A photo, A thought............: hiking

Showing posts with label hiking. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Observation: Cairns, the rock markings on hiking trails......

A vertical pile of rocks stacked to create a landmark or signal post is called a cairn.....

Sighting the cairns implies that someone visited the area before you.....

Some of my spottings.........

On the rocky shore of Point Loma.........we cracked joke for a long time that one of the two cairns look like the gull, who might have built it.........

On the granite terrain of Olmsted Point, Yosemite..........

Husband with one of the many, marking the area..........

Many of them along the bank of Virgin river, near the Narrows, Zion.............

Like a temple city...........

I made this cairn on the shore of Grant lake, Mono County, CA

In Mission trails regional park............

Near Henshaw lake, Mount Palomar.........

On Nisqually river, Mount Rainier National Park......

Monday, June 29, 2015

Place: Weekend hike to Lake Miramar......

This weekend we visited Lake Miramar.......about 15 miles from home...
It has a dam and recreation opportunities......
As soon as we reached there, the overcast sky broke into drizzles...a much welcome relief in parched, fire-prone San Diego...
Trapped inside the car, I took this picture...rain drops on windshield, rarely we get to see..

As it stopped, we walked down to the lake shore...the tree branches were swaying..the waves were turbulent..

Nice wooden steps led to the shores...we saw a couple of turtles bobbing up and down..and some water fowls..

As we started hiking the 5 mile loop trail encircling the lake, saw this group...especially my spouse was elated to see eight cheerful canines...

There are fishing groups, also kayakers..

Chaparral around the lake had come alive with colored blooms..monkey flower, mustard, deerweed and many more I don't recognize..

Saw some interesting stuffs...like, these pink clumps on reeds? Do you know what they are? Well, these are egg mass of apple snails inhabiting the lake...

And these spiked spheroids are turban galls..

These are another kind of galls...

All these leaf and stem galls are caused by aphids, to protect and provide food for their larvae..

As the pictures reflect, it was an refreshing and informative nature walk...

Don't forget to explore your surroundings...they have the unappreciated ability to de-stress and invigorate body, heart, soul..

Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Passion: Hiking the South California trails...

My hiking pictures.....don't know from where I picked up this habit of exploring the wilderness, but this passion enriched my life in more than one ways...it helped me cruise through the bumpy career path in foreign soil, eased my health problems and filled with enough inspiration and information to churn out series of articles.....a journey down the memory lane..

Much of South California is covered in chaparral...and its happens to be the smallest biome of the world...I feel happy to have savored most of its elements...the spring mustard blooms, the summer meadows, the lone scrub oaks, the yellow riparian willows, California peppers, sumac, lemonade berry, yucca blossoms, giant coast live oaks...

Recently, we completed our 25th trail...looking forward to many more...

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Place: Rambling in Los Pensaquitos canyon preserve........

Today, we went hiking to Los Pensaquitos canyon preserve, a fairly large lush patch situated in the heart of bustling San Diego city....

Abundant live coast oaks on either side of the paths had created magical green foliage tunnels..

And the dirt trails were inviting to explore.....

The recent showers had breathed new life into the flora...

The cacti were getting ready to unfurl their buds..

The green grass would have been any herbivore's dream...

Wild vines were laden with pretty blossoms...

Mistletoes were copious, characteristic of most South California chaparral woodlands..and this time of the year, they were loaded with pearl-like berries...

We came across quite a few domestic animals...

The horses....

and the canines, with their humans...

Spotted many birds...

Phoebe on the sycamore........

Acorn woodpeckers guarding their pantry....

Majestic red-tailed hawk...

Of course, we saw red-shouldered hawk, hummingbird, dove, bushtit and gold finch as well...

The houses atop the green hills were palatial...the thought of sipping morning and evening tea on the balcony, overlooking the verdant canyon excited me....I hoped to own one in such serene setting, someday soon..

We covered a round trip of 6 miles...we hardly walk that long at a stretch, yet the scenic surrounding and splendid weather motivated us to complete the trail...

Getting to spend quality time in the wilderness, listening to the meandering streams, inhaling the fresh forest air and flexing those languid muscles made our weekend.....it was a highly satisfying hiking...