You know what I really hate. When my car breaks down. You know what I hate even more? Is when my car breaks down and I am traveling out of town and I don’t know any of the repair shops in town. Do you just trust the tow company and go to whatever shop in town? Thanks to technology you now have some options. You don’t need to blindly trust your car to whatever shop you get towed to.
Say you are looking for a Los Angeles auto repair shop. Today you can just pull out your smart phone, go to a website like repairpal.com and find the perfect shop to fix the blown head gasket on your Ford Explorer.
The best part is not only can you find a shop to repair your vehicle, you can get an estimate of how much the repair should cost, suggestions on how to keep the same problem from recurring in the future, and answers to common questions about cars and car repair.
Last weekend I went on another waterfall hike with my Venture Crew. We were a small group this time, just 2 kids and 2 adults. The other kids didn’t want to go, saying they had to do things like study for the SAT. We now have over 20 kids in our group, so to have such a small group was a treat, there was plenty of room in the truck!
The plan was to drive about an hour to a dirt road, then drive 4 miles on the dirt road and check out a campground for future camping trips. Then we were going to continue on the dirt road for about another 4 miles until we got to the path for the waterfall. Then a hike down to the falls, hang out there for awhile, hike out. Continue on the same direction for another 4 miles on the dirt road, which would loop us back to the paved road we started on.
Now there is a little something you should know about me. I get a lot of kidding, because even when I am going on a short day hike, I pack as though I am going to spend the night. You just never know! I always bring extra food, extra water, a knife, a lighter (better than matches for starting a fire) and a set of polypro underwear. Polypro underwear is long underwear that is warm, yet unlike cotton long underwear, it stays warm when wet and it packs real small. I also bring a rain jacket. This way I figure that no matter what happens I’ll be warm and dry and not hungry!
The day started out beautiful. We have been having lots of rainy days so to have a nice sunny day was a real treat. We made good time getting to the dirt road. Because of all the rain the dirt road was soon a mud road and we put the truck into 4 wheel drive. The 4 miles to the campground was slow going, but eventually we got there and were pleased to find a beautiful campground complete with water and pit toilets. (Absolute luxury for this group!) Hiking around the campground we found that it had it’s very own waterfall. We stayed and had lunch and just marveled at the power of the waterfall.
The sad thing is, I didn’t have my camera with me this trip. The battery is dead and I can’t find the charger. So if you would like to see pictures click on the links to Leon Turnbull’s waterfall site. His site is where we find out about many of the waterfalls that we visit. Click here to see a picture of the campground waterfall. Edit: It turns out my phone takes OK pictures. I’ll include some of the pictures that I took.
As we are eating out lunch, and the sun is beginning to warm up the rocks, thousands and thousands of lady bugs start to emerge from all the cracks. Soon we are surrounded, and I am sorry to say quite a few ladybugs were crunched as we made our way back to the truck.
Back on the dirt road again and it is getting more than a little rough. At one point we have to drive around a huge boulder that is in the road. Later we drive around a tree that has fallen. And then we arrive at the slight widening in the road that is the trailhead to our hike to the waterfall.
Well the kids hiked and I went down on my well padded behind. It wasn’t really a trail as much as a faint deer path that went straight down for almost a mile! Quite a few times I told the other adult that I didn’t think this was such a good idea. How would we ever get back up? What if we lost the trail? What if, what if. I didn’t want to get left behind in the woods, so I just kept sliding on my backside and before I knew it we were at the falls.
These are the 2nd and 3rd of 7 waterfalls
There are not words to describe how wonderful these falls were. Thanks to all the recent rain, the water was thundering. There are a total of 7 waterfalls, each about 40 feet high pouring water through granite rocks. More pictures and a better description here.
The guys looking at the 4th waterfall.
Sitting, watching the waterfalls, it was suddenly totally worth the literal pain in the a** it took to get down to the falls, and I knew it was well worth the trek back up. These were waterfalls that not many people would get to see. Boy I wish I’d had my camera!
I made it to the falls! Can you see how steep those cliffs are!
Going back up was not as bad as I had anticipated. It was very tiring, but I took lots of breaks. I was very happy to see the truck!
