Stevenson Creek Falls, Redinger Lake & Million Dollar Road(biking)
Here is the thing about winter in drought stricken California: There isn’t enough snow to do all the fun winter things, but the passes are still closed. Before you know it you are aimlessly clicking around of Google Earth trying to find something new and different and, most importantly, OPEN. This is how on the three day Presidents Day weekend Curtis and I ended up at driving around Redinger Lake, a…
Copper Run 10k: Exploring Copperopolis One Kilometer at a Time
Winter in the foothills is the ideal time for race – at least in the current rainless winter we are having – and whether or not it is raining it has to be better than running in blister hot summer temperatures. The 23rd annual Copper Run was held on January 24th, 2015 and it wasn’t raining. It was a beautiful “Winter” day (I mean, I would like to have some rain,…
Hiking Old 49 to the Drowned Town of Melones
The winter rains have finally started here in the Motherlode – in fact today I went skiing up at Crane Flat! It is exciting to finally see water falling from the sky! Although, As the rain started I immediately regretted all the wasted drought opportunities which I thought about but didn’t get around to this year. Don’t get me wrong, we need the rain… but so see the old reservoirs…
The Foresthill Bridge: A Bridge over a Reservoir that Never Was
Earlier this year I had fallen into an internet search blackhole, learning about dams in California, and the sometime bizarre “recreation” opportunities they provide. I think it had started with looking up dams that were hoping to profit from the passing of Proposition 2. It was like a cemetery of hopeful but ill-fated large expensive dams, now forgotten except by the local politicians still clinging to old plans. In my search I found the…
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…
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…
Red Hills Wildflower Hike
This is the best time of year to drive Highway 120 up to Groveland – green hillsides thanks to the recent rain and, as I noticed on my last drive down to Sonora, wildflowers lining the roadsides. On my drive I pass Chinese Camp, the very small town that is the portal to the BLM Area of Environmental Concern: The Red Hills, which I had recently blogged about this presidents day. Other than…
Red Hills CA – Hiking the Overlook Loop Trail
I feel like hiking on BLM land is always this unique experiences, kind of like the wild west of trails – open to horses, mountain bikes, geocachers, and lots of beer & whiskey drinking (inferring from the litter). The skeptical look of the cowboys greeted us as we pulled into the Red Hills Area of Environmental Concern (Red Hills CA) this Presidents Day weekend, as if they could tell we…
Hello! I am a 30-something outdoors-lady, backpacker, and resident of Groveland, California - 
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