I have been a little uninspired to blog lately, so I need to play catch up. Last weekend I went over to Chris's place and had a great bike ride from his place in Sloat up to the top of Argentine Rock Lookout. That was a great ride and quite the elevation change... over 5000'. After that I spent a couple of days fishing up at Antelope Lake. It was nice and relaxing and the heat made swimming the order of the day. I didn't post any pictures of any of that. (took lots of them, though)
My sister is coming for a visit this weekend so today I decided to get another bike ride in up in the woods. I went to the top of Janesville Grade road and rode my bike up to the road that goes over Stony Ridge. From there I hid my bike and hiked to the top of the ridge. My map says the elevation there was 6998'. It was a really easy saunter up the ridge, no complexity at all and no steep spots. Nice views all around even though it was still a little hazy from all the smoky fires. The top picture shows the knob I hiked to. You can see how easy it was. 
On the very top there is this pile of rocks with a stick sticking out. Clarks Peak is right across in the second picture... I hiked up to Clarks a couple of years ago. The next one is looking down into the NW end of Honey Lake. Shaffer Mountain is the prominent peak in the top center. That little pointy peak in the foreground is one I haven't climbed to the top of yet.
Up on the very top, the rock formation is kind of volcanic and
is probably a dike. This is also the highest point of Stony Ridge. On my many fires over the years, this place is yet another one I haven't been to before today. Not that there is anything to burn up here but I passed through some cool timber stringers and patches of mountain mahogany and brush on the way up that would certainly carry fire. Sooner or later lightning will start a fire up here... whether it goes anywhere will depend on the weather conditions at the time. My ride was not long today, I think my GPS said 12 miles or so, but it was a really nice day, not too hot and not too cool. Ya gotta love that!