Back in the truck we headed out a different way than we had come in. As the road climbed up the side of the mountain we began to see snow. We stopped for awhile and the kids had a snowball fight just so they could say that they hiked to a waterfall and played in the snow, all on the same trip.
Then there was the tree… across the road. Darn, at this point it would be 11 miles back on the dirt road and we didn’t want to do that. The GPS told us that paved road was only about 1 mile ahead.
So the two guys decide to try and pull the tree out of the road using the truck and the tow rope. Us girls decide to get out of the way and scout up ahead on the road. We find a few more trees across the road, but they are small so we move them by hand. A little further up the road, another large tree down.
We go back and I tell the adult in charge about this new tree across the road. He says he doesn’t want to back track, and he will just use the truck to pull it off the road. It turns out there are lots of trees across the road, but we make slow progress with the guys using the truck to move the big trees, and the girls pulling the smaller trees off the road by hand. Altogether I think we moved at least 10 trees with the truck and at least that many by hand.
And then we get to the monster tree. At this point we have spent about an hour clearing the road, and have gone less than a mile. This tree is huge, and unlike the other trees that have broken off, this one is totally uprooted with a huge root ball. (I really wish I’d had my camera.) I say, now we have to turn back, he says, no I think we can pull it out of the way. The guys attach the tow strap, hit the gas, and the truck goes nowhere. They try again and again.
This is when I am happy that I bring my extra food and clothes. I am thinking that if the truck breaks, we are spending the night. There is no cell phone reception where we are, and soon it will be dark. I really hope he doesn’t break the truck. Finally, to my surprise, he admits defeat. We are turning back. It is very painful knowing the paved road is so close, but we can’t get to it.
An hour later we are back on pavement and it is very dark. As soon as we get cell phone reception we call the parents and let them know that the kids are safe, we are just running late. (Did I mention that my kid didn’t come, but I went anyway!)
All in all it was a great trip. Once again I did a hike that I didn’t think I could do, and we had a great adventure moving the trees. And the waterfalls were awesome!
I have learned that you need to keep blogging, because weird things happen while you are away, like all of your pictures dissapearing!
Like I said in my last post, I haven’t been blogging for awhile, or even paying attention to any of my many blogs. Of course, the first thing I want to do is change the theme, and I have spent the last hour or so looking at new themes. I finally find what I think is a great site, they have a lot of themes that I like, and are original. I download a few, install the first one, and it crashes my blog! How annoying. To fix it I have to go into my cpanel to delete the theme. Finally get that straightened out, try another theme, same result. Arggg.
So much for that site.
So I have just switched to an older theme that I had. Later I will seach again for the perfect theme.
But then I notice that my pictures are missing.
All my great hiking and kayaking pictures.
Well, right before I quit blogging I changed hosts. I thought I transferred over all the files.
Apparently I forgot my images file.
I can’t go back and get it! Arggg!
The pictures are on my computer, but I would have to go into each post and find the missing pictures and upload each one individually. I’ll have to think about that one.
I was going to post about my new house, but that will have to wait for next time. Because I need to update my WordPress and a bunch of my plugins. Then I should check my other blogs….
Sigh.
I just finished watching Julie and Julia on DVD. It is about the beginning of Julia Child’s career as a chef, and at the same time it is about Julie Powell who goes on a mission to cook every recipe in Julia Child’s cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking which she documents in a blog. I enjoyed the movie, it was both touching and funny. Plus the food looked fabulous! But what really struck a cord with me was Julie’s blogging. She had a passion for cooking and a passion for blogging. It made me start to think about why I quit blogging.
I really don’t have to think to hard. I quit blogging about 6 months ago, at the same time my husband left.
Funny thing, finally no one is around to complain about how much time I spend on the computer, and I quit blogging.
Well thanks to the movie, I hope I am back. The husband isn’t, and I’ll probably talk more about that later. But for now I have new plans and a new life ahead, and I’ll have lots to blog about!
I’ve been listening to a lot of music lately. I am thinking of getting a Ukelele. They are small and you can take them almost anywhere. And they can sound really good!
