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Showing posts from July, 2016

How Trees Talk to Each Other

I love Ted talks because they expose me to new ideas and concepts that I might never have considered or might never have thought interesting or appealing. I love trees, of course, and this video just makes me love them even more. Wow, so many fascinating things to learn about trees and their inter-connectedness! And there's so much symbolism in that and how it relates to us as human beings. I promise this 18 minutes will be worth your time (it might even make you wanna go hug a tree): Suzanne Simard - How Trees Talk to Each Other Here are just a few of the dozens of tree pictures I've taken.  And this one is probably one of my favorites and this Ted talk made me think of it. It's like these two trees are holding on to each other as if to say, "It's okay, friend, I'm here!" :) Let's be more like trees, let's take care of each other, support each other and hold each other up.

7.22.16 ... American River Confluence Loop

Hike Details: Elevation - low of 535' to high of 1194' Location - Auburn State Recreation Area - Confluence Mileage - 4-5 miles Hiking time -1 1/2 hours Route - See the map below, we parked at the Confluence beyond the bridge, near the bathroom (fee area). We followed the Stagecoach Trail, but then took a sharp left to head towards the Manzanita Trail, which took us to the Park Headquarters. We crossed Hwy. 49 to join the Western States Trail, crossed the No Hands Bridge and then crossed the river again back to the parking lot. Weather - Barely cool when we started at about 8:30, and just got progressively warmer. Fortunately we finished before it was too hot to hike. These nifty graphics were made from the caltopo.com website -- best hike planning/mapping website!! I'm just nerdy enough that I enjoy figuring this stuff out. And I love that the elevation profile makes it look like we climbed a really high mountain. :) So this hike was our second choi

7.15.16 ... Eagle Falls/Eagle Lake/Vikingsholm

Hike Details: Elevation - low approx. 6,250 ft. - high of 7,000 ft. Location - Emerald Bay State Park Mileage - 4-5 miles Hiking time - 3 hours Route -We parked in the Emerald Bay State Park parking lot (fee area) on Highway 89, then walked back to the Eagle Falls trailhead. Just follow the signs to Eagle Falls and then on to Eagle Lake. Permits for the Desolation Wilderness are at the trailhead, make sure to fill one out. After coming back to the trailhead, we headed down the trail to the Vikingsholm Castle and then back up again. If I were to do this over again, I'd recommend starting by going down to Vikingsholm, then hiking back up and then over and up to Eagle Lake and then back down to the parking lot. Ending a hike with an uphill slog is slightly less fun. Weather - Cool in the morning, but it started getting pretty warm by the time we finished around noon. Link to CalTop map I haven't had time to do much hiking yet this summer but I finally have some on