epic adventures

First rainy day of rainy season at the lake

2007-12-22T00:27:00.000-08:00

After working all summer in the central valley of California, rain there is a big deal. There were two rains during the summer which apparently is rare. I was on the coast for one of them so I was craving a rainy day. It drizzled off and on all day. At the end of the day their were perfect temperatures and absolutely no wind. I spent the placid afternoon fishing and it was great. I only caught a few fish but got some good photos. There were diving birds called grebes fishing all around me, and a bald eagle that flew over me, neither of which I could capture on my camera.

Glacier Point Pics

2007-12-21T23:44:00.000-08:00

4 mile trail next day

2007-12-21T23:18:00.000-08:00

Barret and I woke up the next day and went to the back country center to check out what trail we wanted to hike. We were advised that the thunderstorms had been very regular this summer and that if we did not get to our summit very early we probably don't want to go.
We opted for hiking "4 mile trail" to Glacier Point. We thought it would be a breeze and Barret wore sandals. 4 mile trail ended up being 4 miles up nothing but switchbacks. The views kept getting better but Barret's feet were not loving it. Just before getting to the point we got some really good pics of this dear that was right beside the trail.
Glacier point is not a "wilderness" peak to say the least. You can drive there for one of the best driving views in the park. When we got there it looked more like and amusement park. There was even a store that sold souvenirs and ice cream. The view was breathtaking despite all the annoying tourists...

more on way down

2007-12-21T23:05:00.001-08:00

Rest of Yosemite

2007-12-21T22:52:00.000-08:00

Of course on the way down the sun came out and the thunderstorms went away. We did get some cool shots on the way down. Pizza in the valley for dinner never tasted better.

probs with the blogger

2007-10-09T00:48:00.000-07:00

The blogger is not letting me download anymore pics tonight for some reason. I will try to post more really soon.

Half Dome continued...

2007-10-09T00:06:00.000-07:00

As you can see by the previous photos the skies were sunny and clear. When we got about 4 miles in we noticed some not so great looking clouds. It started thundering and raining but we continued on. The storm didn't look big from out vantage point. As we kept climbing, it was raining off and on. When we got within 2 miles it started pouring and the lightning was getting closer. People were coming down saying that either they didn't make it up or when they got up they were getting hammered by the weather up there. They mentioned that it was super sketch to hold onto the wire cables that were needed to climb and descend with lightning popping all around and being completely exposed.

Barret and I decided to try to ride out the storm in a semi sheltered area that wasn't getting hammered so bad. While hiking the rain felt really good to cool us down but when we stopped to try to ride out the storm we got very cold. We really wanted to summit when the storm blew over because we would be the only ones on the summit. We waited about and hour and a half a realized that the storm was not going to pass any time soon. We started to hike down slightly disappointed but it gave me a reason to come back to try it again (Barret had already done this hike).

Before heading down I hiked up into the opening and took some photos. At first glance some of these photos don't look very impressive until you look at how small those pine trees look on the edge of the cliffs. Enjoy...

on the way to half dome

2007-10-08T22:59:00.000-07:00

Once we had camp set up we took the electric bus to the trail head to half dome. As we started hiking the people that we were seeing looked like they came for a day in Disney world. There were allot of people on the first mile of the trail which were going to get a view of the 2 waterfalls that were not dried up yet.

There were great views of both Vernal and Nevada Falls. Most of the first few miles were paved, and stairs went up the sides of cliff. There was a large variety of people on these first few miles. From the Asian tourists with mickey mouse hats to thru hikers, stopping by the valley during there Pacific Crest trail hike. As usual the pictures and words cannot give any of this justice, so I just hope that if you haven't been here these make you want to go more.

Next mourning in the valley

2007-10-08T22:37:00.001-07:00

We camped in the valley and it was not exacty what I expected. There is a small city in the valley. People are everywhere. We went and got something to eat after setting up camp in the dark because we couldnt leave that awsome view during sunset. While waiting in line for pizza I realized that there were so many people from all over the world and that we were the minority in line speaking english. The camping wasnt exacly a "wilderness" (for you Dr. Buerger) experience with all the people and their hundreds of pound of gear.