Edit: Too bad, it looks like the video has been taken down. I suggest you go over to youtube.com and search for Israel Kamakawiwo’Ole’s video of Somewhere Over The Rainbow. I love it!
Today is my birthday and this is a picture of some of my favorite things. And not just my toes. On my feet are my Teva sandles. I have had them for over 3 years now and when I am having fun they are usually on my feet. They have climbed Mayan ruins in Belize, and hiked up side canyons in the Grand Canyon. Sometimes I just wear them around town. Today I was kayaking.
My other favorite thing in this picture is my kayak. Well, the very tip of my kayak. It is short and squat, a little like me. But very stable. It has yet to dump me in the lake when I don’t want to go swimming. It is getting a little banged up and faded, but that is because I use it a lot.
In this picture is also the little lake near my house where I go kayaking. I am not going to tell you the name of the lake or where it is. Not many people know about this little lake and so it is usually empty when I want to go kayaking.
My Kayak
Here is a better picture of my kayak. And the pretty little lake I like to kayak in. You can also see another one of my favorite things inside my kayak. Right up front there is my camelback. It is my little backpack that holds water, lunch, and a few odds and ends. It has gone a lot of the same places my Tevas have gone.
So today has been a good day. I started with a nice walk in the local park. The flowers were beautiful. I didn’t have my camera with me so you will have to take my word for it. When I got home I showered and then went to lunch with my mother-in-law. We had Mongolian BBQ at the local Asian buffet. Then I went through the buffet and picked out my favorite foods. Sushi and cream cheese wontons. For desert I had soft serve ice cream with chocolate sprinkles, peanuts and bananas. Then I went kayaking. Now hubby is making BBQ for dinner, and I hear that dear daughter is bringing home chocolate cake.
This weekend’s adventure showed me once again, that you never know what you are capable of until you try it.
After a very long drive, our group of 8 teenagers and 6 adults find ourselves pulled over on the side of a back road, a loan pit toilet marking the start of our hike. I know we are hiking down to the creek, and down looks very, very steep! I have two thoughts. One is that it is going to be very difficult to get down, and two, once I am down I am going to have to come back up! The alternative is to wait by the hot cars for the next 5 or 6 hours until everyone is done. So down I go.
Once on the trail it is not so bad. I go slow and remember to keep my weight over my feet. I have been told this many times, but it did not actually sink in until my Grand Canyon Trip. Keeping your weight over your feet is sometimes counter intuitive. But it makes hiking so much easier when you get it.
Besides being steep, the trail is lined with Poison Oak. Poison Oak is a relative of Poison Ivy and I am allergic to it. For awhile I try to avoid the Poison Oak, but then I realize that is just not possible and resign myself to weeks of itching.
At the bottom of the climb we come to a creek, and a cave. The cave has a wide opening. Water rains from the roof of the cave. Near the back is a smaller hole. Apparently, once you go through the hole, the water gets deep. Our plan is to swim through the hole and into the cavern beyond and out the other side.
This is the entrance to the cave. Near the back water is raining from the roof of the cave. Can you see the darker part in the back? That is the entrance to the main cavern.
I have brought one of those cheap blow up “lounges” to float through the cave on. I know the water will be cold, but I have no idea how cold. I decide to just jump on my floatie and start kicking. When my chest hits the water I gasp and I can’t breathe! The water is so cold, the cave is so dark, I panic for a moment and turn around. I want OUT!
But then I tell myself this is not who I want to be. I take a couple of deep breaths, get back into the water, and enter into the dark hole. Oh my gosh the water is cold! A the “rain” coming from the top of the cave isn’t helping anything. Once inside the cavern I decide it is all worth it. The water does not feel shockingly cold anymore and I am past the “rain”. It is not completely dark, and I can see all the amazing cave formations.
Notice the formations on the walls of the cave. The water here is very deep. I can't touch the bottom.
Our group hangs out inside the cave for awhile. The kids find a way to climb up on a ledge. The adults float in the water. Those of us with waterproof cameras take pictures. Then it is time to see what is on the other side.
Warm sunshine ahead! But watch out, those rocks are slippery!
