Firefightin'

OK, so I'm up in the woods riding my bike and a thunderstorm develops overhead. Now this wasn't a big surprise, the weather forecast called for thunderstorms so I totally expected them. Before the clouds started building it was quite nice, sunny and warm. It never cooled off much so it stayed warm but when the storm developed there were some brief showers. I found a tree down low to get under and waited for the shower to pass. While I was waiting there I saw some down strikes and thought to myself how ironic and cool it would be to come across a lightning fire. Once the shower passed, I headed down the road. Right away I smelled smoke. About 400 feet above the road was the fire on a little rocky ridge. I walked up and looked at it and scratched a little line to keep it from getting any bigger before the fire crew got there, then left to go down to the junction of the next road to wait for some crew to come along looking for it. Soon an old friend showed up and I told him about where it was and gave him a little size up and he told me my old engine crew was on another fire over by Camp 14.

I decided to ride back to my truck and drive over to that one to say Hi to my friends. Sure enough one of the first people I see is Alec. He was in the process of showing me his middle finger when I took this picture. This fire was much larger but still less than an acre. I found a tool that wasn't being used and scratched a little line there too... ah, the old memories! Since I was there on a fire with no safety gear I didn't want to stay long so after a short time I left to come home... Ya gotta love it!!! And I did!!

Goumaz

Yep, Goumaz. Went there yesterday, here is the evidence that I did it.
Not that I need to justfy myself, mind you. I really like this ride and I never get tired of doing it. The trail was in great condition too, and I was able to coast what seemed like most of the way back down to Devil's Corral. Today I'm packing for my trip to the coast but I might be able to squeeze in a short ride this afternoon to Susanville Ranch Park Canyon Trail. In fact, I think I will just have to make that happen..

Fishing and riding

This is what my life has come to. Fishing and riding my bike. OK, so there might be a few more things thrown in there I guess, well lot's more things, actually. Now lately, it's been fishing and bike riding. Next week I'm going camping over at Fort Bragg with Tracey, my daughter, and my grandkids. Hopefully I'll also get to collect some abalone too while I'm there. This picture of Chris and a bass he caught actually has nothing to do with going to Ft. Bragg, but whatever...

Today I had a nice 27 mile round trip bike ride up the Bizz to Goumaz and back. Flowers are blooming everywhere. These really stood out against the rather drab background so I had to get a picture of them. I just love the spring... for the fishing, riding, hiking... etc.

Is this thing haunted?

Man, some weird things are happening with this computer. From the very beginning it seems I've been having problems that were hard to explain. Now, today something else happened that I've never seen before and it just made me laugh. For some unknown reason my mouse decided that when I pushed up the curser would go down and when I push down it would go up. Let me tell you, it's very hard to maneuver around doing the opposite. Not only have I never seen that before but if somebody had explained it to me I would have never believed it. It took me a little while to figure it out and I guess it was a corrupted driver because uninstalling and then reinstalling the driver for the mouse finally fixed it. I just had to laugh at yet another strange happening. What next?


On a different note, I've been getting quite a bit of fishing in lately. Some of the crappie I've caught have been pretty nice as you can see in this picture. Needless to say, I'll be eating some crappie filets. The bass haven't been too shabby either. I got one the other day that weighed 3 pounds 11 ounces. I caught that one on a rapala. Since the weather finally stabilized I've been getting about 40 fish a day. I'm going again tomorrow and the next day, and you Gotta love that!

It's blooming spring!

Went for a walk yesterday up the Bizz. It was a little blustery so I was wearing a sweatshirt but it wasn't too cold. Some of the bitter brush is in full bloom it has a very sweet smell. As I was walking along I kept smelling that sweet smell and it must have looked kind of funny when I was going around smelling all the flowers to see which ones were causing it.I found a tree that had fallen down across the river which made a convenient bridge for me. There is an old road along this side of the river so I walked back into town on that road. There were couple of spots where you can get some good views of the trail so I took a picture from one of them. All in all it was quite a lovely day to be out.

This wild spring weather this year, although not at all unusual, is keeping me from doing the fishing that I normally like to do in early spring. Oh well, at least I'm not staying home struggling with a computer problem. I really love that!

Fun Stuff

Man, what a week! With the warming weather I got out and did all of my usual outdoor activities and a few more. I got quite a bit of fishing in at Antelope Lake, this cove is one of my old favorites. I was fishing up there yesterday and I caught 73 fish. I got into one area where I caught a crappie on every cast. You can't beat that... well, maybe they could have all weighed 5 lbs but I'm not complaining, mind you.












I also got in a long bike ride the other day. The weather was beautiful and everything greening up made it a special day. There were flowers blooming in between rocks that you couldn't see until you almost stepped on them. Spring is indeed a very lovely time of year around here.

Back to Nature

Major change for me today. I rode up to Goumaz and back. It was a beautiful day although it could have been a little warmer if you ask me, but who asked me anyway? I stopped by a little asparagus patch I know of and you can see that the frost has done a number on those poor things. There will be new ones real soon since we are back into warm weather for the next week.

When I was eating lunch I noticed the moss growing in the rocks and how interesting it looked so I tried to get a picture. The other picture is of a valley just above Devil's Corral along the Bizz.

It was certainly a nice change for me to get out of the house and away from my computer. Getting back outdoors today had a very beneficial effect on me and I'll be taking advantage of the nice weather this week to get some of those crappie fillets I was thinking about. I'm gonna love that!