Visiting Far Flung Family and Friends

Revised 9/17 to replace missing photos.   No idea how I lost them but might be related to our hard drive crash!  New laptop up and running...thanks for the heads up from Della.

 We just returned from a 30 day trip east.  We drove over 6,000  miles and put in about $30/travel day for gas for the Prius.  Not bad!  It was a fine trip - visiting folks we don't get to see very often. All went very well for us and the dogs.  We SO appreciate everyone putting up with the 4 of us...especially those with kids, cats and other dogs.      

Final Stop at Della & Tom's

Our first stop was Tim, Eileen and Madeline in Wisconsin.  Great fun seeing them and Madison. Visited the terrific farmer's market around the capitol building.

Eileen

 

Alexander,Adam,Karen,Nick

On to spend a few days with Karen and family and 3 cats.  It was interesting with all the quadrupeds.  Hope no permanent scars for cats or kids. It was good to see them happy and busy in their new home.

Just the girls

The first reason for our trip was to spend a week with Nancy and Sandy celebrating their 50th anniversary.  So good to see everyone - there were 24 of us altogether.  Doug came from Alaska with his girlfriend Ellen; his good friends PJ & Mavis were part of the festivities.  Karen, Adam & kids. Four nieces from Colorado, Florida (2) and Georgia and their families.

Joker - can't buy it, must make it

 It was a wonderful gathering with much quality hanging out time.  Chuck got to play golf a couple of times with Sandy, Doug, PJ.

 There was a heat wave going thru and a little rain, but it didn't bother us.  The water at the beach and off the dock seemed warmer than I remember!  After all had returned home we received news of a lay-off and a health problem for two of the nieces.  They are in our thoughts.

Chuck, Jody, Ginny

 
From Cape Cod to Franklin, NC took 2 days.  We had a good time as always hanging out with my sibs and their spouses.  The rental house was above a river in the mountains and had a huge screened porch.  We could play cards in the pouring rain - I loved it. We'll be seeing Jody and Donna out here in a few weeks. Hopefully it will be a little cooler by then.

Our final stop was to see Della and Tom in Buena Vista, CO. They've built a wonderful house on a lake in a spectacular setting.  Birds! Mountains! Jeeping!  We don't see them so much since Zoni days...but it's great to catch up.  They're only 2 easy driving days away from Big Pine ... hope to see them out here soon.

Della, Pinon, Tom

Della & dogs on their lake trail

It's good to be home.  Most of our tomato plants were in good shape ... heavily laden with ripe fruit!  I have already made a batch of salsa.  And Buddy is almost completely healed from his ordeal.  He had a strange 'wound' on his side and we took him to Pinon's vet in Buena Vista.  It was a parasite!  ... a hideous 1/2 inch long worm which Dr. Peggy gently coaxed out of his skin.  No wonder it wouldn't heal.  Della and I were about to puke.  It's called Cuterebra.  He also got a much needed nail trim. Other random musings: I'm still in search of a massage therapist to loosen up my back from all the travel ... it's just as hard to find someone who answers their phone in Bishop as it was in NC or CO.  Our TRX equipment was at the post office waiting for us.  Now we just have to use it to become buff.  Chuck is trying to dig some of our plants out from the seriously encroaching weeds since we've been gone.  The yard gets water nightly and there's plenty of sun.  The house got so hot while we were away that my kitchen gloves left on the counter were glued together.  I am signed up for my first golf lesson Tuesday morning at 8am before it gets too hot.

We're getting back into Eastern Sierra activities and expecting a visit from Alan soon.  I /we might blog some more later ...  or maybe not.

Hot! But it's a dry heat.

Opening day for the trout season was April 28th.  The lead-up was like the super bowl  around here so I decided we had to try it.  Alan was visiting so we got him to help us pick out appropriate rods & reels, bought the necessary annual fishing license, bought a variety of flies to try, practiced in the back yard.  We joined the crowds at one of the many lakes where fish are stocked heavily.  We caught and released a couple of small trout, but mostly I just fought snarls and Chuck ran dog control (always part of our outings).  Since then we’ve tried several times … and usually catch some fish when Alan is along and we go to a lake.  Not much luck in the streams (where I had visualized a relaxed day of catching fish).  Chuck is more adept at it and we’ve eaten trout a couple of times now. The meat to bone ratio is very poor.  We have cut back on our fishing :).



