Lookin'

Yep, lookin'... Looking for this stuff, in particular. One of the rites of spring for me is going out looking for asparagus. Of course I need to squeeze that in between bike riding, fishing, hiking, and whatever else I have going on... and spring is a time when I have way more things to do than I have time to do them. Life is tough! Well, maybe not tough, maybe difficult. Well, maybe not difficult, how about complicated. No, not complicated either.. oh hell, life is good for me, what else can I call it? Oh yeah, RETIRED!!!

Back on my bike...

In the past 2 days I have put a little over 35 miles on my bike. Yesterday I went up the Bizz and down the trail system in the Susanville Ranch Park. Even though it could have been a little warmer for my blood, it was comfortable enough that I had a very nice ride. The day before that I went up the Janesville Grade and found that you still can't drive a 4 wheel vehicle up there yet. I did see a guy on a snowmobile who was doing some really weird stuff with it... and another guy had a quad, which should have done well on the hard packed snow. There is not enough snow for a snowmobile and I'm sure that snowmobiler probably didn't do his machine any good running it on dry pavement. I took this picture yesterday of the trail I was following. My tracks looked like the first of the season. It's supposed to snow tomorrow so maybe the bike riding will be out for the next few days. Ya gotta love the wild weather swings in the spring!

Great times..

Had another great week last week down at Shasta Lake, fishing with old Bob and Dennis. (Dennis is the oldest, by the way) The weather forecast was predicting rain so we were mentally prepared for that but not only didn't it not rain all week, but the weather was very pleasant even though it wasn't very warm. The wind didn't cause much in the way of boat control problems so we caught a bunch more fish than we did last year. We caught fish from right against shore down to 20 feet deep or so. I even caught a couple on crankbaits. With the lake level being a good 30 feel lower than last year at this time, some of our usual good spots were high and dry.

We still had a fun time and I loved hearing Dennis call me an SOB when I kept catching fish and he was having trouble getting a bite. I caught 182 fish, Bob got 116 and Dennis got 62.

Back to winter

I spent a fantastic week down in Death Valley with my friend Chris and his friend Steve. Steve lives in DC so he's a city boy now but he did great with the hiking we did down in the desert. The weather was beautiful the whole time we were down there. The only thing close to cold that we had was when we camped at the higher elevations and that was only in the morning before the sun hit us.

Chris had all of his stuff packed into his truck, with a bike on the back and a canoe on top. We got some interesting looks from people considering that we were in the desert with no water for floating that boat. We took the 2 worst roads into Saline Valley at the end of the trip, going down Lippincott and going out of Saline via Steel Pass. There were no problems other than the fact that my second day down there I ran over a small bush which punctured my tire on a side wall so I had to make a 100 mile detour to Pahrump to buy a new tire. That was 200 miles round trip and took most of one day to do it. Next time I go down there I might just bring an extra tire with me in case that happens again.


The hot springs, as usual, were the highlight of the trip for me. It was mid 80's most of the time, maybe a little warmer in the bottom of Death Valley and I came back to Susanville last night and woke up to snow this morning. It's not sticking but the temperature as I type this is 32° and there are snow showers. Talk about a shock to my system... I have to get ready today for my fishing trip down to Shasta, I'm leaving for there in the morning so I need to get repacked, laundry done, and buy some more food... and oh yeah, beer. The weather next week when we will be down there is predicted to be rainy in mid week so the nice tan I started down in the desert might fade some before I get another chance to work on it.

Here's a short clip of the worst spot on Steel Pass..

Headin' South

Yesterday I took a drive up the Janesville Grade to see if there were any open spots on the road so I could go bike riding. Beyond the upper Clarks Loop road, where they stopped plowing, it looked like solid snow cover on the road, so no bike riding up there yet. Plan B for me was to head out to the valley to a place I had been to about 30 years ago. There is a road that comes off of the road going to the top of Shaffer Mountain that a friend of mine took me on with his new 4-wheel drive truck, back in the 70's. I never have been back all these years even though it's right in my back yard, so-to-speak. It turned out to be a great place to ride my bike, totally closed off to the public from the bottom due to fences and gates.. which don't give me much of a problem when I'm bike riding.

There were many flowers growing out there, these were the prettiest but I guess I need to get myself a good flower book so I can start identifying them. Right Tom? Anyway, the temps were in the mid 60's, the sun was out all day even though there were some clouds in the sky, and life was/is good. Today I have to get ready for my trip down south to the desert where I hope to be wearing shorts and t shirts every day for the next week.

Sun bathing

Yeah, that's right, sun bathing in the middle of March. I took a long walk today up to the first tunnel on the Bizz. I ran into a couple who were walking very close together when they passed me... must be love. They were the only people I saw up there even though the trail was in pretty good shape. I don't subscribe to the bullshit idea that the sun is bad. I tan myself slowly every year, carefully timing my exposure until I can stay out in the sun for several hours before burning. In fact, last summer I never got burnt by doing it that way and I got a killer tan as a result. I never use sunscreen anymore except on rare occasions. All things in moderation I always say, and the sun is actually good for you. Sure feels good too.

As you can see, there is a lot of open ground up there with most of the snow left in the shady spots. Mid 50's today so tomorrow I'm planning on driving up the Janesville Grade to see if I can ride my bike up there. Film at 11:00.

The Ides of March

I remember having to explain the Ides of March to an old supervisor years ago. He had heard of it but didn't know it was the 15th of March. There is some historical significance to this date concerning a Roman emperor, in fact that's where the phrase comes from, but the personal significance of it for me is that we are approaching the Vernal Equinox. The equinox, March 20 this year, is the first day of spring. Yesterday we had a storm blow through here and it snowed an inch or so but we are supposed to warm up again next week. Wild weather swings are expected this time of year and the temps here in Susanville can change 30° or more between the night time and daytime.
Last year I was down in Saline Valley camping at the hot springs on the equinox with my friend Chris who is the star of this video. This year I'm heading down to Death Valley on the 21st to meet Chris for some more camping and I hope to end up in Saline at the end of that trip.