Hike-oo
This weekend we hiked.
Many animals we saw.
giardia fear.
This past weekend I went hiking for the first time. I’m really glad I liked it, especially after dropping a couple bones at REI. In fact, I’m already planning a few more trips to the great outdoors: Sequoia, Joshua tree, and possible Catalina Kayaking.
The trip started a little later than we wanted, but that was probably for the best as we missed out on the hottest time of day for our 7.5 mile hike into the valley. I was told that Los Padres was a National Forest. Apparently that’s synonymous with National Desert. Over the next days we saw a plethora of animals and plants, fox, frogs, bugs, man eating flowers- everything except for other people, basically. The scariest thing we saw, and I suppose that depends on what you consider scary, was the leg of a deer we found while lost.
Oh yeah, we got lost. I was considering who I would eat first (it was Steph) when we happened upon the leg of a deer, obviously ripped off by some carnivorous creature. It did comfort me slightly to know whatever it was was probably no longer hungry.
We did finally find our way out, and we made it up the ginormous mountain and back to the car in pretty good time. Another 7.5 miles in about 3 hours.
The most fun, however, was definitely the bouldering we did down the river. Not only because of the great waterfalls, but because it made me feel like I was five again. As a kid, I had this giant rock in my backyard that I would leap off of and grab onto the birch trees in my gravel pit. That rock had a lot of stories. It’s where my parents found out that my sister was dating our neighbor (and her eventual husband). It’s where my sister burned her arms on a Roman Candle, and it’s where I Played ‘fort’ with my childhood best friends.
Back to the bouldering, I seriously cannot wait to do it again. That’s the motive behind going to Joshua Tree- the bouldering there is supposed to be phenomenal.
The Sequoia is purely because I want to see the redwoods. Maybe cut one down or something and make the biggest bon fire of all time. Or maybe just take a picture. Or two.
“The richness I achieve comes from Nature, the source of my inspiration.”