March 20, 2026 - Eureka

 

Title: March  20, 2026 - Eureka
Hike Info : Description : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking

Trail head: David’s House

Trail:  Trails and Roads behind his place

Description:

I did not sleep in that long, getting up by 7:15. While I was eating breakfast, Sherri got up. Sort of a repeat of yesterday. After we consumed breakfast, we talked about a range of things, just enjoying each other’s company. There was nothing particular which our conversation wandered to, just the enjoyment with each other.

After a couple hours, I moved outside to enjoy the sunshine. David followed me out after about 20 minutes with a couple of chairs. That leads to more talking and enjoyment. Sherri joins us. By the time we start to break up, it is 12:30. I have my lunch, then go to my after lunch rest. I got up after 1:30.

David wonders if we would like to go for a walk. The options he gave were the forest behind his house, walking around Sequoia Park, or doing a Costco walk. I decided that going behind his house would be enjoyable. Before you say, that seems a bit lame, while not large-looking at Google Earth, the area does seem a lot larger and goes on further than I thought-it is a lush forested area, complete with a tributary of Martin Slough.

 

Sherri descending the steep trail

We left for our walk around 2:00. This walk starts right outside of his backyard. There is a deep ravine, heavily forested. A lumber company once owned it and I think may have logged it. The path slopes down behind several houses, until it bends to the creek below. The creek runs into Martin Slough-I do not think this segment has a name. When it turns towards the creek, there is a steep 40’ drop down a clay bank. If not careful, it would be easy just to slide down rather than step down this section. We all made it down without sliding.

 

David and Sherri ascending

When we crossed the creek the area was muddy, but we were able to get across that area without too much slop on our feet. We came to a dirt road-David said it was an old logging road. It rose up a ways. We came to a Y and David asked which way did we go before? We take the other way, the upper end of the Y. The road is mostly firm, but steep. There are places where it is wet clay. We pick our way through it. The good part is the rise brings us into the sun which is enjoyable. We have seen trillium and Scottish Broom along the way, along with the usual assortment of pines.

 

On top, the rise was more gentle and we walked a ways. David does inform us that it is a way to go if we go back to David’s house via this route. Later on when I look at Google Earth, I think that is an understatement. Even though it seems further, we have only walked a bit more than a mile. At this point we decided to return the way we came. My legs are starting to feel the walk, even though it is only a mile I think the rise is more than they are used to.

We got back to David’s house around 4:00. I rest for an hour while David, being more energetic, gets dinner together. A shower really helps me feel better. David has dinner ready at 5:30. A neighbor had given him some venison and that is the meat for tonight. Pretty tasty. I washed dishes while David showers. Then we watched three episodes of Jeopardy. Then it is time to turn in, about 9:30.

Animals

Banana Slug

Banana Slug

 
Flowers and Plants

Scottish Broom

Skunk Cabbage

Pampas Grass

Pampas Grass

Ferns

March 19, 2026 - Go to Eureka

Title: March  19, 2026 - Go to Eureka

Hike Info : Description 

Hike Info:

Type: Car

From  Google Maps:

• Mileage: 450 miles
• Drive Time: 7:55

Description:

I got up at 6:30 and got a few things ready. Sherri surprises me and gets up while I am finishing up breakfast. I then spend a few minutes moving stuff out to the garage for future loading. I have been slack in getting trust tax information to the CPA to do the taxes for the trust. So I went off to do that at 8:00. When I returned, I helped Steven level sand in our patio area so he could put in pavers while we are gone. Then I load up the car. While the car does not look packed, the back end is full. But then again, I am not really prepared and we are going out for two weeks.

I start off driving. There are no issues on this segment of our drive. What we know for these next two weeks is that we are going up to David’s today in Eureka and staying through Saturday. Then joining Lawrence and Andrea in Bandon until Tuesday. We will follow them back to Salem through the following Saturday, then go down to Roseburg to stay for a couple of days. After that, we do not know. We will return by April 4th.