This side of the cave has lots of nice rocks to sit on. So we spend awhile just relaxing and enjoying the water and the cave. Then our group leader mentions that he heard there was another cave, “just a 1/2 mile down the trail”. Of course we all need to go.
Looking back at the cave I just floated through.
Something to know, trail miles are not the same as city miles. The trail may have “only” been 1/2 a mile, but it went up and down and over rocks and under fallen trees. As always, Poison Oak was everywhere. And because no one had been there before, we we not sure exactly what would be ahead. That made the hike seem longer.
The "trail". The plants in the foreground are blackberries.
Finally we find the second cave. Wow! This one is great. Not as large as the first cave and you can see all the way through to the other side. It is much rockier, so getting through is a combination of walking, climbing, and swimming.
Getting through this cave will not be easy!
The other side is beautiful. The kids have found a large pool, and they are jumping off of a ledge into the water. The adults are happy to sit in the sun. Until one adult decides to join the kids and jump into the pool, then we all do. Sometimes it is better to be a kid!
Sadly, time goes by and it is time to go back. Some of us decide to hike up the creek, instead of taking the trail. We think it might be easier. While we are going back up the creek, I recall all the movies I have watched where people are walking up a stream or a creek. They seem to walk so easily. Movie creeks are not like real creeks. I think movie creeks are level and sandy on the bottom. Real creeks have holes and boulders and very slippery rocks. They also have mosquitoes. I fall down again and again. So does everyone else. I think it would have been easier to take the trail back!
This should be an easy walk, right? WRONG!
Once back to the first cave, it is time to tackle the trail back to the car. Then our leader “remembers’ there is another trail. It is longer, but not so steep. Funny thing, all the adults take the longer trail, all the kids take the steeper one. We don’t worry about the kids going off on their own. They are all older teenagers with lots of hiking experience. 2 of them are Eagle Scouts. They are good at looking out after each other and staying out of trouble. Plus we know there is no way they will let us get to the cars first, so they won’t have much time to get into trouble!
We arrive home tired and dirty. I wash well with Poison Oak soap. In a few days I will know how bad the Poison Oak really was!
Hey Look! Marilynne at Marilynne’s World thinks I am an awwsumm blogger. Yea! Really I don’t deserve it. I don’t post often enough. But I will take it anyway.
Here are the rules for being an awwsumm blogger.
1 – List seven things that make you Awe-Summm.
2 – Pass the award on to seven bloggers you love.
3 – Tag those bloggers to let them know that they are now Queens of All Things Awe-Summm.
4 – Don’t forget to link to the queen that tagged you.
5 – If you would like, copy the pic and put it on your sidebar so everyone knows that you’re a queen.
OK, Now the Hard Part, Seven Things That Make Me Awe-Summ
I have finally learned that it is OK to try something and fail.
I have hiked out of the Grand Canyon, from the River to the Rim. It only took 7 hours!
I have a wonderful family. Parents, kids, sisters, inlaws, all wonderful!
I like to get people hooked on blogging, and have been known to give away domains just to get someone hooked!
When my daughter joined Venture Crew (Scouts) so did I, and I often go on outings without her!
I like to cook healthy food that tastes good, and my favorite thing to eat is McDonald’s double cheeseburger!
I have helped a lot of people manage their money better
That was actually hard! I might come up with a better list when I have some time to think about it.
In the interest of getting this post up sometime before next year, I will be posting my awesumm bloggers later.
Getting started at being an “adventurous” type person isn’t easy when you have lived most of your life staying a little to far on the “safe” side of life. Call me silly if you like, but the idea of getting hurt just doesn’t appeal to me. That is why I really like indoor rock climbing for beginning adventurers. It is amazingly safe, a lot of fun, takes less strength than you might think, and definitely has the cool factor going for it.
I wish this was a picture of me climbing the wall, but I have climbed to the top of that wall! The climber in the picture is my daughter, and she made it all the way to the top.
She took the hard route.
Unlike outdoor rocks, the rocks at the indoor gym are color coded to show different tracks up the wall. Some tracks are easy, some are hard, some have special challenges. I am still working on the easy ones. My daughter skipped right to the intermediate level routes.
