Michigan Shore-to-Shore Trail
The last couple of days I have spent my days in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan – visiting with my granny and aunt (and mom!), enjoying Lake Huron’s sandy shores, and by surprise discovering the Michigan Shore-to-Shore Trail while trail running this Friday. Although I have never heard of the Michigan Shore-to-Shore trail before, this 220-ish mile trail trekking from Lake Huron to Lake Michigan has me wondering how I…
Hiking Negwegon State Park, Michigan
For the last week, and for the next one ahead I have been visiting my family back in Michigan. While here I have been spending the majority of my time in the small town I grew up in: Willis, Michigan. Willis, I pleased to find out now has the cutest little yoga room (well second cutest, to Groveland’s Little Room), and I have been enjoying running all the flat country…
Big Creek Trail, the Flattest Trail in Groveland
I am training to run my second half marathon! Hopefully in another 8-ish weeks time I will be blazing through the Davis Moo-nlight half marathon like a pro. Alternatively you might find me limping past the finish line in the horrible central valley heat . Either way, I am pretty excited for the glow in the dark medals you receive for finishing. Plus, it is convenient before Curtis & I’s busiest backpacking months (so hopefully we can avoid injury from over-training/hiking?). Currently…
Upper Yosemite Falls Hike! & a Lesson in Trail Construction?
It is May in Yosemite and you know what that means – Waterfalls! The snow in the high country is melting and recently (well, last week at least) we have been receiving some hot summer type weather. Springtime is the best time for waterfalls every year, but less with the than average amounts of rain/snowfall this winter the waterfalls might dry out sooner rather than latter this year. :( This is Curtis…
Gaylor Peak Hike
Tioga Pass isn’t opened yet – but since almost all of the other passes in our neck of the Sierra are open, I am channeling my anxiousness into a blog post about one of my favorite short hikes on Tioga Pass: Gaylor Peak. Specifically the first and most memorable time was the first during the strangely snow-less 2011-2012 winter, a December Hike with our friend from Michigan Tech, Kris. Or as I like to think of it: Midwesterners…
Big Trees Camping and North Grove Hike
Guess who had a birthday recently? This girl! It was hard to compete with last year’s birthday – in which I both completed my first half marathon (& only so far… I should fix that!) and had a fantastic Easter Sunday – but birthdays are not supposed to be a competition. If they were a competition then I would have stalled out after that time in which Jacquie made me that realistic…
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…
Hiking the Merced River Canyon – with a pup!
Trailhead: West of El Portal take the Foresta Rd bridge over the Merced, then immediatly turn left onto Incline Road. The narrow Incline road goes past many nice looking forest service campsites, then turns to gravel before you reach a gate. Park here and start hiking past the gate.
Distance: About 4.5 miles out and back (2.25 miles each way). The trail is really a service road that runs parallel to the North side of the river, which ends at where Hwy 140 crosses the North side Merced to via a small aluminum bridge to avoid a landslide that happened a few years back.
Camping Andrew Molera State Park in Big Sur
I’m not going to lie, whenever I am car camping anywhere new I worry about not finding space to camp. A pretty justified fear thanks to past experiences, like the time we reserved a campsite at Butano State Park and someone still tried to take our spot. I mean the people who we ended up sharing the spot with had assumed they could find a spot, and then they couldn’t –…
Hello! I am a 30-something outdoors-lady, backpacker, and resident of Groveland, California - 
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