When we woke up I was fairly discusted by all the people there and all there crap. I was then really discusted when suddenly people in the camp ground were rushing toward one corner of the campground towards a black bear. It did crack me up when the 2 women at the campsite beside us ran to jump into there SUV and locked the doors. One kid that looked like he might have been 10 just ran after the bear until the bear ran out of range. We then packed up our stuff and got into line to get a spot at Camp 4 which is a historic walk in campground known to host rock climbers and backpackers. The croud at Camp 4 was a little better to live with that the drive in campground that we stay in the first night.

Yosemite!

2007-10-08T22:31:00.000-07:00

I made it to Yosemite at some point in July. It was amazing Here are some pics on the road comeing into the valley. I cant describe what it was like in words. Every person should experience this place.

Sorry

2007-10-08T22:26:00.001-07:00

Wow, sorry I havent posted in such a long time. I will try to keep up with it down the stretch now that I am coming back in like 3 weeks... Here is some trips from way back. I am probably skipping stuff but I will try to correct and put stuff in order.

Happy Birthday Megan

2007-08-04T09:25:00.001-07:00

Hey today is Megan's birthday! Happy birthday! If you know this special girl tell her happy birthday, if you don't you should. I love you Megan. Sorry I cant be there. Hope you have a great day!!

Muir Woods

2007-08-03T23:10:00.000-07:00

This was such a cool place. There were tons of people here so dont go here looking for a wilderness experience, but this place was still great. These woods were preserved when William Kent purchased the land to keep it out of the hands of foresters who logged all old growth coast redwoods in the surrounding area. Going in there were signs that read, "Today is a quiet day in this great temple. Please help us by keeping voices down and cell phones off." I thought that this was great. I think it really helped with peoples attitudes and perception. It was great also because John Muir regarded wilderness as Gods greatest temples. There was no carving on any of the downed trees that I saw and everyone was very respectful for the most part. My camera once again could not capture the magic of this place. There are so many light angles that could be used here. Everyone must experience this place for themselves. Its kind of funny if you are a history of environmental management nerd that there is a Gifford Pinchot tree in Muir woods. Pinchot (after the land was preserved and probably after the tree was named) ended up being a rival of Muir during the Hetch Hetchy battle.

I made a large loop around the wood through some trails on the surrounding state park where I lost 99% of the people.

Point Reyes to Muir Beach

2007-08-03T23:01:00.001-07:00

I figured on the way back I would just hit highway 1 to Muir Woods. On the way I caught some amazing shoreline. The road was crazy curvy. Some of the turns if you didnt make the turn you would just fall 1000 feet into the pacific, it was crazy!!

Camping and next mourning

2007-08-03T22:52:00.000-07:00

The next mourning I got up and hiked back to my truck and walked past this really cool looking deciduous forest. I drove to the Northwest facing beach and checked the surf only to see that the wind swell had dropped down enough to where it was not even ridable at high tide. It was kinda a bummer but me being the nerd that I am went back to the visitor center and watch the video and caught a mountain lion program.

Point Reyes National Seashore

2007-08-03T22:03:00.000-07:00

I went to Point Reyes National Seashore to surf. I intended to leave the dorm at the ussual 4am to beat traffic and the wind. After hiking sugarloaf the night before and not getting back to the dorm until sometime after 10, and not getting in bed until after 1am I knew the hole 4am driving thing was not going to work out for me.

I got up around 8am or something and got to a beach at Point Reyes by about 2pm. The wind was up and it was one of those times when you cant figure out whether it is worth it or not to go out. The wind was kind of side/off shore with head high sets.

I opted to not go out because I knew that the wind was supposed to be down the next mourning, and it would be nice to wake up to put on a nice dry wet suit.

