Valentines for Hikers / 7 Things I love about Leave No Trace
Happy Valentines Day! Valentines day makes me think of all the people and places I love – including my love of hiking. To express my love of hiking I thought what better then a series of valentines/love notes from hikers to trail. Better yet: base my valentines (very loosely) off the leave no trace principles! Leave No Trace – What’s Not to Love? The 7 points of leave no trace…
Brews & Hiking Boots: Portland Wildwood Trail & Deschutes Brewery
While stuck in Portland during a freak snowstorm one might as well make lemons into lemonade – or as I would prefer: Hops into IPA’s. Portland is city proud of both it’s green spaces and it’s concentration of microbreweries, so it it only seemed appropriate to combine the two in one epic snowy adventure. Wildwood Trail from the Portland Zoo Distance: As long as you want? We hiked 2-ish miles…
WINDY WINTER CONDITIONS: Multnomah Falls & Columbia River Gorge
So, I went to Portland for a couple of days with Curtis for a brief trip & guess what happened? SNOW! Now it is chilly up here, but we have been assured that this is not a very common occurrence. Which is obvious by the fact that a that a few inches can cause a 30+ car pile-up closing I-5 on the day we planed to go home. Guess we…
Yosemite During the Dry Winter & Hiking the 4 Mile Trail
The news for the last month has been inundated with tales of polar vortexes, snow closing down highways in Atlanta, and snow days for kids and adults alike… on the east coast. Here on the west coast we are in the middle of in the middle of a critically dry winter, meaning an alarming low amount of snow pack in the high country, lowering reservoirs, and (from my point of…
Let’s Go See Butterflies! (Monarch Grove @ Pacific Grove, CA)
Seeing the Monarch Migration is a bucket list item. Standing there surrounded by butterflies fluttering everywhere is like entering a new culture – standing in a busy foreign city with colors and scents and sounds swirling – only this is a culture of nature…
Brews & Hiking Boots: Williams Peak & Prospectors Brewery in Mariposa, CA
In the winter it can be more difficult to find a nice little day trip close to home. This year the minimal snow is making it hard to snow shoeing, plus cross country skiing is not a real option in any of the open Yosemite elevations. Lame! That is why this winter I have been employing a tactic of combining hikes with visits to nearby breweries. By combining brews with…
The Royal Newton Riblet Estate (Tourist Wine Trap!)
When I first arrived at the Arbor Crest estate tasting room in Spokane, Washington I had the mis-impression that this was going to be your typical wine tasting. “Oh yes, blackberry notes with a full body. Wait isn’t this a white wine?” Nope. This was not a trip about the wine – this was a trip about the Arbor Crest Estate, an estate owned by one Royal Newton Riblet. According to…
Quinn’s Hot Springs – Relaxing and Hiking
This year was a pretty intense year for Christmas time traveling for me – up to Eastern Washington, then over to Seattle, back to Spokane, over to Montana for Quinn’s hot springs, to Lake Pend Oreille in Idaho, back to the airport and finally home again in again with Basil and Herman. In the next few days I hope to get up at least another blog about the trip – but…
New Years Goals & a look back at 2013
Happy New Year! Just yesterday I got back from a holiday traveling around the Northwest (Washington, Idaho, Montana) – more on that to come – but first wanted to make a post about some of the non-resolutions that I triumphed over in 2013, plus contemplate what might me next on the agenda for 2014! Why am I calling them non-resolutions? Simply put, because I never “resolved” to do these things. Maybe…
Hello! I am a 30-something outdoors-lady, backpacker, and resident of Groveland, California - 
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