Big Sur, Carmel & Monterey

The last week in July, Patrick's mom flew down from Oregon to visit us. We had been looking forward to the visit for a while. Not only was Patrick's mom in town, but it was also a great vacation for all 3 of us.

For five days we traveled up the coast to see the sights. We stayed 2 nights in Big Sur and 3 in Monterey, stopping to see Carmel-by-the-Sea on the way. In Big Sur, we did some short hikes, enjoyed the scenery, went to open mic night at the Henry Miller Library (the only time in my life I think I will see a sitar player and a violinist jam together) and relaxed on the beaches. We stayed at Deetjen's in Big Sur, which was built by a Danish man in the early 2oth century. It was rough around the edges, but all 3 of us loved it. It had charachter, and adding to that charachter was the shower arrangement. Check out the picture below!

On the way up to Monterey, we stopped in Carmel. We walked the town, had lunch and relaxed on the beach. That afternoon, we had some great wine on the patio of the Mission Ranch, which is owned by Clint Eastwood. This was one of my favorite places on our whole trip. The grounds were absolutely beautiful. Sitting on the patio, with wine glass in hand, you could see the ocean in the distance, while the fluffy grass before you was being cropped by a herd of sheep. Who knew there was something so relaxing about sheep. Wait, maybe that's why you are supposed to count them when you can't sleep?

During the 3 days we had in Monterey, we walked Cannery Row, went to some wine tasting rooms, saw the Monterey Bay Aquarium, ate our way down Fisherman's Wharf, and drove into Carmel-in-the-Valley for a day of wine tasting. On the drive back to Pasadena, we made a pit stop at the Madonna Inn, a place Patrick and I had seen online. It was just as over the top in person as it appeared online. There were buses full of tourists taking pictures of the craziness; so we joined right in...

Overall, on the trip we saw seals, sea lions, pelicans, elephant seals, jelly fish and otters. We did some short hikes and lots of walking around town. We enjoyed the sights and drank some great wine. The concensus between the three of us was that Big Sur was our favorite area and that wine tasting and open mic at the Henry Miller Library were our favorite activities.

Elephant Seals battling it out

Our first great view of the Big Sur coastline

Mom and son

Gorgeous Big Sur coastline

McWay Falls

Deetjen's

Window at crotch height and a shower that only washes your chest. Who thought this was a great idea for a shower???

Playing at the beach

Carmel Mission

Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey

View from Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey

Madonna Inn

Up with the Sun

It's 8 AM and I've already been to LAX and back, filled the car with gas, picked up Starbucks, done the grocery shopping and put the laundry in the wash. It's amazing what you can get done with your day when you get up at 5 AM!

This morning, I dropped Patrick and a co-worker off at the airport (they're going to Toronto for work). I don't know how I got the job of shuttle service. For all of those people that get up at 5 AM everyday and drive in rush hour traffic.... WHY??? I used to get up at 6:30 everyday and ride the subway an hour to get to work and that was bad enough. These days, we live only 2 miles from Patrick's work. Thank goodness! It sure makes life a lot more enjoyable.

I have to say, though, that being on the freeway with the masses at 5 AM gives you a feeling of camaraderie with the other fools out there that early in the morning. Commiserating in misery.

Family Visit

Last week, Patrick's brother Eric and his girlfriend Sarah came for a quick visit. They had driven across the country from Virginia and were on their way to Oregon. We were happy to have them and happy to meet Sarah.

We took them to Hollywood to see the stars on the sidewalks and Graumann's Chinese Theater, where there are hand and footprints from celebrities and they hold lots of movie premiers. They saw the freak show, tourist-trap that is Hollywood Boulevard. There are dozens of people dressed up in costumes (Elmo, Spiderman, Spongebob, Jack Sparrow, and on and on and on...) and if you attempt to take their photo they want to charge you money. Then there are the guys trying to get people to listen to their rap album. Patrick had the same guy yell at him 3 times because he didn't want to listen to the guy's music. Then there are the people trying to get you to go on a celebrity home tour. Absolute craziness!

We also showed them the Kodak Theater, which is where the Oscars are held every year. Little does anyone know, while watching the Oscars, that the Kodak is located in a mall. We walked them by the steps of the building where the Jimmy Kimmel Live show is filmed. While walking by, we saw them filming a segment out on the sidewalk for the show. We didn't stay long because you can only handle this area of Hollywood in small doses.

After lunch, we spent the rest of the day in Pasadena and the next day they left to continue on to Oregon. We had a lot of fun with them and are so glad they took the time to stop by and see us.

