Hiking

We’ve been hiking the local foothills the past couple of months and I thought I’d put up a couple pictures.

The little bucky was grazing at Calero and didn’t pay us any attention as we approached. I must have snapped 20 pictures of him, each time getting closer and closer. I was 25 feet away and he didn’t seem to care we were right there in front of him, in fact I think he posed on purposed.


The vineyard pic if the one I mentioned the other day, it’s the one that needs to be trained onto the wires this year. On the other side of the foothills in the background is Calero…not directly behind, but within a couple of miles.


Last weekend we hiked the Zinfandel Trail off Montebello Road. I remember this trail from a few years ago and thought it was a hard hike back then…that was before Paul started taking me on 5 mile treks through the back hills. The Zin trail was kind of a let down since it was so easy and it was heavily traveled the day we went.

Yesterday after Paul got home from work we headed over to Calero and got on the trail at 5:40. Nobody around. It was perfectly quiet. Lots of little moles (or mice? or gophers?) running around in the brush, wild turkeys and their babies, a lizard, a snake skin, a doe and her fawn, and quail. We stopped a couple of times just to enjoy the quiet. This was the first time in the park we got off the main trail and cut over on Vallecito and looped around that way. There were weeds taller than Paul and grasses taller than me!

I found a pyrite cube just off the side of the trail and picked it up – I’m not entirely sure it’s native to our geology so I’m continuing to ask around and look it up. There is plenty of quartz at this park and the area is known to be rich in other minerals so I’m not entirely surprised by the find.


For Neil; I’m still breaking in the sturdy hiking boots I’ve complained about in the past and they are working out better since the shoe guy sold me some leather softener. I need to do another application before they’re good for anything longer than a couple of miles. Maybe I’ll wear them to dinner in NY 😉