Zac and I finally got a backpacking trip in - last time we backpacked was in Costa Rica, more than 6 months ago. Thats pathetic! Yikes! Anyway, it was a great hike with spectacular views. We planned on a 21 mile hike for Saturday and Sunday, but that magically turned into a 29 mile hike, which is fine by me, we're just mildly (understatement) sore from the drastic up and downhills. 14.5 miles each day. We hiked in the King Range (about a 2.5 hour drive south of here, only because of unmaintained curvy roads) and the Loast Coast (largest undeveloped stretch of coast, beautiful!!).
We went up King Peak, which is only a little over 4,000 feet, but that's a good gain from sea level. Lots of manzanita, madrone, and old growth douglas firs. There was a lot of new growth, not sure when the fire hit, but it was a big one. After King Peak, there were 5 miles of crazy steep knee jarring switchbacks. Hot damn! (I prefer uphill, because i'm a beast). Sadly, we saw no bears, which is surprising because there was an obnoxious amount of fresh scat all over the trail and various bear warnings. We saw lots of mule deer, including one giant buck who starred us down, tons of grouse, quail, turkey, a little skunk, lots of rabbits. There was a sea otter toilet near our tent spot, so we kept an eye out but didn't see any otters make a toilet run while we were there. Ah! I almost forgot to mention that we saw 9 snakes! Three of them were rattlesnakes - two western diamondbacks and one western rattlesnake. Two were pretty small, but one of fhe diamondbacks was a hefty size. And he and the western rattlesnake were not ready to leave their territory. Very cool! We always get excited about snakes. The other ones we saw were two ground snakes and four California garter snakes (we think).
Made it down the switchbacks - the sound of the river was sweet relief! It was a few more miles to the ocean and the view of the King Peak was pretty awesome once we got there. There were a couple little makeshift shelters on the beach, made up of a bunch of driftwood, so we set up camp there. It was such a cool tent site! We thought about just staying there a week or so..but, we only had food for a few days, so that wouldn't have worked too well. The spot was gorgeous. We cooked up some mighty tasty dinner of split pea soup, played yahtzee and went to bed with the waves crashing 50 yards away. Very nice. That's the campsite below - Zac's inhaling the rest of the soup. Yum, yum yum!
We woke before the sun made it over the mountains, which made for a rather scenic foggy morning. I made some strong coffee coffee coffee and we ate breakfast by the ocean. Such an awesome spot, I love it out there!
We packed up and set out for the day. It should have been 3.5 miles on the beach, then we were supposed to hit the trailhead and start heading back up inland. Very lovely hike, fantastic coastline, rocky beaches, kickass driftwood. The stretch we hiked was unpassable at high tide. But even at low tide, you had to run from the waves at times (kinda worrisome at times). So, there was a bit of jogging on big wet rocks with a heavy pack. Exhibit A:
We stumbled on a little sea lion pup. Ah! Such a cutie! I think he might have been part dog-cat, I'm not sure, but the little guy was rolling all around in the sun. Adorable.
We reached Buck Creek (what we thought was Buck Creek), but there was no sign, so we continued onward, very confused, since we uh, definitely had gone 3.5 miles. Eventually we did see a trailhead and realized we had ended up hiking an extra 6.8 miles (once we turned around). Huh, interesting. Eh, what can you do?
We booked it pretty quickly back to where we were supposed to be. Ate some food and then started back up into the peaks. The trail went uphill really fast, no kidding around. Within minutes we were in thick doug fir forests with the ocean far below us. The trail was continuously uphill for miles. Like I said, I'd take uphill over downhill :) There's an amusing picture of Zac coming up the trail, but I think he'd rather that be left alone. It was crazy how fast we climbed up and how far away the shore looked after such a short time. Again, sweet views!
We got back to the car around 6 30 and in a short period of time, consumed our cache of ginger-o's we had left in the car. It was an awesome hike and the weather was ideal. We're planning one for the Trinity Alps in a few weeks, can't wait!
Last weekend we went on a pelagic trip into the deep blue Pacific. It was a good trip (and no barfing!) but it got pretty crazy cold and rainy after a few hours (we were out 7 am to 4 pm). It was a pretty tiny boat and I'm quite happy that I don't get motion sickness, or at least sea sick. That could get ugly. I had never been before, but had much fun despite the dramamine making me really rather sleepy. I did lose feeling in my fingers at some point because of the cold but it was all worth it because there were hundreds of dolphins!! (and many snazzy birds as well). Good stuff all around. Check out the dolphin videos - they followed the boat for a bit more than an hour, SOoooo cool! They were mainly Pacific white sided dolphins with some northern right whale dolphins also. Loved 'em.
