Sunday, August 18, 2013

Penner Lake

One of my favorite hiking destinations is the area just north of Grouse Ridge that includes Carr and Feeley Lakes, Island Lake, Milk Lake, Round Lake, and Penner Lake. I've been to Island Lake within the past 5 years, but it's been a decade since I hiked in to Penner.

Chris and Pam might remember the time when they were about 10 and 8 respectively, and we took our family to camp at Carr Lake in the big camper we had. I left Mom with the three younger kids and I took Chris and Pam up to Penner Lake, then down to Shotgun Lake, and up to pick up the Grouse Ridge Trail leading back to our campsite. It was only about 4.5 miles total, but when we started to climb up from Shotgun, there was so much snow still on the ground that it completely covered the trail for miles. I was plenty familiar with the area, and knew how to find our way back, so no problem there. But Chris and Pam must have thought I was a crazy man for making them walk over all that snow with no apparent trail to follow.

Penner Lake is a beautiful spot, with great fishing, clear, relatively warm water, and nice 10-15 foot cliff to dive off. One of the YM leaders in our stake (Joe Harrison) invited me along with his boys and we hiked to Penner this last Saturday, about 6 miles round trip, going from 6,000 to 7,000 feet elevation. It was great day! I really haven't gotten to do much hiking the past few years, and it was like being let out of a cage. Even though there were tons of other hikers (okay, maybe 50 total), I had a great time. Below are some photos.


 On the way in.


It was quite smoky/hazy because of some wild fires down in the Oroville area.


 Cliff diving


In panoramic view, this shot is just to the right of the one above.

The two shots above are actually only about 1/4 of the lake. Around the corner to the left is the rest.


On the way out

Saturday, August 10, 2013

Why We Live In Yuba City

There are a lot of reasons why we stay in YC, not the least of which are shown below. I rode my bike about 4.5 miles west of home a couple of mornings ago, looking for blackberries. This is what I saw:



Rice ripening. Acres and acres, all over the surrounding counties. Beautiful.





Prunes ripening on the trees in the background with a full irrigation ditch.
Where else can you be and see this much water daily - in mid-August?





And, of course, blackberries. We used to pick them over the levee when I was
growing up. Now I find them along ditches and canals throughout the county.


I find all the scenes very beautiful. And I like the growing things all over the place. I returned to the blackberries yesterday morning and got a couple of quarts worth. There were plenty of red berries that will be ready for picking in the next couple of weeks. I hope to get enough for lots and lots of jam. To put on homemade bread. 

Saturday, August 3, 2013

The Last Fling

This past Tuesday -Thursday Mom and I went to Bodega Bay for our last out of town fun before getting back to school. (Work days start next week, and students return Aug. 15.) Bodega Dunes is our campground of choice, because as you all know, the showers are free today!

Below is our campsite. I didn't care much for all the sand, but it wasn't too bad, and Mom wanted to be close to the showers/bathrooms, so it worked out well. We had a blast cooking hot dogs and biscuits and pop-tarts and anything else we could think of over the open fire. We used the new camp stove for heating water for oatmeal and hot chocolate. And for something different, I bought some bacon jerky at Sam's Club. It's really just bacon that's been cooked, then dried. It's not a good as regular jerky, but it's a terrific way to take bacon on hikes and camping. You don't have to refrigerate it, and all you have to do is heat it up in a frying pan (or over the fire) and it's just like fresh cooked bacon. Fabulous. 





Anyone up for a rap? Because Ice is back with a brand new invention. . .





Some of you remember even before this walk-way was put in several years ago, and most of you remember not even being able to see the cement pad at the bottom because it was under the sand. Well, the shifting sea has moved the sand around so that now the cement pad is exposed and stands a good 7' above the beach on the low side, 4' on the high side. We just hopped over the rail at the top and walked down the sand, like everyone else.





On the left, me standing on a drifted tree trunk (we saw another tree that had washed up and measured it to be 75' tall - of course, it was laying down). On the right, Mom in the act of telling me not to take her picture.





Since we didn't have any real plans, and have always wanted to see more of the town, we walked into town and visited shops, grocery stores, walked along the residential streets, and looked out over the bay. There were a couple of varieties of local flora that we didn't recognize, but thought were pretty. You see them below, if you know what they are, let us know.







I've always liked this boat sitting outside a local fish restaurant on the main road.






Early the first morning there I got up and walked to the beach before breakfast, as I am wont to do. It's just over a mile if you take the straightest path through the trees and brush. Our first day there was cold and wet, too cold to go boogie boarding, and it looked like it might be that way the second day, as you see in the photos below.





But it started to burn off before noon, and got very windy. I spent a couple of hours taking the waves in from way far out on long, fast rides. Very nice.



We packed up and stopped at the Spud Point Crab Shack for a shrimp sandwich (very nice with a little spice), and a big cup of their fabulous clam chowder to eat on the way home. It was perfect. That evening at home we even capped off the delightful trip by watching Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" which, as everyone knows, was filmed in Bodega Bay in the 1960's. A lot of the town has changed so much that you can't recognize it, but there are some things that are still there. And there's a new cafe' in town called "The Birds" that's run by a local gal. We've got to try it next time we're there.


And finally, I wonder if it's time to start seriously thinking about a family reunion at Bodega Dunes for a joint camping trip - maybe 3 days, 2 nights. I'm not opposed to considering other sites, but NorCal is the most centrally located. Those who would travel the farthest would at least be traveling relatively equal distances. And I know that camping is not at the top of the list for of fun things to do for parents with young children, but with showers and bathrooms so conveniently located, maybe it's not so bad. What do you think?