Happy hour drinks at Barney's in Pasadena

Backpacking Adventure - The Descent

Since we had decided there was no camping to be had at the lake, Patrick brought up the idea that we could probably make it back to the car by 7:30 PM if we hurried. I thought he was nuts, but he reassured me it would be mostly downhill and that I would be surprised by how easy it was. I had my doubts,to be sure, but we decided to shoot for the cars.

As we started back down the trail from the lake, we passed multiple groups of people (we had seen only 1 other person up until this point). Some with backpacking gear and others just up for a day hike. We realized we must look pretty badass to the day hikers, since they were huffing and puffing and stopping us to ask how much further to the top. Little did they know, we were actually idiots that had just carried unnecessary gear for 2 miles. Never the less, it made us feel good to see people struggling up the mountain with nothing on their backs (if that's evil, I don't care. You would have felt the same way at that point).

When we came to the waterfall that had flooded the path, I walked right through it since I still had my sandals on from the lake. Patrick picked his way across the rocks and we continued down. It definitely felt better than going up, but the descent at this point was so steep it really strained Patrick's knees. All the same, our time coming down was much quicker and soon we were back to where we had seen the bear paw print, only by now, the sun had melted the snow enough that the lines of the print were blurred. Looking at it now you wouldn't have realized it was a bear print. This made us realize that the print must have been really fresh when we had seen it earlier. I had been hoping maybe it was left a couple days ago, but obviously not, since in a few days time that patch of snow would be gone completely.

An hour total from the summit, and we were back to our campsite. We had made it back to the campsite in less than half the time it had taken us to get to the summit. Yes, going down was much better, and from here on out it was a more subtle descent and less painful on the knees. Continuing on, we crossed the river and made good time through the forest and alpine meadows. In one of the meadows, I saw movement above us on the mountainside and realized it was deer. We stopped to watch them, until they must have noticed us and hopped off up the mountain further away.

In another meadow, walking on a particularly narrow portion of the trail bordered on both sides by thorny bushes, I heard a crash behind me and Patrick yell out in pain. I turned around to find him laying half on the trail and half in the thorns. Of course, I was concerned but I have to admit it was pretty hard not to laugh. He had stepped on an uneven portion of the trail, sprained his ankle and fallen into the thorns. Really, nothing unusual for Patrick and we were surprised he hadn't pulled this stunt already on our trip. Now that he had sprained it, though, it was much weaker than normal and he was in fear of spraining it again to the point of not being able to walk. We still had a good 3 miles to go, so we agreed he should walk in front to set his own pace and this way he wouldn't feel hurried to catch up to me if I got too far ahead.

Another river crossing, by now we had this routine down, and I went first across while Patrick took off his shoes. Half way across, I realized the river was higher and definitely stronger than yesterday so I took my time finding my balance and footing. Once on the other side, I let Patrick know the status, and carefully he made his way across.

We were back to where the giant redwoods were more prevelant and huge pinecones, bigger than my head, littered the trail. We'd had little to eat but we were feeling good and determined to get back to the car. Another hour and we were to our last river crossing. Shoes off and across we went. From the river, the trail went up. I remembered going down yesterday to get to the river, but it hadn't been a very long descent so going up shouldn't be too bad. Wrong!!! By this time, we were exhausted from carrying our gear and having hiked a good 8 miles already that day. Plus, we were sore from yesterday. Up, up, up. I was so angry, this just couldn't be right. I didn't remember going down this long yesterday. How could we possibly go up for so long???

My legs were in such pain from carrying the extra weight of my pack. Patrick was getting further and further in front of me and, at one point, when I caught up to him we both thought I was going to lose it and burst into tears. I took deep breaths and he reassured me we were close to the car. In actuality, we were only about 20 minutes away, but it felt like eternity. When we saw the car, I thought I was going to cry again but this time from relief. I looked at Patrick and said, "At some point I'm sure I'll think this was fun, but right now I just want to die."

We were both so sore. We had hiked a total of 10 miles that day. Patrick with about 40 lbs worth of gear on his back and about 27 lbs of gear on my back. We had seen giant redwoods, walked through snow and rivers, forests and meadows. We had seen some sort of rodent, a snake, fish, deer and a bear paw print. We were sunburned, scratched, scraped, sprained and filthy. It may not have been what we set out intending it to be, but I would say we had an adventure.

Through all this, I finally came to the realization that I, Jennie Sears, am a day hiker. I have fought this for years. I've always wanted to be a backpacker. I have been on some great backpacking trips and I'm sure I will continue to backpack, but today I embrace the fact that I am a day hiker at heart.

Giant Pinecone

Last river crossing. Thank goodness.

Amazing view. This was one of my favorites.

Another favorite view. If we hadn't known better, we would have thought we were in Oregon.

