Spring Hike from Tuolumne Meadows to 10,000 ft
Last weekend I had the urge to go and try my hand hiking up in the Tuolumne Meadows area. Tioga pass has been open off and on for a few weeks now, but I kept deciding to put it off because I wanted to really hike – not to hike for a bit, then run into the snow line and have to turn around. But, after hearing reports of diminishing snow levels from…
Lake Herman, Benicia CA: The missing link between my cat, the zodiac killer & miles of trails
Last month I had some time to burn in Benicia, CA before heading over to Steep Ravine & Point Reyes that weekend. I learned from Yelp that this North Bay area has a wealth of trails in the surrounding it: The Bay Trail, The Bay Ridge Trail, & a small network of paths in the State Recreation area. I choose to head out to Lake Herman, which links into the…
Smith Peak, Yosemite: Fire Scars, Bears & Vistas
I never hiked the Smith Peak trail before the fire, but right now it is a heck of an adventure! I solo hiked this 14-ish mile day hike starting early last Friday morning, rolling into the Hetch Hetchy gate around 7:30 am. I had completely forgotten that the Hetch Hetchy entrance has shorter ‘open hours’ (unlike the other entrances to Yosemite), it was good I didn’t start too much earlier. At the entrance station…
Non-Urban Legends & Exploring the Bigfoot Legend in Yosemite
The other week I had a revelation, I realized why the leave no trace mascot is bigfoot! Admittedly it should not have taken me this long, but in my defense I took the logo at face value without even thinking about the bigfoot legend. Or maybe Trails had mentioned it once, but sometimes when hiking my brain chooses to think about cliffbars instead of retaining cool facts. Anyhow, now that I am…
Chilnualna Falls, Yosemite: Big Waterfall, Tiny Crowd
Last year after backpacking past a very dry Chilnualna Creek my interest was peaked about the Chilnualna Falls located just a few short miles down the trail. Apparently I couldn’t go then – I had a firm nighttime destination besides the lake of any water to create falls – but stored in my memory I decided to check it out in the spring. This past weekend I decided to day hike the trail…
Backpacking Glen Camp, Point Reyes – Everything is Damp (thanks ocean)
Not only was my trip to Glen camp my first backpacking trip of 2014, but it is now my earliest backpacking trip done ever in the year! Starting out strong, 2014! Of course that meant it was consistently raining on the first day of the two day trip…. but considering I can not remember a single time it has rained on me while backpacking in California, I can’t really complain….
Hello! I am a 30-something outdoors-lady, backpacker, and resident of Groveland, California - 
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