Above are pics of the siteseeing that I did that day. The cliff pics are from the actual Point of Point Reyes where the light house is. This is not like one of our Capes in North Carolina, the cliffs on the point drop off to some crazy depth. The employee housing is right above the lighthouse with amazing views like this. This has not been so amazing in the past for lighthouse keepers because of the seclusion and the constant fog has driven some to suicide. The red color on one of the rocks in the pic is a type of algea that can grow on the side of bare rock. I lives off the moisture of the fog. This is a very harsh environment and it is amazing to think that any plant life could survive here at all.

There was a huge fleet of fishing boats all coming in at the same time when I was there. I met a camera man while walking to the point that was filming for National Geographic. He was filming a segment on ocean reserves. I talked to him for sometime about Northern California and sharks. He was telling me crazy stories about filming 15 footers while diving in the area. This made me feel alot better about surfing in Northern Cali. I then hiked into my site which was only a nice 3 and half miles away.

Sugarloaf Hike

2007-07-23T00:00:00.000-07:00

Barret and I decided that we would hike Sugarloaf which is one of the larger peaks in close to the park head quarters of Lake Berryessa. Mike which is a permanent ranger here told us that the hike would take about an hour and a half. He said that he went up and ran out of day light after an hour and had to come back down. We decided to try it with about 2 and a half hours of daylight left...

As we are driving down Sugarloaf Drive a dog runs out in front of me barking and carrying on like he is trying to attack the truck. When we get out of the truck he is one of the nicest dog ever. We are then joined by another dog that is much older, and he likes us so much that as we are getting our day packs out of the truck he goes and gets a toy for us to play with him with. As we start to hike the first (younger dog) follows us. This dog acts like he is our dog!! He would run off and chase deer and other wildlife as we are hiking but never leaves our side for more than a couple minutes.

The trail that we are on appears to be a fire road that at some places is extremely steep and is very tough to get a grip climbing. The trail is not clearly marked and there are many turnoffs that we can take, so we just followed the trail that looked like it would take us to the peak. The trail that we are on keeps going past the peak so we decide to bushwhack instead of looking for an easier route. This bushwhacking involves very much poison oak which Barret and I are both allergic to. We manage to avoid making any direct contact with the poison oak, but we do get it all over our clothes. Through all of this bushwhacking the dog continues onward with us taking much tougher routes thought the bush. We bushwhack for a solid 30 minutes at least into the rocky clearing in which we do a little non technical rock climbing up, and the dog (which by this point we are calling Buddy) is again taking much tougher routes because of his size.

We finally get to the summit in about 2 and 1/2 hours and get an amazing sunset. Here are some pics of Buddy which makes me wonder if dogs enjoy scenic views. I think that someone should do a study because Buddy sure seemed to enjoy the sites.

We are sure that there is an easier route down the other side and follow where we think it is. It is not there so we have to bushwhack down again. We finally get down at which time it is dark. We then have to remember and use tracking skills (looking for our foot pints on turns). This takes a while but we finally make it back to the truck. Buddy does not want us to leave and keeps jumping on us so that we wont. It was really heartbreaking. Barret finally has to throw the dogs toy and we jump into the truck really fast and drive away with Buddy behind us barking all the way down his road.

catfishin pics

2007-07-22T23:53:00.000-07:00

Catfishin Berryessa

2007-07-22T21:28:00.000-07:00

Finally got a chance to get out one night and do some catfishin. The fishin wasnt too good but there was and awsome full moon and just a great night to be out there. I did catch one small cat and a Sacramento squawfish also known as a "pikeminnow" which is a scavenger that somehow got into the lake.

Climbing on East Side Road

2007-07-03T00:48:00.000-07:00

The eastern shore of Lake Berryessa is very undeveloped compared with the western side. Their are only ranches and California Fish and Game land. Quinn, Barrett, and I decided that we wanted to go up the tallest ridge in the area but once we got their we realized that it was a long distance away. Since we didnt get parked on East Side Road until after 7, we knew we were'nt going to make the large ridge. We followed a fence line most of the way up this "hill" that was just strait up with no switch backs. We got absolutely worked. On the way up we had a gorgious view of the lake. Their was also this tree that was growing around the fence it looked like a lava flow came out of the tree and hardened around the barbed wire. The tree is a Manzanita which has this crazy red orange bark. For some reason on this tree it was kind of layered with gray and red bark.