You would think that you would need a lot of upper body strength to climb. But at the beginner level you really don’t. You use your legs to move up the wall. Your arms and hands are just for balance and stabilization.
It really becomes fun when you learn to trust your rope. When you trust your rope (and your belayer, the person who is holding the rope for you) you know you really can’t get hurt. If you fall you will just swing a little bit, and that is all. So you can try for tricky moves, or even jump to get over an obstacle, and if you miss it is no big deal.
The hardest part about indoor rock climbing, when you are forty something and have a few extra pounds, is that it is not a skill you can work out in private. Lots of people may be watching you, and not from the most flattering angle if you know what I mean! At the very least your belayer will be watching your every move. And then there is the fact that it seems like most of the people in the gym seem to be really lean and really fit. Rock climbing is a great sport for overall fitness. But for the most part everyone is the gym is really supportive of the newbies. They really seem to enjoy sharing their sport, and offering tips on how to get over that next obstacle.
You don’t really need to buy anything to get started with indoor rock climbing. You can rent everything you need at the gym. Wear clothes that are comfortable that you can mover freely in. The price for indoor rock climbing is pretty reasonable. For 2 hours of climbing, harness and shoe rental I pay around $15. The gym I go to includes a belay class for free, so you can bring a partner and take turns climbing and belaying. (The belayer is the person that holds the rope, their job is to make sure you don’t fall so be sure to bring someone you can trust will pay attention!)
If someone was looking for a way to become more adventurous, and to spend more time outdoors. I highly recommend Venture Crew. There is only one catch, Venture Crew is a scouting group for boys and girls ages 14-22. I am a few years older than that, but fortunately for me, my daughter is not. Our particular Venture Crew is a High Adventure Venture Crew, so we do a lot of fun stuff. Today was one of those fun days.
As is typical for our group, there were almost as many adults as kids. My daughter was sick, so she didn’t go but I did. Another member of the crew wasn’t able to make it, but that didn’t keep her mom from coming either. All in all we had 9 adults and 8 Venture Crew Members and 3 guests.
Our crew is working on visiting local waterfalls. We are alternating biking and hiking. You can read a little bit about last month’s bike ride to Feather Falls in this post. Today was a much dryer hike to Hidden Falls. Hidden Falls is not a large waterfall, only about 30 feet, but it is located in a nice park, just about 5 miles out of town. We had to hike 2 miles from the parking area to the falls, but the trails were well marked, and for the most part, not difficult at all. We had lunch at the falls, and then headed back to town to do some Geocaching.
Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment.
For today we had the co-ordinates for 3 different geocaches. The first was in an old cemetery. You would think, that with the co-ordinates it would be no problem finding the cache, but that is not the case. The GPS units that we had were only accurate to 30 feet, so even when it said we were practically on top of the cache, we still had quite a bit of looking to do. Eventually we found the cache in some bushes near the edge of the cemetery. It was just a small green container. Opening it up we added our crew’s name to the list of those who had found the cache, and then carefully put it back for the next person to find.
Our next cache was in a nearby residential neighborhood. Our clue told us that the cache was for an 8 year old boy, and that he was watching it all the time. Having just come from the cemetery this was a little spooky. We were also told that the cache was on private property with permission of the property owners. We narrow the area down to the front yard of a home, but we are reluctant to search too carefully. Then a girl of about 10 comes out of the house, “are you guys geocachers? ” “We sure are!” She runs into the house and comes back with her mom, and then goes running down the street to get her brother. (The little boy in the clue!) The kids are so excited we are searching for their cache. It turns out their grandparents are avid geocachers and set it up for them. We find the cache inside a small path light and add our names. Here we leave a small toy soldier. We have a great time talking with the mom and kids, and then we are off to find our next treasure.
Found the cache! Nice hiding spot!
We were not able to find our last cache. We know it is near the local In-N-Out Burger and our clue is In OR Out, but with the freeway nearby, and all the cars going in and out of the In-N-Out, it just wasn’t much fun to look for. We console ourselves with burgers and animal style fries and reflect on a day well spent.
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I wish this was a picture of me climbing the wall, but I have climbed to the top of that wall! The climber in the picture is my daughter, and she made it all the way to the top.