Backpacking Adventure - Day 2

The next morning, while packing up camp, I looked up to see a marmot/woodchuck/rodent thingy observing us.

"Umm, what is that???" The tone of my voice must have made Patrick think it was something pretty serious because he whipped around to find what I was talking about.

"Oh, I don't know. He's cute."
"Cute? He looks big enough to attack and eat me!"
"He's all fluff."
"Don't animals fluff up when they feel threatened and are preparing to attack?"

Not only was he "cute," he was a bold little sucker! I had to chase him from our camp on multiple occasions. At one point, I turned my back on him for a second to zip up my pack and I turned back around to find him within 3 feet of me. Not cool, little marmot thingy, not cool.

Once packed, we left our campsite and furry neighbor behind as we started up the switchbacks that would take us to the summit. The trail was extremely steep and I was already sore from the previous days ascent. By the degree of steepness of the trail, you never would have guessed we had gone uphill for 4 out of 5 miles the day before. It felt as if we were gaining all 3000' in these last 2 miles to the summit.

Back and forth, back and forth up the mountainside. Up here, the trees were more sparse and the giant redwoods had given way to just regular sized trees. Occasionally, we had to find our way around or over trees that had fallen across the trail and the trail was so littered with tree debris it made the going extremely slow. Small, round pinecones were so abundant on the trail it was like walking on marbles. We had to be careful not to fall or twist an ankle. It was evident they hadn't been up to clear the trail for the season yet.

Finally, it seemed the trail was leveling off some. We came to a fairly large patch of snow we had to cross. "Hmm. The trail looks like it goes that way but I see footprints that are going that way," I say, pointing in two different directions. As I look closer at the footprints I realize those aren't footprints but giant bear paw prints. Quickly, we scan the area for a bear. Nothing, but that doesn't mean much. "Ok, let's get out of here!" Straight out of a cartoon (I think there was a trail of dust I left in my wake), I shot up the trail. Patrick couldn't get over how fast I took off, after all we'd being going up the mountain for over an hour and we were exhausted. Just goes to show what your body's really capable of!

Soon afterwards, we came out of the trees, rock wall on one side of us and deep canyon on the other. On the other side of the canyon, the mountains rose up again, no trees but giant snowfields covering them instead. We paused briefly to evaulate the map and estimate how far we were from the summit. While looking over the map, we both noticed a weird noise coming from down in the canyon. "It sounds like an emu (thanks to Kristin's Redland neighbors, I know what an emu sounds like)." But, obviously, it wasn't an emu. We had no idea what it was, but all I could keep thinking was "Do bears make a warning noise???" Regardless, we kept moving up the mountain. We had no tree cover any longer and the sun was out in full force. We had gone from killer pinecones underfoot to loose rocks that brought to mind visions of stumbling and plummeting to our death.

Just as all morale was dying rapidly, we came to a gorgeous waterfall that ran wide and strong and flooded our path. Now, this was worth the climb. We stood in the spray of the waterfall, navigating the trail in our minds. Soon, we were precariously stepping from rock to rock, not sure if we would make it without tumbling into the flow of water below.

After the waterfall we continued to climb the mountain for another 30 minutes. It felt much longer! Patrick had to walk in front so I couldn't see how much further it was to the top. Another river crossing and we were there. We had made it to Summit Lake! It had taken us 2 1/2 hours to go 2 miles, but we had made it!

We set our packs on some rocks and plopped down to rest in the sun. The lake was surrounded by mountains, giant snowfields everywhere. It was beautiful and peaceful. We saw fish jumping in the lake and a tiny garter snake, while we sat relaxing. We climbed some nearby rocks and laid in the sun. We realized we better decide the game plan for the rest of the day. We decided we would look for a good place to camp, but if we couldn't find a spot we may just head back down the mountain and see how far we could get down the trail.

We went to investigate a spot we had seen earlier that was clear of snow and would work for our tent. However, by the time we went to investigate, the cleared area had been flooded by snow runoff. So, we were headed back down the mountain and we had carried all our gear these last 2 miles for no reason. But, hey, we were in it for the adventure. Only it was starting to feel more like torture.

The last installment of our adventure soon to come but here are some more pictures for now:

Our furry neighbor. Tell me that thing's not creepy!

Great view while heading up the trail.

Checking the map. How much further?!?

The waterfall that flooded the trail. It was so much more beautiful than this shows.

Summit Lake

We made it!!!

Backpacking Adventure - Day 1

Over Memorial Day weekend, Patrick had 4 days off from work. I had the idea that we should go backpacking, get out of town and into nature and really use those 4 days. We've been backpacking before but for this trip we planned very little. We knew what we were bringing and the general area we were heading and that we should be cautious of bears. Our friends loaned us their bear canister (they had a pretty serious bear encounter at Yosemite, so we decided not to fool around) and we were off. We headed north and then east into the mountains. When we got close we stopped at a ranger station to get some trail suggestions.

