Wonderful Day!

I went up to Antelope Lake today and did a little fishing from shore. Driving up there was a little exciting, the snow was pretty deep in places and it's melting fast which made it a slushy, sloppy mess. It was a wonderfully warm day so I took my bike and rode it to some of the places I fished. I didn't catch any, but had 2 bites on a plastic worm, and one a rapala. If I could get my boat in there I'd certainly be able to catch some nice fish. Pretty optimistic, huh?


I heard alot of logging noises from over beyond the boat ramp, which is still closed, so I'm hoping they will get done with their operation so I can use the ramp to launch my boat. I'll be in Saline Valley next week so I don't think I will have a chance to get back up there until near the end of the month.

Feels like Spring!

Had a nice bike ride/walk in the snow with tennis shoes today. I was planning one thing route-wise and ended up doing something a little different due to the amount of snow that is still on the trail I was planning on taking. Before reaching the first tunnel up on the Bizz, this slide has totally blocked the trail. I had to climb over those boulders.

My original plan was to do one of my favorite loop rides and go around to the Piute Creek drainage and back into town via Susanville Ranch Park. Considering the snow situation I modified that and came down the Highway 36 grade. The weather was wonderful with light warm breezes and plenty of sunshine. I would have taken longer to do this ride but cutting it off like I did shortened it up considerably. Oh well, had a grand time no matter what.

Oh, Man!

I was thinking as I sat in the sun today that it just doesn't get any better than this. But, it does. In fact, it's supposed to be nicer this weekend. Ya gotta love it.

Just before I left to go out for my walk, my new 22" monitor showed up. I'm going to be using that monitor with the new computer I'm building. I should have everything here by the middle of next week at the latest. My RAM will be the last to arrive at the party so by the time it gets here I'll have everything else assembled. Can't wait to get that sucker fired up. I'm putting a dual core processor in this one and 2 gigs of RAM, just trying to keep up with the state of the art... but I'm really more in the middle of the road with my choice of components.
Anyway, in contrast to the tech side of my life, the nature side was happening big time today. Still a little snow up there but the trail is really much better than it was a couple of days ago. After the nice weather we are supposed to get this coming weekend, I'm sure bike riding will be possible without damaging the tread on the trail. I'll be finding out first hand, I'm sure.

Rambling

Man, I just love getting outside and basking in the sun. This is what it looked like yesterday at my favorite lunch spot up the Bizz. Still a fair amount of snow around and the trail was pretty soggy in places but you just had to be prepared for that when you put your shoes on. I laid on that flat rock and soaked up some rays for about 45 minutes before sauntering back into town. Never saw anyone up there, but then I rarely do. I had a sweater on and I felt over dressed most of the time.

Today is a little cloudy so I'm sitting here typing this instead of being out but that's OK. The forecast is for some nice spring weather coming up the next few days so I will be out doing something, that is a given. Trying to decide whether to go rip some hooks out of fishes mouths or just do a little hiking. I'll figure it out by tomorrow.. who knows?

Weather

OK, so I am totally obsessed with the weather, I admit it. How can it be otherwise for me though since all of my main kinds of entertainment are outdoor oriented. It all goes hand in hand. If ya wanna do outdoor stuff you better know what to wear for the occasion.

Yesterday and the today were pretty good, at least it was above the freezing point of water, ya gotta love that. Chris Marson came over and went bike riding with me yesterday and we ended up out in the Dakin unit of the game refuge again. The only critter we saw, other than birds, was a nice snake trying to warm up in the hazy sunshine. This guy was about 4 feet long. We left him just like we found him in this picture. Chris picked up a can for me later on and found another small snake using it for a home. Seeing snakes out and about is also a good sign for spring. OK, I'm searching for signs of spring, so shoot me.

Meadowlark!

Went for a bike ride today out in the valley. I ended up at the Dakin unit of the wildlife refuge. It wasn't a warm day but the sun was out and the breeze was not too bad.

I never ran into anyone so I had the whole place to myself which was really cool. I even found a nice grassy spot to lay down and bask in the sun for a while.

One of the best things about today was that I heard my first meadowlark of the year. Their song is a special springtime sound for me so hearing them always makes me feel spring is coming soon. Not a scientific prediction system, mind you, but it works for me. I took more pictures and some of them are posted in my web album.

What snow?

Snow? We had the biggest storm we have had all winter on Monday of this week.

The power went out on Monday evening and stayed off all night which makes for a cold house since I don't have any wood heat here. It was 18° outside on Monday night and I had 45° in the house in the morning. Power didn't come back on till early afternoon then it went out again in the evening. Ya gotta love living up here otherwise you'll end up hating it. Worse thing for me is I didn't have any internet access even after the power came on, which also means no phone. It's all good!