We also saw 4 humpback whales, which...I was kinda going nuts about because I had never seem them before. We didn't get too close but the views were decent. I definitely approved :)Lots of seals, harbor porpoises, and sea lions also and another river otter family on the way back in playing on the coast. Ohh and also a shark fin. Let's say it was a great white. I mean, we can't be sure,but let's say it was. Hundreds of gnarly looking jellyfish also, once we got closer to the shore. The whole scenario with 10 foot swells and rain and wind and stuff didn't make for good pictures, sadly enough. But the videos were much better for this kinda thing anyway, yes?
Here's the list of bird nerd stuff : Northern Pintail Surf Scoter White-winged Scoter Common Loon Black-footed Albatross Northern Fulmar Pink-footed Shearwater Flesh-footed Shearwater Buller's Shearwater Sooty Shearwater Sooty/Short- tailed Shearwater Brown Pelican Brandt's Cormorant Double-crested Cormorant Pelagic Cormorant Peregrine Falcon Whimbrel Black Turnstone Red-necked Phalarope Red Phalarope Sabine's Gul Bonaparte's Gull Heermann's Gull Ring-billed Gull Western Gull California Gull Glaucous-winged Gull Caspian Tern Common Tern Arctic Tern South Polar Skua Pomarine Jaeger Parasitic Jaeger Long-tailed Jaeger Common Murre Marbled Murrelet Cassin's Auklet Rhinoceros Auklet
We enjoy a good little paddle. And lucky for us, there's water everywhere (Humboldt Bay is half a mile from our place!). That's the marina above (obviously). It's a prety little spot with lots of sea lions and seals, sometimes otters. Everyone loves marine mammals! This sea lion was pretty content on one of the docks, sleeping pretty hard. That's part of the Eureka waterfront below. The freaks tend to stay away from the downown area, which is a good thing because it's a pretty cool spot. All these pictures are from Humboldt Bay.
Zac sees birds!
These little otter friends were at the Arcata Marsh. There were two families who we watched for about an hour - playing and snarfing a bunch of feeshes. Otters are great! One of the babies couldn't quite walk very well yet and was dragging his back legs through the mudflats. His family came back to wait for him, awww!
So guess what? Wait, I think you all know by now, but...Zac and I tied the knot 3 weeks ago. Niiiiice! It was, okay, maybe i'm biased, but, it was the best wedding! Everything about it was just right and I couldn't have asked for anything else. Thanks soooooooo much to my mom, Andrea and Susan who did all the dirty work while I was in Texas.
We made it as eco-friendly as we could and all the food was vegan fare, and just so damn tasty! (Thanks to Menu Makers Catering and Cuppy Cakes). Our photographer (Kiki Morton) is my new favorite person and extremely talented. The flowers were beautiful, the music (Galen Kipar and Yuri Mamchur) was fantastic, and it was SO great to see so many friends and family. It was perfect, yes :) We got hitched in downtown Franklin and the reception was in my backyard. I'm very attached to that backyard so it meant a lot to me. The weather was lovely and everyone could handle the heat.
Check out Kiki's blog: http://kikimorton.wordpress.com/ (Scroll down to "Green Wedding") for some pictures and detes of the wedding. She's great!
And check out the delish treats from the caterer's blog: http://www.menumakercatering.blogspot.com/ (scroll down to Jill and Zac wedding)
Here's a few photos from the big day. By the way, I designed the my dress and it's organic cotton, and the bridesmaid dresses are Patagonia (ohh la la!). Yes sir!
Parents -
The wedding party (minus Ellie and Matthew) -
The Wussow family -
Lots of Lomans -
St Philips -
My shoes! (which are actually running sandals with vibram soles..that's right!) -
Zac and I tried to dance for a minute -
We had a bridal luncheon thang on Thursday and me and mom (mom mainly) cooked a bunch of yummy stuff and had a swell little get together. Ann (seesta) planned a happy fun time on Thursday - horseback riding on the Natchez Trace (so pretty out there!), which was tons of fun and I think i needed a little horse therapy to tone down pre-wedding stress. Good work, Ann!! I loved it! And then we had, hands down, the best veggie sushi meal I've experienced to date - and that's saying a lot having eaten lots of veg sushi in my time. Again, well done, seesta! Fun with horses and tasty veggie sushi - couldn't ask for more!