As soon as we reached the peak the sun went down followed by the moonrise in the east as soon as the sun disappeared. Both were spectacular. My cam could not capture the moonrise as well as I liked but it was great in person.

After snapping some shots and eating a little snack we headed down the same way we came up which was very difficult because of the steapness. This would have been humorus to watch as we had to contiuously switch directions to maintain control.

When we reached the bottom of the valley we followed a creek bed out and I heard something rattling beside me that didnt quite sound like a rattlesnake but it caught my attension. It was a California Kingsnake! These snakes are really awsome. They are black with white stripes to countershade with the shadows of dusk and dawn (their most active times of the day). These snakes feed on rodents like many other snakes but also like other snakes including rattlesnakes whose venom the kingsnake is immune to. I picked this snake up and I held it all the way back to the dorm (about 45 min away). He was kind of worked up at first but he mellowed out and ended up curling up in my lap. Our thought was that we would be able to use it in interpretive programs, but I just found out today that we will have to release the snake ASAP because of bureaucratic reason that make no sence. This is a huge bummer since most of the public does not get a chance to see and learn about these awsome animals.

More from Berryessa

2007-07-03T00:41:00.000-07:00

I went fishing a couple afternoons ago and the wind was blowing very hard. I ended up taking a nap in a cove out of the wind. It was awsome. When I woke up after about 30 minutes the wind just stopped. I did take a few photos of the area as the sun was going down.

Last of the Tallac photos

2007-07-03T00:26:00.000-07:00

Here are the rest of the photos from Tallac and Desolation that I did not get to post. Some of this area is now on fire. The fire started the week after we went. I guess we picked a good time to go...

Summit of Tallac

2007-06-25T22:09:00.000-07:00

This was such an amazing view that Barret and I just started laughing when we got near the summit. It was incredable. To be surrounded by such a view was awsome. I tried to get a good 360 pan with the cam but there is no way that I could describe it in pics or in words. Here is the best I can do...

Going up Tallac

2007-06-25T12:17:00.000-07:00

Here is some more pics of going up Mt. Tallac. All the water on the way up was crystal clear and freezing cold because it was fed by snow melts. The water on the lakes appeared blue because it was so clear that it reflected the blue of the ski. We also had snowball fights in 70 degree weather in the snow fields on the way up that was fun.

Desolation Wilderness

2007-06-22T11:56:00.000-07:00

We camped tuesday night and met a really out there lady that was camping next to us. She was strange to say the least. Anyway we went hiking the next mourning to the Desolation Wilderness. We hiked up the back side of Mt. Tallac which is 9735 ft at the summit and did not see a sign of civilization until we got to the summit. It was great. I have to go get ready for work but will tease you with this...

Lake Tahoe

2007-06-22T11:49:00.000-07:00

I went to Lake Tahoe on my last weekend (last tuesday and wednesday) with Barret which is another seasonal ranger here at Berryessa. This pic was taken at a recreation area right beside the lake.

Typical afternoons at Berryessa...

2007-06-22T11:44:00.000-07:00

When I get off work at a reasonable time I get to take the kayak out fishing. This is the typical bass that are all over the place and when I'm fishing I always see deer walking around. Its great.

Last of the surf trip

2007-06-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

This is a kinda neat pic of the redwoods from below, and the sunset going past San Francisco.

Redwood Hiking

2007-06-21T22:30:00.000-07:00

This is a few pics from a short hike that I took the next day after camp. I did not have. This is a small state park outside of Santa Cruz. I did not take many pics of hike for a really long time because of my severe poison oak driving me crazy!

2 weeks later I went to Big Baisin State park which is much bigger and did a ton of hiking but I did not have my memory card in my cam which is a big bummer because now I cant find my camera usb port. If I can figure a way I will surely post the pics that I did take. Enjoy these for now.

The area with the stream is called the Garden of Eden. It was pretty amazing.

