Blue bird day..

Well, I don't remember seeing any blue birds today, but some geese, pheasants, hawks, an eagle, and various other birds aquatic and terrestrial. But the day was very sunny and even though it was cool before noon, it warmed up nicely in the afternoon. That first picture is of the big town of Wendel. The mountain behind it is called Skedaddle.

It's wide open out here in the valley and flat so not much of a challenge for bike riding, but it was still the thing to do today. This picture is the hot water from the springs. You can stick your hand in it but you can't leave it in there long. Still lots of snow in the mountains, that won't be going away any time soon.

Ahhh, the taste of spring is in the air...

Rockin' out!

Yeah, rocking out, alright. I went for another walk up on the Bizz slogging through wet snow most of the way, rocking out to my mp3 player. In fact, I even found a nice rock to lay on while I tried to get warm in the sun. Needless to say it was less than a perfect weather but any time I can get out and go for a walk or bike ride has to go down as a good day. It's funny, this time of year I am just waiting for the weather to allow me to do all of my favorite things and then when it gets here I will be too busy to get them all done. Life is a funny thing, fleeting and nebulous in many ways, and way too short. In reading my Bible I find that life spans were much longer several thousand years ago, in the 900 year category. I can't help wondering if the translation is flawed or if human beings can actually live that long. If you look at someone who is old, say around 100 years, their bodies are usually frail and multiply that times 9 and you have to wonder. Well, at least that's one of my "wondering" subjects.

At the end of this month I am planning on being down in the Death Valley area again, meeting my friend Chris and doing a little camping. By then the warm stuff should be setting in down there, they have already had temps in the 80's at Furnace Creek. I can't wait!

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.

Lovely day!!

Took my bike out to the valley today and had a nice relaxing bike ride. I really took my time, probably the slowest ride I have done for quite a while, but the weather was just too nice to go any faster. There is still some snow on the ground, obviously, but the roads were nice and dry.

While I was riding along I could hear meadowlarks singing through the music in my headphones and I had to stop and listen to them for a while. I just love to hear meadowlarks, they are a sign of spring for me. My Aunt Elsie was an avid birder and she told me once that meadowlarks sing when they are happy. You don't hear them much during the dead of winter, in fact when I used to live out in the valley I didn't hear them at all in the winter. But they were singing today, and I enjoyed hearing it.


There were some nice puffy clouds in the sky and even though they shaded me out occasionally, it was mostly sunny out there. That's Skeedaddle Mountain way out there.

I found the Nexus of the Universe and got a picture of it. That's it in the last picture. Very little traffic all day which was good for me, picking up cans and stopping to take pictures.


What a fantastic day!