Well hey there fog.

Late August. Before sunrise. Supposed to be looking for Willow Flycatchers. Visibility? Not so much.

Weekend Reflections Black and White

Ruby Mountains (Day 2)

(this golden-mantled ground squirrel's tongue makes it look like he's wearing lipstick!)

21 August (Day 2)

After getting stuff together, meandered up to Lake Peak, where the elusive Himalayan Snowcock hangs out (that's for the bird nerds). No luck with the HISN but I did hear chukars nearby. The hike was really pretty (younger bristlecones scattered around) and the lake was a looker. There were handfuls of golden-mantled ground squirrels and chipmunks around - some babies too. Also heard pikas! (pictures of them to come).

(baby golden-mantled ground squirrel below)

I talked to some locals camping near the lake and found out no permit was necessary...good to know. There were some pretty serious looking storm clouds rolling in on the hike back down. Had some lunch once we got to the car and had to wait out the rain for a couple hours. I eventually got bored waiting and saw some guy at the trailhead with a big pack on so I decided to get some info (weather and trail stuff). He proved to be quite helpful.

It was still raining a little bit and thunderheads were looming but I made the executive decision to just go for it. It was already about 4 30 pm, so we kinda needed to get going. It wasn't a very long hike up to where we were headed but there was a good 2.5 miles straight uphill (the lake we were going to was around 9700 feet I think). Lots of good thunder and a little bit of lightening that I chose to just ignore. My raingear definitely made itself useful!

(Little Elephant's Heads above, storm clouds making their way towards us below)

The rain had died down by the time we got to the lake, which is good cause I really don't much care for setting up camp in the rain. I heard pikas nearby and went to investigate white I filtered water....PIKAS! I saw 4 and heard a few more. Excellent. Scenic Sunday

Made some dinner and tea and by the time it started getting dark, the rain started up again and along with it came some pretty gnarly wind. After a couple hours though, the skies cleared up nicely and the night sky put on a good show. I forget if it was a full moon, but it was close either way. I got out of the tent in the middle of the night and wandered around a little bit in the moonlight, which was crazy bright - good stuff!

To the Rubies (Day 1)

Well then. I did attempt to keep a journal of some sorts on the most recent road trip. So bear with me, I'll be posting 30ish days of wordy stuff. Don't worry, it's nothing touching to the soul or wisdom soaked insight, just a play by play of cool stuff I saw and did. And some photos. So to the point...

20 August (Day 1)

Got out of Truckee in the early afternoon (ohhh yeah, good to be out of that field house!) and eventually made it to Elko, NV after various must-dos in the grotesque Biggest Little City in the World (Reno). Past Elko, we started driving up to the Ruby Mountains but realized Vladmir (my civic) might not make it up to the mountain without a bit more gas, so we had to alleviate that possible issue.

Got up into the Rubies. It was around midnight with an almost full moon. I had to stop driving a few times to admire the view. Holy crap! Those rock walls lit up by the moon and stars were pretty badass. Gnarly moonlit rock faces. If it looked this pretty in the middle of the night, my guess was that it was going to be awesome during the day (it was).

The campground was full. I assumed there would be off the grid places to go. Wrong though, canyon on one time, rock walls on the other. Got to the end of the road and had no place to set up the tents. Huh. Wasn't sure if permits were needed so long story short, ended up sleeping in the car. Not an ideal situation, but we did manage to sleep. I felt pretty good in the morning surprisingly.

Big Sky

(near the Wind River range, Wyoming)

wordless skywatch

A Little Bit of Color

Zac and I flew up to Philadelphia this weekend for a friend's wedding and to see his grandparents. Really quick trip but we had a great time. Spent some time at Longwood Gardens with the grandparents...sooo many great flowers! Haven't been to a botanical garden in a while and this place was pretty outstanding. The lilies were probably my favorite, if you can't tell from the photos...My World Watery Wednesday

These Gods Part II

Well hot diggity, I didn't realize how out of control behind I was on this blog thing. I've still got lots of pictures from the Truckee field season and quite a few from the White Mountains. Huh. So here's another Bristlecone fix (there will be more). I was happy to see some again in Northern Nevada about a month ago. They seemed to be significantly younger than a lot in the Whites but I was still mesmerized by them as usual. (These pictures are all from the White Mts). Outdoor Wednesday

(one of the many marmots hanging around)

Squirrel Friends

(Norm the Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel above; Western Gray Squirrel below)

Backyard squirrel friends from Truckee...The Douglas's and the Gray Squirrel didn't make regular appearances, so I was glad they finally started showing up late in the game. The California Ground Squirrel and a cohort would swing by pretty often. And Norm? Well, he staked out his ground early on and stayed around more or less all day long.

(California Ground Squirrel above; Douglas's Squirrel below)

The Calm

Just about sunrise on Lake Tahoe. Can't argue that the actual Lake Tahoe is a pretty smooth looking lake, but sunrise is the way to go. Quiet, no people, no boats. Yes, please. I shot this at ISO 1,000. I think this is the only photo of the lake I took this season... Skywatch

Yosemite for a minute

Took a quick trip to Yosemite in mid-August. Yosemite is cool, but definitely not my favorite park. Spent some more time around Mono again also. Zac and I were there in June and the light and sky were much better so I'm not putting any Mono photos up this time around.

Did a pretty nice hike in the park up North Dome...still way too many people for my liking even though it was an 'unpopular' trail. I dunno, in my opinion, parts of Desolation Wilderness in the Sierra are just as great, if not greater, than Yosemite. Stayed far away from the Valley, with good reason. We had excellent weather, little cold at night but not too bad. No bears this time around, I always see bears at Yosemite. What's that about? (but that's okay, because I have seen 13 bears in 3 months...)

I'll put another post up of this Golden-manteld ground Squirrel. Pretty much too cute for his own good. I have a great one of him yawning, talking crazy talk. Good stuff. (Giant Sequoias above, their beautiful cones below) Scenic Sunday

My Good Friend(s)

I haven't had a chance to look at my photos since early August, so there were some pleasant surprises in there. I had no computer and just put all my RAW files on the hard drive, unable to convert them. Now I can finally check 'em out. Nice.

These are from the Truckee backyard. So, the White-headed and the Nuthatch have made appearances in the blog before. But here's the cool thing- the White-headed and I did some serious bonding since then. Any time I went outside, she'd fly in (she may have been stalking me) and check me out.

One day I walked out there and she FREAKING LANDED ON MY ARM!!! I mean, holy hell. That's just cool. Awesome. Badass. Yes, those adjectives work. It was crazy! My friend Michaela was able to snag a quick photo (for proof!) Nature Notes

The White-headed actually did this two other times when I was out there alone. So incredibly neat. She sat in my hand for about 4-5 minutes one day, inches from my face. We just stared at each other. Obviously I cried because that was just outta control cool. I mean, how often does that happen, really? I think I love her.

In the Pure Light of Morning

...this is what I see. A little mountain lake in the Ruby Mountains, Northern Nevada.

Watery Wednesday Weekend Reflections