Zac and I finally got a backpacking trip in - last time we backpacked was in Costa Rica, more than 6 months ago. Thats pathetic! Yikes! Anyway, it was a great hike with spectacular views. We planned on a 21 mile hike for Saturday and Sunday, but that magically turned into a 29 mile hike, which is fine by me, we're just mildly (understatement) sore from the drastic up and downhills. 14.5 miles each day. We hiked in the King Range (about a 2.5 hour drive south of here, only because of unmaintained curvy roads) and the Loast Coast (largest undeveloped stretch of coast, beautiful!!). 
We went up King Peak, which is only a little over 4,000 feet, but that's a good gain from sea level. Lots of manzanita, madrone, and old growth douglas firs. There was a lot of new growth, not sure when the fire hit, but it was a big one. After King Peak, there were 5 miles of crazy steep knee jarring switchbacks. Hot damn! (I prefer uphill, because i'm a beast). 
Sadly, we saw no bears, which is surprising because there was an obnoxious amount of fresh scat all over the trail and various bear warnings. We saw lots of mule deer, including one giant buck who starred us down, tons of grouse, quail, turkey, a little skunk, lots of rabbits. There was a sea otter toilet near our tent spot, so we kept an eye out but didn't see any otters make a toilet run while we were there. Ah! I almost forgot to mention that we saw 9 snakes! Three of them were rattlesnakes - two western diamondbacks and one western rattlesnake. Two were pretty small, but one of fhe diamondbacks was a hefty size. And he and the western rattlesnake were not ready to leave their territory. Very cool! We always get excited about snakes. The other ones we saw were two ground snakes and four California garter snakes (we think). 
Made it down the switchbacks - the sound of the river was sweet relief! It was a few more miles to the ocean and the view of the King Peak was pretty awesome once we got there. There were a couple little makeshift shelters on the beach, made up of a bunch of driftwood, so we set up camp there. It was such a cool tent site! We thought about just staying there a week or so..but, we only had food for a few days, so that wouldn't have worked too well. The spot was gorgeous. We cooked up some mighty tasty dinner of split pea soup, played yahtzee and went to bed with the waves crashing 50 yards away. Very nice. That's the campsite below - Zac's inhaling the rest of the soup. Yum, yum yum!
We woke before the sun made it over the mountains, which made for a rather scenic foggy morning. I made some strong coffee coffee coffee and we ate breakfast by the ocean. Such an awesome spot, I love it out there!
We packed up and set out for the day. It should have been 3.5 miles on the beach, then we were supposed to hit the trailhead and start heading back up inland. Very lovely hike, fantastic coastline, rocky beaches, kickass driftwood. The stretch we hiked was unpassable at high tide. But even at low tide, you had to run from the waves at times (kinda worrisome at times). So, there was a bit of jogging on big wet rocks with a heavy pack. Exhibit A:
We stumbled on a little sea lion pup. Ah! Such a cutie! I think he might have been part dog-cat, I'm not sure, but the little guy was rolling all around in the sun. Adorable.
We reached Buck Creek (what we thought was Buck Creek), but there was no sign, so we continued onward, very confused, since we uh, definitely had gone 3.5 miles. Eventually we did see a trailhead and realized we had ended up hiking an extra 6.8 miles (once we turned around). Huh, interesting. Eh, what can you do?
We booked it pretty quickly back to where we were supposed to be. Ate some food and then started back up into the peaks. The trail went uphill really fast, no kidding around. Within minutes we were in thick doug fir forests with the ocean far below us. The trail was continuously uphill for miles. Like I said, I'd take uphill over downhill :) There's an amusing picture of Zac coming up the trail, but I think he'd rather that be left alone. It was crazy how fast we climbed up and how far away the shore looked after such a short time. Again, sweet views!
We got back to the car around 6 30 and in a short period of time, consumed our cache of ginger-o's we had left in the car. It was an awesome hike and the weather was ideal. We're planning one for the Trinity Alps in a few weeks, can't wait!