We talk a few minutes about possibilities, then talk about a variety of things. We do not stop in Turlock at our normal rest stop. Our first stop is in Elk Grove at our regular lunch stop-Leatherby’s. I have a turkey-cheese sandwich while Sherri’s was Jessie’s chicken sandwich. We topped it off by having a mint hot fudge sundae. What a great way to raise my blood sugar levels.

We popped over to Elk Grove’s Costco and filled up. The gas price has definitely gone up: $5.25 per gallon. Sherri then drives at 1:25 while I rest. She goes through Sacramento and Woodland. When we get to Wiliams, Sherri sees a cloud and thinks it is smoke. When we turned onto Highway 20, we saw the source of the smoke: a field was being burned. By the time we hit CLear Lake, Sherri is ready to give up driving for today. We get to a park with a bathroom about 3:45. Sherri drove for over two hours, a lot more than she is used to.

I drove for a bit more than an hour to our next rest stop. There were a couple of interesting things about this segment. First, more interesting to me than probably anybody else. A few miles after I started driving, I noticed a motorcycle with a yellow headlight following me. When I came to a passing lane, I expected the motorcycle to pass me. He did not, but other cars did. This was on Highway 20 and then when we turned onto 101, he followed us, never passing and mostly keeping a set pace behind us. Not sure why he is not passing us. I think there might be one of three things: first, was he feeling comfortable going at our pace and felt safe. Two, I had done something which really ticked him off-I would not have been aware of it. Last, I had done some damage-also not sure what I did. He left before we got to a rest stop.

Once we got onto 101, I was traveling along quite nicely. Sherri had just awoke when I glanced over at the southbound lane. At first I thought it was a man walking, but then I realized he was rolling along, like being on roller blades. I pointed at him for Sherri to see. He thought I was waving at him, which is also nice. I wonder how far he has gone and where he is going?

Our next stop was around 5pm at the Empire Camp Rest Stop. I take this opportunity to stand for awhile. I also get out my personal pharmacy and take my evening pills. After about 15 minutes we are on our way. There is not much more activity as we travel up to David’s. We munch almonds and Catalina Crunch as our snack-meal. We get to David’s a lot earlier than what I thought we would, at 6:45.

Once we unpacked, we sat around and just talked for over an hour. I think we kept David up-I know I was ready to go to bed and sleep. I got to bed about 9:30 and was asleep by 10:00, not even bothering to read more than just a few pages.

March 5, 2026 - FINS to Lost Lake

 

Title: March 5, 2026 - FINS to Lost Lake
Hike Info : Description : Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking 

Trail head: FINS Parking area

Trail: Lost Lake

Destination: End of trail

Actual Destination: Most of trail until it got muddy

Distance:  5.41 miles

Start Time: 7:35

End Time: 10:29

Travel Time: 2:52  (1.89 mph)

Moving Time: 2:19   (2.33 mph)

Elevation Rise: 354 '

Descent: 304‘

Maximum Elevation: 325'

Minimum Elevation: 270'

GPS Tracks

Description:

I got out of bed at 5:30 and was on the road to the Sportsman store by 6:45, arriving a few minutes before 7:00. Jerry of the Central Valley Hiking Group has organized this hike and is there right at 7:00. The other hiker here is Lucia. That is all which we have going with us. Three others dropped out. I drove us to the FINS near Friant.

Jerry assures us that this would be a hike I can do in my tennis shoes. I still bring along my poles-I feel more stable with them. I have not done this hike before, so I am interested in doing the trail. Plus Jerry assures me that this will be an easy hike-I think it should be. The last time I hiked with Jerry, I struggled.

The trail out of the parking lot leads us past the Friant Fish Hatchery, actually called the San Joaquin Fish Hatchery. We do not enter in as it appears to be still close-it is before 8 after all. The trail is paved and is a gentle downslope to get down closer to the river. There are also stairs which we descend-more on these later. When we reach the level of the hatchery, there is a Small Fries Children’s Trail going off to the side. We take that. It shows how trout develop. It only takes us a minute to walk through it.

Maybe a flume?

After rejoining the trail, we cross a bridge over what looks like a flume, but I am not sure about that. A short distance away we come to the eastern end of the Lost Lake campground. Rather than walking the road, Jerry leads us through the wet grass, from the dew, by the San Joaquin River.

