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.

Ugh.

This boat owner planned ahead.

A long day for a little dog.

A yummy reward after a long day!  More stuffed acorn squash.  I love the fall vegetables.  Last week I made thai curried butternut squash soup.  Mmmmm.

It's baaaack.

We're back to smoky skies, covered up sunrises and sets, and yicky breathing conditions. I signed up with Sacramento's "Spare the Air" alerts to get emails when the air quality hits "Unhealthy" (or maybe "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups"), and I haven't been getting them. A good sign, I thought.
No. I just found all the emails in my "spam" folder.

Date	AQI	CONDITION	POLLUTANT
Wed 7/23	124	Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups	Ozone
Thu 7/24	119	Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups	Ozone

I'm not sure if you're going to be able to see the info above, but basically, right now we're at 124, which is the 'Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" level. I looked at July 8th, though, and we were nearly 200, so I guess it's not all bad.
Okay, no. It IS all bad. All of it. But the fires are down from 2093 to less than 30 in Northern California, so that's good news, even if the air is bad.

Here's a post-spinning (around 6:30 a.m.) photo this morning:
If you click on it, it will enlarge, and you can see a little better.

I was hoping to fit a ride in this weekend before I go to the third and final wedding I'm attending this summer. I guess I better get up early.

Bah.

The morning sun is shining

Like a red rubber ball.

This isn't the greatest photo -- taken with my cell phone at 6.35 this morning -- but it gives you an idea of how smoky it is 'round these parts.

Smoky Skies

The air in the valley during summer is usually rather poor. But with the thousands of fires burning in California, and the valley's natural ability to trap heat and air, it's ten times as bad as usual. These pictures don't really capture it, but this is a view of Sacramento on my way to Trader Joes yesterday.

I guess no more biking for a few days.

Phew

My "stupendously busy" (did I really say that?) work days are over, and now I'm packing my days with other things. A couple of weeks ago, I spent the night up in Lakeport, got up with the sun, shoved my tent in my trunk and hopped on my bike. The night before I'd spent with some old friends drinking wine and eating stuffed eggplant (it tastes better than it sounds), and having uncomfortable conversations. I was happy to be going for a ride, and a little disappointed that I didn't turn on the news that night. As it turns out, the Northern California inferno had started the day before and the smoke started off bad and got worse. The farther I went south, the worse it got. But it's a circle (the essence of a lake, really), so once I got about half way around, it didn't make sense to go back.

When I started out, I realized I'd forgotten my music, so I was looking at 70 miles of being alone with my thoughts. A dangerous proposition. Luckily, though, the evening was so uncomfortable that I'd forgotten to ask for some breakfast I could bring with me, I just found solace in my tent, and tried to sleep.



Sunrise was lovely, and all the more colorful for the thick, smoky haze.

When I got up (5 hours later -- ouch!), I was just interested in packing up and hitting the road in time to see the sunrise, but after about 10 miles, I remembered that I hadn't eaten. Then again at 11 miles, 12, 13 . . . and pretty soon, I was just thinking about how I hadn't eaten, that it was 6.30 a.m. on a Sunday morning, that I was in between one tiny town and another tiny town, and that no rational convenience store guy who was probably suffering from a pretty serious hangover from some seriously cheap beer would be up to sell some sweaty, wheezing cyclist a clif bar. But at least I didn't have to think about my life and the state of the world.




This may seem comically obvious, but the sun rises pretty fast. I had envisioned having this gorgeous sunrise-ride where it would be cool and quiet and the only sounds would be those morning birds and the water lapping at the shore. First, the 'sunrise' part of the ride lasted only about 15 minutes. Second, it gets hot remarkably fast around these parts. And third, there's not really a road that circumnavigates (that's a GRE word) the lake -- so for parts of the ride, I had lovely views of mobile home parks, pink flamingos, and a remarkable amount of construction.

Perhaps some of you have heard of the Konocti Casino? No? Konocti Resort and Spa? No? Well, here's a photo of the spa:


Konocti Harbor? I had heard of all these things. What I did not know about was Mount Konocti -- the [inactive] volcano. Yeah -- that's a 4299 ft mountain.

That photo of the mountain is not mine -- from across the lake, I couldn't see the mountain due to the smoke. And while I was climbing it, I wasn't thinking about taking a friggin' picture. When I got home, I was telling an NCAC buddy about the ride, and he said, "So you went up that hill?" And suddenly I remembered that one of the hardest hills on NCAC '07 was around the lake -- the hill is shaped like a V -- you go straight down, so fast you can barely see what's coming, but whoooo-boy -- what's coming is a hill that goes straight up. It's not very long, but it's steep. I had to get off my bike with about 10 yards to go because it was too steep. I guess I need to do some more hill training.





The day got warm, and the hills kept coming, and my tummy kept grumbling. Not to worry, however. I got to South Lake or the city of Clearlake or something and it was late enough in the morning that I knew there had to be something to eat. Suddenly I saw a big sign at the stop light coming up, and more and more people.





And here -- a food-desert Oasis:

Okay, okay. I wasn't desperate enough to eat at McDonalds. Across the parking lot, there was a Ray's Food Place. At least that's what I thought it said. I didn't get a photo, but in retrospect, I think it was actually called, "Ray's Rude Place." What a bunch of punks. But those punks had bananas and bagels and ice for my water bottles.

The rest of the ride was painful due to the smoke, but it was also rather gorgeous and I was happy to be out there.

There were a lot of these 'check your speed' mechanisms, and it took me about 15 tries, but I got a photo of one as it was getting my speed -- considering I had to slow down, get my camera out, and take the picture, I must have been cruising along pretty good to register 21 mph.


I didn't realize I was just going to whine about this ride. It was actually pretty good. Just a rough weekend all around.