They suggested a loop that would take us 4 days, lead us by alpine lakes and gain 3000' in elevation. Right away, I jumped onboard. Sounded great! We bought a trail map and jumped back in the car.

"How do we get to the trailhead?"

"I don't know."

That conversation should have been our first clue we didn't have enough information. But, hey, we were in it for the adventure.

"Looks like there are some river crossings, according to the map. It's marked as a well-maintained trail, though, so I'm sure there will be bridges or rocks you can use to cross (clue 2, if you're keeping track)."

We got to the trailhead around 3 PM, swung our packs on our backs, took our pictures by the trail mileage sign, all shiny faced and eager to start our adventure. Right away, the trail went up (remember, 3000' elevation gain. Patrick tried to warn me, I'll admit). But it wasn't too steep and we were at once treated to some amazing views. Craggy rock walls in the distance and a beautiful sea of trees as far as we could see. Far off, we could see mountains topped with snow. Such an excitement for two people that don't ever see snow in SoCal. Soon, we were a part of the forest as the trail led us down into a canyon. We crossed a waterfall, an easy crossing, someone had thrown a log down to walk across, and we continued on through the trees.

About an hour later, we came to our first river crossing. Hmm, no bridge. We scanned the area, immediately realizing there were no rocks either. It was easily decided we had to go barefoot as we were only wearing tennis shoes. I volunteered to go first since Patrick has pansy feet and was afraid the rocks would be too sharp for his feet. Growing up in the country, though, I've spent entire summers barefoot. The crossing was easy enough and we dried off our muddy feet (with Patrick's t-shirt he happened to be wearing. Can you say "dirty hippies?"), put our shoes back on and headed up the trail once more.

The trail steadily climbed the mountains for the next hour. Occasionally, we would see small patches of snow off the sides of the trail. How exciting and so unexpected! We had no idea we would be this close to snow when we started our trek. Once again, though, we were at a river crossing. This one was much wider and since the water was so cold we were concerned that our feet wouldn't make it across the expanse of river we had to cross. We walked up the river and found a spot that was a lot narrower, but a lot deeper. Oh well, we're in it for the adventure. Country feet to the rescue and we were across that river in short order. We contined on.

By now, we were traipsing through snow patches that covered our trail and, subsequently, the muddy bogs that follow snow melt. The trail led us through the forest, where normal trees and giant redwoods mingled, across mountainside meadows, through prickley bushes that scrapped our legs as we pushed past, and, all the while, at a steady climb. By the time we reached our third river crossing, we were exhausted and it was time to set up camp. There was nowhere to camp on this side of the river, unless we wanted to go back a mile or so. I had, however, remembered that I had my river sandals with me and quickly crossed the river, now that I had shoes on for the crossing. Right across the river was a great campsite. We were in luck, no backtracking needed.

It had taken us 3 hours to go 5 miles, but we were satisfied with how far we had come. It had, however, become abundantly clear that we should probably not attempt the full loop. If we got out too far on the loop and came to a river crossing that wasn't navigable we would be too far to complete a turnaround in the alloted amount of time. We decided instead to hike further the next day and camp by one of the alpine lakes and then take 2 days to hike out the way we came in.

When it became fully dark outside we climbed into our tent and snuggled down into our sleeping bags. We talked, played cards by headlamp and, finally, fell asleep to the rushing noise of the river.

At the trailhead, full of energy and excitement.

Crossing a waterfall. This picture doesn't do it justice. It was so beautiful!


The first snow we could touch. So exciting!


One of the most amazing views of the entire trip. Once again, this picture just doesn't show the true beauty. That giant redwood tree was controlling the entire course of the river. The tree on the right side of the pic is a normal sized tree, to give you a better idea of the size of the redwood.


Last river crossing of the day. Our campsite was on the bend in the river you see above me.


Our beautiful, peaceful campsite.

Red Sox Game

Last week, Patrick and I decided to by tickets to the Angels vs. Red Sox baseball game. We bought our tickets at noon and were leaving Pasadena for Anaheim five hours later. We got to the stadium just in time to grab something to eat and get our seats. Our seats were awesome. We were behind home plate and to the side a little down the 1st base line, up in the 3rd tier of seating. We had a really good view of the field and home plate. It was a good game, but unfortunately our Red Sox lost. That will most likely be our one and only Red Sox game of the year.

Angel Stadium. Patrick and I were trying to decide where we would prefer to be if the big one hit. Up where we were or down on the first level. Ah, the things you think about at a baseball game when your team's losing.