We do not really walk by the river, rather behind some bushes which line the river. Occasionally there are holes in the line of bushes which gives us a chance to peer into the river environs. One of the benefits of walking this early is that the sunlight gets filtered, making the colors accentuated. Lots of yellows and greens. Then there are the geese and ducks which flock on both banks.

There becomes a standing joke that someone will give some money if they walk on some plants which line our side of the river. Even though sometimes these plants look pretty solid, they are floating on water. Nobody takes the offer, but if someone did, they would be taking it with a splash.

We also see lots of mistletoe in the trees-they look pretty healthy. Many of the trees look like they are still in Winter mode as we do not even see the start of leaves. Still there is enough foliage for us to enjoy a pleasant morning.

We make it through all of the campsites. This brings us to the Lost Lake Nature Trail on the south side of the park. I have walked this trail before, many years ago. Then the trail was more a bunch of use paths, resembling the Hydra of Greek mythology. I was reading that a couple of years ago, the County invested a good sum of money to make the trail easy to walk and very evident where to go. I wonder if the County will be putting up interpretive signs as well?

 

Lucia and Jerry

We got a ways down the trail when we needed to cross over a semi-fallen tree. Then, to go with the steeplechase motif, the trail turns muddy. Jerry looks ahead and it does not look very promising. We turned around rather than slosh through the slime.

Jerry had wanted to make it a loop by following the trail to the end. There it would go up the 50’ bank. We would then have a view of the snowy mountains to the east. We returned the same way we came until we came to a use trail up the slope and we followed it. This puts us at the sixth hole of the frisbee golf course. This looks over a gravel pit. We had a discussion about where we lose the lake? Turns out that the large gravel pit is where Lost Lake resides when there is water in it.

We go back down our use trail and quickly come back to the campground. We stopped for a few minutes at a picnic bench by the river. Then off we go again. We do not stop nearly as often going back as we did coming in. Still, we enjoyed the walk. I surprised myself as I still had a pretty bouncing step rather than my usual walks lately where the last mile the feet are dragging.

Mosaic Stairway

Jerry was hoping the fish hatchery would be open and we would walk through it. While the gate was open, the other end did not look promising. But there is a last bit of eye candy. Those stairs we came down? Going up we can see that there is a mosaic mural which comes into view as we face it. Not only is there one, but there is another on the steps below us and another above the one showing.

We get back to the car and I drive everyone back to the Sportsman store. When I get home, it is just past 11, right when I said I would be home by. While a little tired, I still was able to work on our patio renovation in the afternoon.

Extra Photo's

Interesting stone building at Lost Lake

A bunch of purple flowers across the San Joaquin, maybe lupine

Jerry and Lucia

Interesting river plant life

Animals

 
Flowers and Plants

February 22, 2026 - Coast

 

Title: February 22, 2026 - Coast
Hike Info : Description :  Extra Photo's : Animals : Flowers and Plants

Hike Info:

Type: Hiking

Trail head: Bluff’s Trail

Trail: Montana de Oro parking area

Destination: end of trail

Actual Destination: Most of the trail, right before it turns east

Distance:  3.07 miles 

Start Time: 3:07

End Time:  4:56

Travel Time:   1:48 (1.70 mph)

Moving Time: 1:20   (2.30 mph)

Elevation Rise: 229'

Descent: 226‘

Maximum Elevation: 86'

Minimum Elevation: 5' - This is too low

GPS Tracks

 From  Google Maps:

Mileage: 114 miles

Drive Time:  2:21

Description:

Today’s possible activities:

• 

  Solvang

  Solvang
• Pismo Beach Outlets
• Pismo Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove
• Montana de Oro Bluff’s trail

Yesterday, we did nothing on our list. Will we do any better today? We will see at the end of the day.

I got up at 7:15 and took my shower. Then continued to write up my notes on Kaitlyn Schiess’ The Liturgy of Politics. Sherri got up closer to 9.We had our breakfast, which was an improvement over the Oxnard fare-they both are Quality Inn. Eggs looked better and I got waffles.