Redwoods outside of Santa Cruz

2007-06-21T22:19:00.000-07:00

I stayed in the Redwoods in the Coastal Range outside of Santa Cruz for the night. This is a pic of the camp. The fire pits were the insides of washing machines and the redwood sticks that were on the ground did not make for good weiner roastin sticks so I had to build a rack. It worked really well... Cali definately does not have any red hotdogs, such a shame...

Steamer Lane...

2007-06-21T21:54:00.000-07:00

This is one of the most famous and best surf spots in California. There was a little bit of a Southern Hemi in the water but not enough to make it really big. A southern hemi is a swell that is coming from the southern hemisphere. Thats a long ways! (wow I just had an ADD moment because a deer just walked out in front of the shop I am sitting in typing this.)

My girlfriend in North Carolina had to give me directions to this spot over the phone (yeah Im a pretty lame east coaster). Thanks Megan : ) When I pulled up at steamers it looks like a pond its sooo glassy and nothing is moving between sets. The break is surounded by kelp helping with the glassyness. When the sets do come in it goes nuts and just keeps going and going...

Anyway when this wave is only this big (about sholder to head high) it breaks right at the cliff and there is a ton of people in the same spot. The cliff that I am standing on taking the pics is right on top of the surfers in the water. You can hear the surfers in the water talking is how close you are. There is a rail to hold the tourist back. There is also a rock sticking out past the break that is full of seals just hangin out and randomly making racket.

2 weeks later I surfed this spot when it was a little smaller than these pics. I felt clostraphobic the whole time I was in the water. I felt surounded by cliffs and by people. It was not as crowded as the day that I was taking pics and most people in the water with me had good attitudes. The vibe changes from hour to hour and by about the third hour I was in the water there were some bad attitudes coming out. I did get some really great rides though. On most of the sets you have to paddle straight for the cliffs to catch the wave before going right. Its crazy...

More santa cruz county...

2007-06-21T21:39:00.000-07:00

Here are some awsome views of the coast line in a pretty short stretch. You could spend a lifetime exploring this coastline. Oh and this public access sign that was on the coast was pretty gnarly... (if you cant read it because someone spraypainted it, it says, "Marine Hazards: Sharks, Cold Water, rip currents, undertow, sudden large waves, high winds, and bluff erosion). Yep welcome to northern california...

Santa Cruz County...

2007-06-21T21:17:00.000-07:00

OK tonight I am really going to attept to get caught up I really want to post what I did on my last weekend so sorry if I rush through this one...

I finally got to get to the coast with a surf board and attept to find waves. The buoy forcast looked for this area so I headed down here. I really didnt know what to look for I just spent about an hour online looking for breaks. These pics are from the first place I have ever surfed outside of the NC (pretty lame I know). This area is called Wadell Creek. These pics are taken from the cliff above which is where you park your car. I didnt take pics of a wave coming in because aparently in California you have to be careful of where you point a camera at the ocean. This was a left reef break that was about head high, and a couple feet overhead on the bigger sets.

This was nothing like surfing on the east coast. First of all it was early June the air temp was in the high 50s and so was the water temp. I first got in, in the mourning wering my 4/3 wetsuit booties and gloves. In June!! It was so weird walking on hard rock to the break. I was afraid I was going to ding my board if I duck dove too far. There was tons of kelp in the water and it was like nothing was moving until a set would come in. When the sets rolled in they just kind of crumbled over themselves and you could just keep going and the wave maintained its power.

There was definately plenty alive in the water. The sea otters would float on their backs past you, and the seals would swim fairly close to you which is a little scary because of what likes to feast on them... Tons of crazy looking different kinds of birds were in the water. When I was getting back into the water in the afternoon I even saw a glimpse of a Gray Whale going back under water after taking a breath! This thing was enormous!!

Getting to the beach...

2007-06-14T11:10:00.000-07:00

This pretty pic was taken at a pulloff that I wanted to check out for future surfing reference. I could not find my way down to the water on a trail. I can't write what happened on the way down because if would be better if certain females did not know... So if your name is not Mom, Megan, or Molly then just ask and I will tell what happened on the trail down the cliff.

