8.20.2006

Adventures in Hiking (part 1)

Since I spend a ludicrous amount of time knitting (those shawls don't just knit up in an hour, let me tell you), I have a tendency to be somewhat... indoorsy. This was especially brought to my attention by my dear friend Jessica (model of the Noro Sweater of Intense Angst), who pointed out that I have become somewhat, well, shall we say, reflective?

Then there's Jeanne. Jeanne is an OutDoors Type of Person:

That's Jeanne conquering the Bench on our latest outdoor adventure. Jeanne is good for me, because gourds know otherwise I would probably never get outside. Note how comfortable she is in her surroundings. I, on the other hand, accidently wore sandals, and was COVERED in dirt.

Anyway, last Wednesday she got me out of the house again, and we went on the neatest trail. Like I've said, I'm not much of an outdoors person, and I suspect I may not be the most fun person to hike with, but what a gorgeous hike.

(Note: The following photos are courtesy of Miss Jeanne, whose camera and eye for photography far exceeds my own)

We saw the coolest manzanita trees, which, if I could have - I would have brought home with me. Manzanita is one of the only substances my parrot can't destroy instantaneously. He can still chew them eventually, but yeah. I love the bark on these, and the interesting way it peels away:

The trail (all 5 miles of it) also has some spectacular scenery. Let me tell you, when you've been hiking in the sun, and you see fog like this coming over the mountain, it's the best feeling in the world. In the Bay Area, this is natural air conditioning, and boy do we whine if we don't get it. This valley is stunning, though, and it almost reminds me of some of the pictures I've seen of New Zealand. Blogger is limiting my photos, as always, so I'll try and post a few more in the next post.


The trail also has a number of hallways created by the overhanging trees. I absolutely adore places like this - it feels like being in a storybook. Admittedly, this particular storybook was a little overpopulated with spider webs and poison oak, but storybookish all the same.


It's not just all plants and fog, either. The park is full of neat animals, which I'll post in the next episode. :) Surprisingly enough, even though it's August, the park was FULL of baby animals. Unfortunately, the quail would always get away before we could get a photo of them, but take my word for it: The cute and fuzzy factor was THROUGH THE ROOF. Cute Overload would have had a field day.

Coming soon: BABY BUNNY!

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home