Happy Holidays!!

Happy Holidays!! Juliette and Andreas 2011

Photo taken at Crater Lake National Park August 2011.


and in loving memory of Dude who has moved onto his 10th life. 

From Wizard to Angel Island

We joined Matt, Shin, and Kata on a bike ride around Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay.
Check out the 180 degree photo that Andreas made (see below). 

The views were absolutely stunning.  We ate lunch at our own white sandy beach with a view of the Bay Bridge and downtown San Francisco.

What is that in the sky?  Turkey Vultures (Birds of Prey)!

Here are some GPS tracks of our ride...We decided that next time we'd like to camp overnight on the island.

American River Bike Trail...Fun in the scorching heat

We joined Matt for a bike ride along the American River Bike Trail in Sacramento.

It was 67 F/19 C when we started our ride, but a hot 89 F/32 C by the time we finished.  We rode 25 miles/40 km.

There were a lot of thorns on the bike path and Juliette ended up with another flat tire! Luckily, Andreas was prepared and fixed the bike.

We turned around at Folsom Lake.  We really should have brought along our swimsuits for a quick dip.

We were surprised to see people stand-up paddle boarding alongside the kayakers down the river.  Could this be anymore "Californian"?

Here is a GPS track of our ride.

What time is it? Let's Check the Sundial Bridge...

We visited the Sundial Bridge in Redding, CA  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundial_Bridge_at_Turtle_Bay

It was pretty darn cool and an accurate bridge/clock.

Back in California..

We enjoyed panoramic views of Mount Shasta on our way to Burney Falls. 

We were awed by Burney Falls (McArthur-Burney Falls Memorial State Park) which President Theodore Roosevelt described as the "8th Wonder of the World."

The accommodations at Burney Falls State Park were impressive.  We rented a very nice cabin http://www.burney-falls.com/.  There was also a wifi hot spot near the visitors center. Here is a photo of us in the middle of the park on the net (and in the dark). We could hear the roar of the falls from our wifi hot spot.

Burney Falls also had can crushers on their recycling bins!

Last Day at Crater Lake

Andreas watched the sunrise over Crater Lake.  There was a thick fog blanketing the lake which was stunning (pictures can't do it justice).

The magnetic feet on our tripod kept picking up sand.  Darn that magnetic volcanic soil!

Our final destination: The Pinnacles http://www.craterlakeinstitute.com/natural-history/geology-pinnacles.htm   They look like something that belong to "He who should not be mentioned."

The sacrifices for the sacred lake

Our boat tour guide to Wizard Island told us about how Native Americans believe that Crater Lake is sacred ground.  He asked us to contemplate on how the lake is sacred to us and what sacrifices we have made for the lake.  Here are some of our sacrafices:

1. No internet access for 4 days.

2. A steep hike up and down Cleetwood Cove to reach the boat.

Cleetwood Cove trail is the only way to access the lake.  It is the steepest trail in the park and it has a 700 foot elevation loss/gain in less than a mile.  Here is an elevation profile and topo map from our hike down.

Here is the track for our boat ride to Wizard Island.

 Crater Lake is much more a mirror lake than Mirror lake in Yosemite. It is also much clearer than Clearlake.

3. Rocky hike to the top of Wizard Island.  Here is a "Harry Potter" type tree on the island next to a muggle.

The views of the lake from Wizard Island were spectacular.

It was also cool to see the caldera in the middle of the island.

Here is our hike on Wizard Island.  The caldera is visible in the middle.

4. Pesky ground squirrels on Wizard Island that try to steal your food.

The boat tour took us to a waterfall cascading down the caldera into the lake.  Andreas spotted a deer trying to reach the waterfall. 

5. Getting hailed on...Sacrifices totally worth it.

Flowers, Falls, and Fantastic Views

We started out the day at Castle Crest Trail which is a spring-fed wildflower garden. It had an amazing assortment of beautiful flowers, or as Andreas put it "this looks like Germany in the Spring."

 We also stopped by Plaikni Falls which is a pretty and easily accessible waterfall.

Our boat tour was canceled for the day due to thunder storms.  We saw so many bikes riding the rim we decided to give it a try.  We had a fun bike ride from Rim Village to Watchman Overlook.

We then hiked up to Watchman Peak.  We had to trek through some snow on this trail. Snow in late August?

The views at Watchman Peak were fantastic.  Here is the elevation profile for our hike up and down Watchman Peak.

However, we only were on the peak for a short time because a ranger told us that a big lightening storm was on the way.  We quickly took this shot from the peak and then headed down.

 And no sooner had we gotten down were we hit with a hail storm. 

Andreas hoped that the hail storm would also mean that we would see a rainbow.  We were delighted to see a double rainbow after returning to Rim Village.  What a way to end the day!

World's Easiest Kayaking: Rocky Point Resort Upper Klamath Lake

We enjoyed kayaking at Rocky Point Resort.  It was beautiful with lots of wildlife (Great Egrets, White Pelicans and Western Grebes) and so much easier than kayaking on Clearlake. There were no motor boats and no wind! We think this looks (below) like it should be a tourism photo for Rocky Point Resort.

 Notice the white pelican next to Juliette (on the right) and the white pelican family in the next shot.

One other potential tourism photo:

Here are the tracks from our kayaking trip (1.8 miles/3 km) in Pelican Bay.