Mavericks!

2007-06-14T10:47:00.000-07:00

This is THE big wave spot of California. The place pretty much only breaks in the winter because it needs the biggest of storms to send wave big enough. Its a 45 minute paddle to the break and if you wipe out you could get pushed into these huge rocks.

The old Blazer in the pic is in the movie "Riding Giants." It is Jeff Clarks Blazer who owns the shop that it is sitting in front of. Jeff Clark surfed this wave for 15 year alone before he could convince anyone it was surfable.

There is a cliff that overlooks the break that people stand on and take pics that I am standing on. Its a steep hill with loose dirt, I dont know how people get thousands of dollars worth of camera gear up that hill without loosing it.

Half Moon Bay

2007-06-14T10:28:00.000-07:00

After I dropped pops off at the airport I went down to Half Moon Bay which is about 20 miles south of San Francisco. I didnt bring a surfboard (cuz of dings from the trip over) but the surf was pretty much blown out anyway. This is my first looks of the Pacific Ocean (besides looking out at the golden gate bridge which was too foggy to really see). This is an amazing stretch of coastline with amazing scenery. The weather is like 20 degrees colder than inland because the water is soo cold.

San Francisco

2007-06-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

Me and pops went into the city on one of the afternoons I had off to look at the Golden Gate eat at Fishermans Warf and get lost driving in the city. This is a cool city with great eats and even better scenery...

Lake Berryessa

2007-06-11T11:50:00.000-07:00

We end up staying the night in Sacramento and driving to the lake the next mourning. The lake is amazing. The water is unbelievably clear and the bass fishing is great.

California...

2007-06-11T11:42:00.000-07:00

Yes we make it to California... Sorry I am so behind. Crossing into California is a dramatic change from dessert mountains with random trees to huge lush green pine trees. The Sierras are amazing... The biggest mountains of the trip. I wish I had more pics of going into these mountains but we were a little consumed with finding somewhere to stay for the night. Hopefully later I will be able to post many pics when I to the sierras hiking and whatnot.

Nevada fire station

2007-06-11T11:37:00.000-07:00

This is a pic from a fire station on the nevada utah border. These guys cover something like 15,000 square miles! Their closest backup is something like 2 hours away. My dad is a firefighter so thats why we randomly stop at firestations...

Nevada fire station

2007-06-11T11:34:00.000-07:00

More pics from the other cam. The fire station here was crazy they covered something like 15,000 square miles and were like 2 hours from the closest backup... My dad is a firefighter so that is why we are randomly stopping at fire stations

More pics from Utah...

2007-06-11T11:24:00.000-07:00

Pics from the other cam

Oops back to Wyoming

2007-06-11T11:19:00.000-07:00

I just pulled the pics off the other camera so I am going to go back a few states... Here are some more cool shots of this really cool state... Also a really cool sunset.

More Nevada

2007-06-05T17:20:00.001-07:00

On the interstate there is a kind of funny sign that reads something like, "no hitch-hiking next 50 miles. Prison ahead" When we pass this prison it is surounded by dessert on everyside except on one side there is a huge mountain cliff that no one could climb in a resonable amount of time. Prison guards would have tons of time to pick off escapees.

Nevada

2007-06-05T17:14:00.000-07:00

Nevada was just another gorgious state. Much of the state was a desert with very large, tall, spread out mountains. There were very long stretches of road that there was no gas or anything so if you ever go through this state you might want to gas up when you can.

Utah border troubles...(Dad may not want mom to read)

2007-06-05T16:58:00.001-07:00

Sorry if this gets you in trouble dad but it is too good a story.

So after passing through Salt Lake City the mountains turn to desert and the Salt Flats. You can see for miles and miles over what looks like snow, and in the distance are huge mountains. Well dad was driving the entire state of Utah and almost the entire time from about 20 mile out of Salt Lake City to the Nevada line at an estimated average speed of 90 mph.

