Bikin' n' Campin'

Brrrr...never thought I'd end up camping in January...but it's possible in California. While WA is burried in 2 feet of snow, we're campin'. Mind you it's cold...but still it's camping :) God has brought some great outdoorsy (is that a word) people into our lives...and as an added bonus they only live a block away! Tristan and Jessica Stone are alway's up for an outdoor adventure and this one was a 9 mile mountain biking trail close to Mt. San Jacinto. Tristan is in Kyle's dental class and Jessica teaches PE at Loma Linda Elementary their only child is their dog Oreo who's 11 months old...him and Chaco are wrestling, playing, and mt biking buddies! This weekend found us setting up camp Friday night, trying to keep the dogs happy tied to trees, cuddling up close to the fire, and trying to figure out how to serve the potatoe soup with only teaspoons! Why do you always forget something camping...I've got to make a list!

Saturday morning dawned sunny and cold, we took off on our bike with snacks for the morning ride. The single track trail starts out with a lot of uphill and some technical rocky pathes. Then you hit one flat field area, a couple more killer uphills and then it's down hill bolder dodgin' fun from there on out! Riding with two dogs can set up for some interesting times...such as if you get to close to Chaco you'll get a mouth full of sand from his little claws. Oreo will just plain cut you off and send you flying...but they both are learning and run most of the 9 miles with the boys! At the end of the trip, Kyle was carrying Chaco in one arm and steering his bike with the other after we hit the pavement...his little paws just wouldn't go anymore. But he recovers quickly and is soon chewing on either your biking shoes, Oreo, or any available stick!

Whiteout on Mt. San Jacinto

Presidents day dawned raining and foggy but our enthusiasm wasn't dampened. It just meant more snow on the peaks! Little did we know it meant snow and wind. Loaded up with our snowshoes and base layers we drove to Palm Springs...how backwards does that sound? Since there's probably never been snow in Palm Springs before :) Fortunately within 10 minutes we were in a complete whiteout surrounded by whipping snow...the tram ride straight up the jagged mountain peaks fixed our "no where to snowshoe in Cali problem". We exited the lodge heads down and noses buried in our coats. The snow pelted our faces stinging you noes causing you to burrow in deeper and almost run into the person in front of you. They said after we got down into the valley the wind would be better and then we could head off into the woods and begin our snowshoe exploration! (The Peak of Mt. San Jacinto is at 10,800 feet) But you must remember we just left Palm Springs and it's still very apparent as we are surrounded by Hispanics and Caucasians wearing only jeans, sweatshirts, rain boots, cotton gloves and ponchos...it becomes obvious that most of them have never been in snow before. We checked in at the Ranger Station and received a permit for snowshoeing into the back country. The wind had slowed a bit, but the snow was still falling they were expecting a good foot of snow that day. We hiked under the snow laden trees following the rapidly fading tracks of those who have gone before us...we weren't going to be able to stay out long until our tracks were covered as well so we found a big bolder burrowed out the snow under the cliff hanging edge and settled in for a quick lunch of burgers and sun chips mixed with snow. Have you ever tried eating sun chips with Mittened Gloves...don't! Just crush and pour! After only a couple hours of hiking our tracks were almost completely gone but enough was left to get us back to the station from there we stayed nearby but found boulders to jump off of into the snow. Maybe we'll end up on Warren Miller next year :)