Hops and agates

Got back yesterday from the coast and a fantastic visit with Tracey and her family. Last Saturday we went to the Hops in Humboldt in Fortuna. This thing is very convenient since it's bike riding distance from Tracey's house and after a few brews bike riding makes more sense than driving a 4 wheeled vehicle... not to mention much safer. I also have to say that I drank a little more than I did last year and was very close to having a little too much, but then my alcohol tolerance is way down there so it doesn't take a whole lot for me.

Tracey and I went up the coast later in the week and went agate hunting in her usual spot. We found plenty of them, well, maybe not plenty as far as Tracey is concerned, but still we got enough to keep things interesting. It was a beautiful day, a little windy but warm enough for shorts as you can see.

We used to be avid rock hounds and picked rocks up from all over the place, so Tracey is continuing in that tradition, having a huge selection of agates at home. We added these to the collection. The ones on the left are the ones I found and the the ones on the right are Tracey's, but they all live at Tracey's now.

Goin' to the coast..

My last week has been great, as usual. Yesterday I kinda stayed in the valley. There is a road that connects Belfast and Rice Canyon Road and I rode that one. It was 22 miles round trip and not too hot, but then I like it hot.

This was the only water I saw on this ride and it wasn't anything I wanted to run through my filter, even though I think I could have if I had to. But I had enough water with me for the length of ride and temperature combination yesterday. I took this picture because of the contrast here, and the fact that it almost looks like a bullseye. There was a feel of fall to the air, and I'm starting to think we are going to have an early winter. We'll see..

Tomorrow I'm heading over to the coast for a week or so and when I get back I am really, really hoping to meet up with a very dear old friend of mine. Needless to say I'll make that happen one way or the other.

Something new.. but old.

Something new to me, I guess I should say. Yesterday while riding my bike up in the Babcock area I came across an old cabin that I never knew existed. It's located along an old railroad grade and I'm guessing it had something to do with the early railroad logging days or maybe a line shack for running cattle or sheep. Traces of the old logging lines can still be seen in the meadows, which seemed to be the easiest place for them to put them. You can easily see why locating roads and railroad tracks in meadows was not very environmentally sound, the remnants last for years.

This one even has what looked like an old telephone line running next to it. I looked a little bit for glass insulators, but they were all picked up many years ago I guess, I didn't find any. As far as I know, the last time there was any railroad logging here was in the early 1900's, so this old train track is an old one, but still totally visible. I see old logging railroad grades all the time up in this country since it was flat enough for a pretty extensive system, but I had never been down here on this one. I just love it when I get to see new stuff, even if it's old.

Swimming weather!

Threw my bike in the back of my truck and drove up to Antelope Lake yesterday for a little swimming and bike riding. I went swimming for a couple of hours then took off around the lake. I ended up stopping 2 more times to go swimming again since it was a nice hot day... just the way I like it. It's about 13 miles around the lake and a pretty easy ride. There weren't many people driving around so the traffic wasn't anything to be concerned about and the water was soooo nice!

I took this picture of Long Point from near where I had parked my truck. It was late in the day and the lighting was different than I am used to seeing, which gives this picture a little bit of relief. Still a little green left now that almost the whole area around the lake has been burned off. Today I might end up back here, depends on whether I end up near the lake or not... yep, bike riding again!

Mannn...

I have been a busy guy lately. Not doing anything very important, mind you, just busy all the time it seems.I've been doing the usual climbing, riding, hiking, yada, yada yada. I had a partner the other day, Chris got a day off so I took him out and tortured him. It wasn't all that hard to go where we went but there was a little chugging uphill to do, as there always is.

We went up to Tom's Thumb and tried to climb it. It's climbable I'm sure, but neither one of us felt confident enough to try to get all the way to the top. Chris made it to a ledge about 2/3rds of the way up and I stayed a little below him. Falling from there would have been very bad and we didn't have that much to prove by climbing all the way anyway so we decided not to push it. We walked all the way around and tried another spot on the back side, which might also be doable, but we didn't go too far up.

That second picture is the place I'm talking about. The perspective in this picture actually makes it look a little steeper than it was, I think. That's as high as Chris tried to go, by the way.

It was good for me to have somebody to go with since climbing on this rock alone is not a good thing and lately my mind has been on an old friend of mine most of the time so having someone along gave me a diversion from my normal thought patterns.

I spent most of the day today working in the warehouse, putting my pallets together for next month, but now I'm feeling kinda lazy this afternoon for some reason. I have nothing important planned this coming week so I guess I'll be out and about as usual... Life is good!

Bike riding and thinking..

Went up on the Lassen National Forest today up by Silver Lake to ride a trail I had tried to ride a couple of years ago. I didn't get very far last time since the trail was a little too rough for me then, but today I went all the way to Echo Lake. (9.6 miles round trip)

I had a lot on my mind since an old friend of mine had recently contacted me (You know who you are if you're reading this) and I was lost in thought most of the ride. It was totally enjoyable and even though I had lots to think about I didn't miss out on any of the great scenery. The trail is pretty good for the most part but there were some spots where I was walking my bike because of the rocks or loose soil. That first picture is one of the nice flat areas.

There were quite a few blow downs and I had to go around many of them since some were too big to go over. The smaller ones I could just step over or move. I'd guess that 2 guys with a chainsaw could clear it in less than a day but maybe the Lassen's trail crew budget has other priorities.

One of the pretty lakes up there is Trail Lake. That second picture is Trail Lake and the trail goes right along the shore. On my way back I sat on a rock on the edge for quite a while... thinking ... and it was a really nice place to do that.

The last picture is at Echo Lake which was my goal for the day. There is a nice little campground there and it was full today. People had boats in the water and they were fishing but I couldn't identify the minnows I was seeing in the shallows so I'm not sure of the species in the lake but I'd guess for sure trout.

Had a great day, what more could you ask for?

Stressed?

Try this..