We left the hotel at 10. We were still undecided about our first stop. I think Sherri is concerned that we will not be able to get everything we want to do into our day and so she is willing to drop Solvang. I showed Sherri what the time schedule looks like, so she is OK with Solvang

 

I think if we leave by noon, we should be good. We wandered down Copenhagen Drive. When Sherri pops into a store, I find a bench, preferably in the sun, and read for a bit. We do this routine, several times. Sherri gets a couple of things and a Danish. She only has spent an hour. We leave Solvang shortly after 11.

Eucalyptus Trees where Monarchs reside

Now we go up 101 towards Pismo Beach. Will we be walking down the sands of the beach? No! Sherri wants me to visit the outlet center there, particularly the Nike store. A couple of weeks ago she washed my shoes and I had a limited selection of alternates. I am also a bit hard to fit. Not only a big shoe size, it needs to be wide in the toe box and somewhat normal to narrow heel. This Nike store only had one model in wide and it did not fit me at all.

But Sherri noticed that there is a Sketchers store close by and that is where she took next. One of their shoes fit me pretty well, so Sherri goes ahead and buys it. We are not sure if this is really a long term solution to my feet. At least we will give it a try.

One place which was close by is the Pismo Beach Monarch Grove. We found a parking place. Then have lunch in the car before going in. The Monarch season is from November to February. We are at the tail end of the season. But we can hope we see some flocks of Monarchs. While we do see some flying high in the eucalyptus trees. We were hoping for a Butterfly Bathing to cleanse our souls, but at least we got a Monarch Sponge Bath. We will need to make a note to come earlier.

Coastline at Montana de Oro

We have been doing pretty good with gas, but there is a limit of how far this tank of gas will go. Tomorrow, we are going into a more desolate place where a gas station is not very frequent. So we stopped at Costco, of course, in San Luis Obispo. That should get us home

Then it is off to Montana de Oro. We are thinking of doing something easy, like the Bluff’s Trail. We feel fortunate-there is a parking space right at the start of the trail. We put out our Senior Pass for State Pass and started walking about 3:10. We stop at the site where there was a chute that the original ranchers used to load goods with. There is still a roped off hole, a bit overgrown there.

We enjoy our walk and greeting people. One of these stopped and asked Sherri if his dog is OK on the trail? It took a few seconds for her to recognize her chiropractor. It may have been the sunglasses or just meeting someone unexpectedly. The kids usually say it is me who knows everybody-I guess it is Sherri’s turn to know people. Sherri made an appointment with him when we got back to Fresno.

We started walking again at a comfortable pace for us. After a while, I heard footsteps behind us, not going slower than us and not passing us. This went on for about ¾ off a mile when someone else passed us. Eventually someone else passed us, then our stalker also passed us. I made a comment that she turned and smiled and just said she enjoyed walking behind us.

The Bluffs Trail has a final half of a mile leg which returns to the road. We decided to forego this leg and just return. We met a couple of men from Illinois. We talked with them for a while. They house sit for a friend in Sebastopol when the friend is away. They get a month or more to wander around Northern California.

We start back and just enjoy our walk. The ocean waves are a good reminder of both how some things seem to be endless and that all things wear down with time. We got back to the car about 5.

I had suggested several places to eat earlier, but Sylvester’s resonated with us, plus it is close by. We are the only ones at Sylvester's -I wonder what is wrong here as it is almost always busy. I ordered a Baby Desperado Burger. Sherri questions the Baby part and then decides that her husband is wise. She orders a Baby California Burger. That and some fries are enough to satisfy us.

It is getting dark now, so we head off to Atascadero. I had booked a room at Home2Suite last night. When we entered the room, we realized this is the best room of the three nights we have had on this trip.. I think we will be comfortable. The trip may be wearing on me as I feel like I just need to rest up as I am starting to get tired. Even with being tired, I make it to my usual bed time of 10.

Extra Photo's

Montana de Oro Coast

Montana de Oro Coast

There is a seagull in this picture-the same on as below

Animals

Seagull on Rock

Sparrow

 
Flowers and Plants

 

 

Morning Glory

California Golden Poppy