Took a day off from all the things. Looking ahead to May, I can see some stressful events and lots of meetings (three in one day? Really?), so I wanted to do a hike before all that. We originally were looking at a short one, but the weather was right and I had this hike that had been bugging me. Last June, I tried to do a hike with the boychild, but I had recently started taking a new medication, and it fucked with me…so I ended up having to get helicoptered off the mountain (that was a fun experience actually). The situation was scary, though, in that when that happens, you get paranoid that it will happen again, where you’ll feel like you can’t control or trust your body and do the things you want to do. So it’s been on my list since then to do the hike again (it’s one I’ve actually done 5 or 6 times anyway), just to prove to myself that (a) I can do it and (b) it was the meds, not me.
We go out Sunset Trail, then pick up Big Laguna back…pretty simple, not too much climbing, gorgeous views and a meadow.
It was a gorgeous day, weather was warm but breezy, not too bad. Probably better than last June, which was hot. The fires came through here however many years ago, so there are always new trees that have finally succumbed and are lying around.
This was a perfect time to go…lots of meadow and mountain flowers, plus the oaks have all their new pinkish growth coming in.
Seriously, there were flowers everywhere…
We didn’t see any animals, except lizards and birds…not even the cows that are usually in the meadows!
Looking down at Water of the Woods, which had quite a bit of water in it. There were only about 4 hikers on Sunset Trail, but a lot more (mostly bikers) on the Laguna trail. Bikes aren’t allowed on Sunset…that’s a plus.
This bird is loud and weird. Pretty sure it’s a
Red-winged Blackbird.
You can listen to one here…but the one I was listening to seemed to have been listening to a bunch of electronic music. He had a definite electronic twang to his song.
Walking up from the pond, that tree was just leaning there, most of its bark gone, just perched on its stump.
Some dead trees, some burned trees…
A view of Cuyamaca Peak, Middle Peak (to the right), and Stonewall.
Then we come to where I sat for about 20 minutes or so last June, waiting for the helicopter to show up. They had sent out the Forest Service guys who were already out there to check on me, and then the official rescue people hiked in from Penny Pines. Boychild and I had debated if I could hike another mile, mile and a half, to Penny Pines, but I was barely able to walk more than 10 steps without feeling like I was gonna pass out by then.
So the helicopter landed there. I had plenty of water, had drunk, had eaten. And yesterday, I was fine. No problems at all.
So we kept hiking.
A view of the meadow from Sunset Trail…
There were pinecones all over the place.
We kept going around the meadow, avoiding the mountain bikers…
Nature at its best…
And there’s water in the lake!
I’ve actually never seen this much water…then again, I didn’t hike there right after the rains last year…I’m sure there was more than this.
But it was nice to see this much anyway, along with the swathes of color across the meadows.
No cows. Girlchild would have been disappointed.
Heading back…
A little over 8 miles. Definitely tiring…I zoned out most of the afternoon, but it was good. It felt good. I’m glad to have conquered that.
Meanwhile, I did buy fabrics for the background of the new quilt. There’s a contrast challenge between bodies and fireplace and floor and background wall. The left is part of the fireplace, the middle is the wall, and the right is the floor.
I got these too. Maybe if my kids ever have kids, they will realize what all the alien fabrics are for. Or not.
These two are still nervous about each other…
Friday night I finished cutting out all the Wonder Under with Simba’s help…
This mermaid with two tails was in the Starbucks in the morning…
I finally got off the couch yesterday afternoon and sorted the Wonder Under…it didn’t take long.
We got dinner at the new Mexican place in town. I don’t believe that Frida actually said that.
And then I started ironing.
I didn’t get very far, because I was tired and it was late and standing hurt my feet at that point, but it’s a start.
Some blues for a backpack…
I’m expecting the ironing to take at least 10-12 hours…so all week, really. Hopefully I’ll be cutting pieces out by next weekend. That’s the plan anyway. Stay on task. I might need to grade some stuff sometime soon though. Sigh.
Today has a long to-do list, as always. Better get on it…
*Aimee Mann, Humpty Dumpty
Kathy Nida 