But, we are getting back into golf.  The Bishop Country Club is very affordable (cheap) and a pretty course with mature trees and mountain views all around.  When we play in the evening we always see rabbits & baby ducks.  Chuck was hit in the head by a particularly testy blackbird one evening when he apparently got too close to its nest. With unlimited play I think we’ll be out there playing a lot.  Tonight we played the front nine, and saw a dozen or more rabbits on hole #5.  We rationalize bad shots by blaming them on the wildlife:  rabbits, hawks, ducks.

After months of “retirement” lifestyle , i.e. procrastination and laziness, we decided we need a schedule to organize our days.  It calls for 2 days of golf (9 holes); 2 days of moderate hike or bike exercise; 1 long beautiful hike (somewhere in the high canyons); 2 strength training at home. We had fishing in there as a regular event, but it has fallen away by mutual consent.  You might notice climbing is not on the schedule … golf seems to have replaced it because it is more fun these days.

   The climbing was very hard to get our heads back into.  Too hot at Alabama Hills (below Mt Whitney) and wasn’t as much fun anymore…too scary and a hassle with the dogs.  Piton used to sit peacefully at the base of routes (or go around and meet us at top if she knew the way).   These little rats wander all over if not tied up.  Legal, but worrisome to ‘Mom” especially now that it’s rattle snake season.  We hope to continue to climb when our climbing friends visit and are willing to lead us up some short routes. Alan has visited a couple of times (always fun), and we followed him up a number of climbs..  The passes are now open over the Sierras so the drive is much shorter. But now that it’s summer, Alabama Hills is too hot. 

  It’s getting into the 90’s now on many days.  Beautiful in the shade (lots on the golf course and back yard).  The evaporative cooler easily keeps the house cool.  And it cools down at night to the 50’s. I think we’ll like it. Many more trail heads are accessible since Memorial Day…little snow left on ‘lower’ trails.  The trail head area of Mt. Whitney, 45 minutes south of here, brought back such good memories of old climbing days - camping and climbing in that spectacularly beautiful area. We are learning to appreciate hiking up there more and more.

  Big Pine is like an oasis here in the desert environment of Owens Valley.  It was settled in the late 1800s and people planted and irrigated trees of all kinds in their yards and park. I’m learning to tell a larch from a sycamore from an elm. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Pine,_California
Even though the L.A. Water & Power Department gets most of the water from the Owens Valley into their aqueduct, there is apparently plenty left for our domestic use…though not much for farming, and I haven’t seen a swimming pool in the Bishop/Big Pine area. Still trying to figure out how it all works.

      This week Melissa visited for a few days.  She enlightened us with stories of Hollywood life, and we were fascinated by the by the inner workings of reality shows.  We had a great time during her visit, and the dogs were happy to spend time with their L.A. cousin. 

Pictures available on request.   I don't have the patience to figure out how to get them from Picasa or my phone to the blog!

Miscellaneous and a visit

We’ve been here 2 ½ months now, but it seems like longer.  We’ve been busy settling in and exploring.  We’ve checked out so many places that they’re starting to blur together.

There are various Paiute Reservation areas around here, so of course there is a casino in Bishop.  We dropped in one day to check it out and maybe see what’s for lunch.  Not much as it turns out.  Surprising number of people sitting at slot machines while a beautiful day beckoned outside.   We didn’t stay.

Checked out Laws history museum ( http://www.lawsmuseum.org/index.htm ).  They have lots of exhibits we found interesting and give a flavor for the old west.  We became members so we could just go wander through a little bit at a time.  And a few miles south in Independence is the Eastern California Museum.  It’s small but packed with all types  of interesting stuff.  ( http://www.independence-ca.com/eastern-california-museum.shtml ).

In our explorations, we’ve been driving up and down 395, and up canyon roads and using many tanks of gas. So, we decided to trade in the Kia on a new Prius.  We are loving the gas mileage and slowly learning how to use the electronic gadgetry (It is a sign of the times that the car is smarter than we are.)  Today we fought hard to put the rear seat covers on to protect it from muddy dogs.  It was made to fit our car ‘exactly’, but didn’t quite.

Suze & Tim visited last weekend and we had a great time.   Even though it had snowed (up in the mountains) a few days before they arrived, we were able to hike a couple of our favorite places.  Our hike up the south fork of Big Pine Creek (above our town) was new terrain for us and a wonderful, mellow grade with gorgeous trees and views.  We stopped for lunch and turned back when we got to the snow line.

