Brews & Hiking Boots: Gem Lake, Ansel Adams Wilderness & the (NEW!) Mammoth Brewery Tasting Room
Here is the thing about Mammoth Brewery – it is right next to SO MUCH GOOD HIKING. In years past I have hit up the old mammoth tasting room after hiking up towards Duck Pass and after backpacking to Lake Ediza. Even on this trip, where the Gem Lake trailhead is 25 miles from the brewery, it that isn’t that far (especially since we were headed that direction to camp). What I am trying to say…
The Trees Have Eyes – a (Spooky?) hike to Parker Lake, Ansel Adams Wilderness
I think most people have thought of the woods as a “Scary” place at least once in their life. Im not talking about real scary here either, like hypothermia or altitude sickness, but the irrational sort of scary. For example as a little kid my brothers pretty much convinced me that axe murders and Freddy Krueger hid in the woods surrounding our home. Also, I think around the same time I…
Eagle-Shawmut Mine: A Hidden History Except in Years of Drought
2014 has been a heck of a drought year in California and not one farmer, environmental group, or politician is happy about it. We are trucking fish to try and keep them alive, proposing a $14.4 billion dollar bond measure, and looking at all the ways we can conserve and reuse our limited supply. It is a mess. But while visiting Groveland’s best coffee shop, the Mountain Sage (which really knows how…
Hiking Bull Run Lake, Stanislaus National Forest Amid Hunting Season
It was one of those weekends where the mountains are plastered in clouds, rain, fog, and at certain elevations snow – while it was a warm perfect autumn day down in the foothills by Groveland and Murphys. Despite the better weather at lower elevations I was determined to head up into the Sierra Nevada Forest. I had failed to wash the tent with waterproofing, so backpacking was out of the…
Backpacking Molybdenite Creek: eastern sierra fall colors you don’t have to share
Fall colors – they happen every year but they don’t get any less magical. Colors in California can’t ever compare to my favorite displays in Michigan (I’m looking at you Brockway Mountain), but those yellow and orange aspen littering the hillsides are really growing on me. Actually it’s a sort of poetic how the summer season is greeted sunny poppies and then adjourned with the fiery aspen, full circle. Right now…
Bagging Peaks and Taking Names: Hiking Mount Dana
There are some trips that Curtis and I have been meaning to do for years now, Lyle Glacier, Mount Lyle, Mount Whitney, anywhere in Sequoia, and Mount Dana. Guess which one we finally crossed off the list!?! (SPOILER: it’s should be pretty obvious by the blog title) Yep, we hiked Mount Dana last month – which is now officialy the tallest summit I been to. I don’t think of myself as a…
Passing by Groom Lake on the Extraterrestrial Highway (Area 51)
Normally on this blog when mentioning lakes I am talking about those gorgeous oases where I filter my drinking water, allow Curtis some free time to fly fish, or maybe take polar bear swim in to rinse off the sweat from a hard day of hiking. Groom lake is not one of those lakes. Groom Lake, better known as Area 51, is a salt flat requiring clearance from the U.S. Air Force to visit… not…
Mount Hoffman: The Ultimate Yosemite Panorama
I hiked up Mount Hoffman with a group group of friends in early July this summer, it was my second trip up Hoffman. The first trip was in the fall of 2011 – which I can from experience say it is an amazing hike both summer & fall. On that first trip there was a light dusting of snow across the peaks, although we had to hike up the seasonally close May lake…
Hello! I am a 30-something outdoors-lady, backpacker, and resident of Groveland, California - 
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