Coming up on the Nevada border a Highway patrol is sitting in the median. (No telling how fast dad is going, because of course he hits the brakes after he passes the HWP). The HWP pulls out behind us and my dad makes the comment "maybe he is just going to get lunch."

It takes him about 5 minutes to catch up to us and of course we are pulled. Woops... The HWP ask "the reason for speed today" and dad responds, "well we dont have cruise control and I just wasnt paying attension sir. Go easy on me I am a firefighter in North Carolina."

The HWP comes back after 10 minutes in his patrol car and hands my dads licence back and says "I am just going to give you a warning today but you guys really need to slow down." After a temptation to ask the cop for the speed that he clocked us at we were on our way again.

Utah

2007-05-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

We drive the next day until about 10:30 to the border of wyoming (we are now on I80) and get a nights rest at a hotel. The next day we start into Utah and the scene changes from open ranges and spread out moutains to huge snow capped peaks and twisting roads. The interstate winds its way through sleep slopes and jaged cliffs. These are the largest mountains that we have seeen yet and we figure out that we are out of film and batteries so we cant take any pics until we stop at a store in Salt Lake City.

This mountain pic I took going into the city. The pic of my truck i took coming out of the city. This pic is looking out over the salt lake. I'm guessing that this white all over the ground is salt buildup from the lake.

Sorry there is much more from Utah that I wish I could have gotten but I could'nt.

2007-05-28T19:59:00.001-07:00

These are more pics of wyoming. Just an amazing state that pics couldnt come close to describing.

2007-05-27T16:08:00.000-07:00

This is into Wyoming going about to go through the rockies. This was an amazing state. Huge ranches and amazing mountains. This is one of my fav states.

2007-05-27T16:05:00.001-07:00

This was pretty much kansas and Colorado until we got to denver, flat farmland that you could see forever it seemed like.

2007-05-27T16:03:00.000-07:00

This is a Golden Eagle. He was huge!

2007-05-27T16:01:00.000-07:00

Cant remember which this is

2007-05-27T16:00:00.001-07:00

this is the barn. cool lookin one withh bad posture.

2007-05-27T15:54:00.000-07:00

This nature center had a cool preditory bird exihibit. Here is some different types of owls. The first is a barn owl.

Kansas fish hatchury and nature center

2007-05-27T15:50:00.000-07:00

In Kansas we made contact with my uncle who let us stay the afternoon and night at his house but we did have a few hours to kill so we stopped at a fishery and nature center to look around and it ended up being really cool and worth the 15 miles off the highway.

2007-05-27T15:42:00.000-07:00

We left at about 4:30 from Greensboro and drove strait until about the middle of Kansas! This was quite the haul. This pic was taken in Mizzory Monday mourning and I was starting to get dizzy at this point. I call it mizzory bc of is was up and down the same looking hill over and over the entire state. This pic is pretty much all we saw past the miss... nothing.

2007-05-27T06:13:00.000-07:00

Well I did make it to california the thursday before last. I have not had a chance to post because I have just gotten my username at work to get on the internet. The trip was amazing. I think that I can only post one pic per post so it might take a while for me to get all the decent pics up. This is what the truck looked like all loaded down.. plus that trailer hitch had a rack on it. We had a bed in the back with stuff packed all around it. This really helped out to get all stretched out after driving...

Leaving tomorrow

2007-05-12T21:01:00.000-07:00

Graduation was fun but was too long and boring. Cant believe I am no longer a student.
I will be heading out tommorow. My truck is packed full of my things and I still have to go through it for things I am taking. I have to leave at 11 so this is going to be interesting. I dont think I will be posting everyday but I will try to put lots of pic on here.

T minus 2 days before the epicness

2007-05-11T21:28:00.000-07:00

My truck is packed... but not quite with the right things. I'm almost ready to head to California but first I have to graduate. I just moved out of my apartment so I still have to separate what I am taking to cali and what I am not cuz there is not much room. Speaking of not much room I am leaving to drive across the country in 2 days in a single cab truck... Hmm sounds like a disaster or it could be awesome, either way it is gonna be epic.