Suze & Tim (& Chuck & Buddy)

Now the weather is unseasonably warm for early spring.  It’s getting up to 85 today.  The guy came to prepare the evaporative cooler for the season yesterday.  While it is wonderful to get up and walk the dogs without a jacket and soak up some sun, I’m a little worried about summer!  We’ll be traveling to Cape Cod for much of July.  That will help.
Everything is starting to bloom and we plan to plant some tomatoes very soon.  Will have to give up climbing at Alabama Hills soon….maybe get up early to hike or go play golf.









I am trying to teach myself to paint with water colors.  It will take lots of practice, but it’s enjoyable practice and I see some progress. Will stop, Alan is arriving shortly for a visit!

More beautiful places...

We have continued
our treks up into the mountains, and just came back from an exploration of Onion Valley, which is out of a tiny town called Independence, 12 miles south of us.  Canyon hikes usually involve a short drive to the trailhead, but the canyon road out of Independence is most exciting.  It gets steeper and steeper, switching back and forth across a sharply angled face.  When we drove in we saw a sign indicating that the road was closed, but there was no locked gate preventing passage.  So we drove on up.  As we crept up the switchbacks, we began to see more and more rock fall on the road.  It became obvious that the closed sign meant that there was no maintenance of the road surface until the spring thaw.  But we kept driving up, and enjoyed spectacular views of the Sierra Nevada range.  Then we made a tight turn and ran into a morass of boulders, too big to move.  That was the extent of our exploration for the day, but Onion Valley is at the top of the list for spring, when they clear the road.  C

It’s starting to look like spring here.  Many of the ‘stick trees’ that I’ve been trying to identify are sprouting their new leaves.  Flowering trees like this cherry(?) tree in our yard are blooming around town.  The robins and bluebirds are already abundant. 

Our emphasis lately has been on exploring the canyon right up our street - Big Pine.  Bought a topo map and we’re learning to use it.  I dug out a cool mileage calculating wheel that Uncle Joe had for many years.  I remember using it to do some project for him as a teenager.  I also have a 'tracker' app on my smart phone that give us lots of stats (& prevents getting lost!). The bench area between the flat valley and the high mountains is full of 4WD roads (too many) and trails with lots of old mining stuff (at least on the map).  We’re checking it all out.  Would be great mountain biking also.  The terrain is sage and other low bushes.  Sophie caught sight of a jack rabbit and took off in pursuit.  It’s so funny watching the chase … the rabbit is as big as Sophie and I don’t think she will ever catch one.  Maybe we’ll put her on leash and see how that goes.  Buddy stays close to the trail.  As the weather warms more there might be rattle snakes to consider.
     The area Chuck uses for bouldering is where we park for this hiking.  I pedaled my road bike up that way a couple of days ago.  The paved part went well, but pretty tough on the dirt road.  Coming down was iffy.  I think I’m justifying a new mountain bike! 

We hiked a 4 mile loop up Big Pine Canyon this morning.  It included some very steep uphill.  Near the top of a ridge we started seeing dozens of sets of ears on the horizon.  We put Sophie on leash so she wouldn’t scare them off and got to watch a couple of herds of totaling about 40 deer trek all over the hills.  Very tiring but fun hike with great views of the Owens Valley, White Mountains & Big Pine.  Watched a pair of hawks circling then an eagle soared with them briefly before passing on through.

Exploring & climbing

Continuing to explore and enjoy the eastern Sierra.  We’ve been here 3 weeks now.  We had our first visitors last week.  Petch (friend from  Strawberry Lodge days),  Heidi and their daughter Rocky stopped for a night on their way to a family reunion in Las Vegas.  It was great to see them and gave us the motivation to finish up a couple of moving in details.  Before they left we all went down to Alabama Hills (40 minutes south) for some climbing.   

Rocky has her own harness & shoes

Malia, Rocky, Paolo

Petch dashed up a couple of climbs and put up top ropes for us all to play on.  Heidi’s sister and family are also climbers.  The kids really liked the scrambling.  They are amazingly comfortable on rock already.  It was a good time and more climbing than we have done in years.

Bite of lunch in the desert

We have identified our favorite hiking/training area for winter (so far).  We can’t get up into the high country until snow melts in spring.  And many of the hikes available now are deserty.

