Headin' Home

On the way home from my northwest trip, I crossed the Sierra and did some hiking. Here is one of the Virginia Lakes on the east side of the range, viewed from a talus slope crossed by the trail. This is a gorgeous area where you can hike to several fine lakes easily...just right for the Venerable Pinniped.

Cub Lake, in Yosemite near Tuolumne Meadows. This lake is only about 1.3 miles up the trail, but there's an elevation gain of about 700 feet, almost all in the middle half of the hike. Serious huff puff! I had not been planning to return this way when I left home a month earlier, so did not have a topo map...quadruple P! But, as you can see it's a beautiful lake, so was worth the effort.

Tenaya Lake, one of my favorite spots anywhere. Gorgeous lake, plenty of granitic slotation opportunities, rather warm water in the summer...there are even sandy beaches! 8100 feet up in the High Sierra. I camped here back in 1977 and have loved it ever since. The campground is long gone, but it remains a fine spot to picnic, relax, and simply enjoy!

Whoops! This is a large fire in Yosemite that was burning on Thursday, Aug 27, and as of now, Sep 7, is still going, resulting in road closures. It was a prescribed burn that got out of hand and has burned thousands of acres instead of a few dozen as originally planned.



These trees are near San Luis Reservoir between Hollister and Los Banos. Guess which way the wind usually blows? On this day, amazingly, there was no wind, presaging a warm day on the coast. Sure enough, it was 93 degrees in Marina, usually notorious as the place Where the Fog Goes to Die.