Rolling through the miles: A fall hike, good views, not much else to say.

Last month I joined the Mountain Tribe Hike that is typically a fund-raiser for an organization. Last month it was Just Like My Child.

It's about 2 hours or so to get from West Sac to Kirkwood, so Emily and I (and Ripley - hurray for National Parks that allow dogs) started off with the sun.

Ripley helping to clean out the empty yogurt container.

I'm sure I won't remember the names for everything, but I'll try a few. The view was gorgeous and even though it turned out to be incredibly windy, it was a great day.

Ripley looking pretty dang happy to be out -- check out that doggy-smile.

This tree looks like it had a twisty childhood. Seems to be compensating and thriving. Maybe it had a good therapist.

Lake #1 was Frog Lake. My second favorite of the day. Bob (our leader) commented it was more of a pond. I think that depends on where you grew up.

Surveying the area. She did get in a little, but the temps are not terribly inviting.

A view of the lakes-previously-known-as Twin Lakes (until they dammed it -- now it's called something else, which I cannot remember). Great view from the trail -- but it hasn't been getting quite cold enough here, so the Aspens just weren't popping out.

Emily and Ripley at Winnemucca.

This was my favorite of the day. It was a little sheltered from the wind and seems to breathe serenity. We talked about returning next year for a weekend of camping.

Having lunch at Winnemucca.

First view of Round Lake. Round Lake was not my favorite -- it was steep getting there (and coming back), the wind was ridiculous, and even though it was pretty, it was no Winnemucca.

We got there, sat and reflected a bit,

and a bit more . . .

And then hiked back down toward Winnemucca. I hear the hike to the summit of Round Top is a great one to take on. I think the elevation is around 10,500, but I can't quite remember (consider that when I woke up in the morning, I was at around 25 feet elevation).

And so the clean-air adventure came to an end. We hiked down, and every few minutes I asked Emily how far she thought we were from the car. Then I'd ask again. Sometimes I switched it up and asked her how far she thought we'd gone. It was only a 6-7 mile round trip, but I was ready to be done.

Little did I know . . .

There was a fire blazing near Kirkwood that day. They called it a 'controlled burn' but it did not look very controlled. And at one point, they stopped traffic and we sat there for over 20 minutes, in the smoke, waiting to go again. With a lovely view of the back of this Tacoma.

I asked Emily to take a photo out her side of the car because there were live flames and I'd never seen a raging forest fire up close. She took the picture, handed it back to me, and then 20 minutes later, when we got to go again, we passed the area I'd asked her to photograph and she commented that she didn't know the flames were right next to the street. So -- I guess I got a picture of more smoke and trees, but not the actual flames.