it was nice to see them today.

I didn't catch any fish, but actually didn't try too hard... that's my story and I'm stickin' with it.

Cabbage and onions

Started my day with cabbage and onions... well, trying to give them away I guess I should say. But that soon passed and I had to get out and get on my bike. It was quite nice again today, plenty warm enough for bike riding but the muddy roads made me stay on the pavement. I decided to just ride around town and that's pretty much what I did. I also had to play around with my new camera too, so a closeup of some lichen growing on a rock looked like something to photograph.

There is a new bypass in town that hasn't been opened yet so it really makes a nice bike riding road. They have even put a bike lane along this one too which is what I wish they would try to do all over the valley. If that was done, it might encourage people to ride bikes more, right now there are many roads where you have no room to ride a bike other than on the edge of the traffic lane. I ride against the traffic as much as I can, which is against the law, but it's the only way I feel safe since I can see what's coming at me. This road starts at the college power station on Highway 139 and comes out on the Johnstonville road a little way east of the Post Office.

Tomorrow I'm heading down to Redding to ride the Clickapudi Trail in Jones Valley and maybe to catch a couple of fish along the way.. film at 11.

Interesting day...

I had a rather interesting day today. I made myself a lunch and headed up to the Miller Trailhead on the Bizz. Since we had snow and rain the last couple of days I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to go for much of a walk but I had to try. There was enough snow to make walking a little difficult in places but it was still doable. I went up a little over a mile and sat under the same tree I ate my lunch at a while back. Worked up quite a sweat getting up there, post holing every now and then in the snow but it felt good to get a little exercise.

This picture shows some of the interesting patterns in the snow but I'm not exactly sure what caused them.

Anyway, so I come home and I'm clearing the snow off of my boat and I look under the cover and I see that my boat is half filled with ice. I take the cover all the way off and I just have to laugh.. the boat had filled up with water and then froze so now I have this huge block of ice in every compartment and everywhere. I can't even get to the drain plug in the back since it's covered with a block of ice and water on top of that. Ya think it's time for a new boat cover? So I had to buy a short hose so I could siphon the water out but it will be a while before the glacier melts.

I need some warmer weather... heading to Redding in a couple of days and I'll get some bike riding and fishing in to change the pace a little.