Rock Creek Trail

The one we like follows Rock Creek for 8 miles on a good trail right next to the creek.  You can access it in a couple of places where it crosses a road so we are checking it out in sections.  Near the bottom, it crosses the creek several times with walking bridges.  Buddy freaked when he saw the first one and put on the brakes.  I carried him over the first one.  On the next, he manned up and crossed on his own!  It’s a beautiful place, but north of Bishop, so not real convenient.  It’s nice to combine with ‘a trip to the city’ if we’re not  too tired.  We’ll look for something similar up Big Pine Creek next.

We’re having warm weather this week.  Yesterday was supposed to get up to 72 so we went down to climb at Alabama Hills.  It was T-shirt weather!  Had great fun, will let Chuck tell it.  Chuck:  the difficulty in getting back into climbing is that someone has to lead the climb in order to get the rope up.  So Wednesday we chose the easiest climb we could find, and tried to lead it.  Chuck led it first, then Trish led it and was stoked to have made it to the top!  We were whooping it up, and patting each other on the back,  but our egos were deflated somewhat when we noticed that the dogs had scrambled up the rock right behind Trish!  Wish we had a photo.

I found a fun morning walk/jog loop starting at the house.  It passes a pasture with about 50 horses.  One morning they were all chasing and playing for some reason (Vanessa?).   Another morning a horse in another pasture ran with me on his side of the fence and wanted to be petted.   The other side of the road has cows and lots of calves right now.  I’m seeing lots of flickers, hawks, quail, even a great blue heron (ubiquitous creek nearby).    

Checking out the Big Pine area

   Right now, mornings are cold here.  We get a slow start and let it warm up until 9:00 or so.

Some things never change

   Then it's time to go out for a training walk/jog.  We live on Crocker Road about 2 blocks from highway 395.  If you walk out the door and turn west, the road starts climbing into the hills. Within a few blocks it's a beautiful place to walk....very little traffic, spectacular view.  There's not much civilization up there but many dirt roads, campgrounds, eventually high country.  It's a very inspirational place to be...especially with tunes!

Road up Big Pine Canyon

   You can also drive all the way up Glacier Lodge Road to a trailhead during the snow drought.  It snowed here a couple of weeks ago.  The snow is sparse enough that you can even hike in a bit wearing regular shoes.  That's an area we hope to do some longer hikes in come summer.  That's one of the goals of our training.  We both (& dogs) did about a 1 hour loop from the house this morning.  Dogs can be off leash for about half the loop.  We were tired!... a long way to go before we're ready for any peak bagging.
   We checked out the mountains on the east side of the road this week too.  Route 168 goes into the foothills then White Mountains.  A branch off that goes to the Ancient Bristlecone Forest.  We turned back when the road became snowpacked/icy.  Some of this looks great for biking.  We seem to remember off-loading a couple of people and their bikes from the van back in the 90's.  Wasn't that Rob? 

Most of our views were from inside the car looking around Sophie while Buddy snoozes in Chuck's lap.

Why now? Why Big Pine?

   I really enjoyed my 5 years at FitnessWorks.  I was constantly studying, learning, teaching, training and just interacting with wonderful people.  When we decided to leave Culebra, one of my goals was to get certified to teach some sort of exercise.  I had a Pilates book at the time and that was a vague goal.  Working at the front desk put me in the center of things and I decided my most useful contribution would be working with seniors.  I feel like I made a difference in the lives of several people, accumulated great experience and made some lasting friendships.  I'll let Chuck talk about his golfing goals in Morro Bay. 
   I think there is some gypsy blood in me that likes change.  The central coast is beautiful, has moderate weather year 'round, has some great dog walking venues.  But we were ready to get back to some mountains, hiking, maybe climbing, seasons, lots to do for visitors.  Part of what we loved about Culebra was enjoying visits from friends and family because we were in a beautiful place to visit!  We started looking at options and soon realized that the Bishop area has everything we were looking for.  It is high desert (4,000') surrounded by mountains every direction you look.  Hiking abounds nearby including high country alpine lakes in summer.  World class trout fishing is something we plan to try.  Climbing has boomed here.  We used to climb at Mt. Whitney and Owens River Gorge.  Now there's even more developed....we're starting back with bolted 5.7s at Alabama Hills and will see how it goes.  It gets cold at night in winter, but warms up into at least the 50s daily so you can bike (finding nice rides), climb, golf etc almost any day.  Snow does not accumulate.  We didn't want to be shoveling as much as we did in Boulder!  If we want snow or winter sports, we can drive an hour up to Mammoth.  AND its more affordable here.  Especially in Big Pine we can afford to be retired and have a 2 bedroom house!