Driving home felt like this...

Day 2 Memorial Day Weather.

Couple more panos.

Eastern Sierra Memorial Day.

Chased the weather to the Eastern Sierra. Sure felt good to get out in the open where you could watch the storm coming for hours before it hit you.

Woke up camped near below Crater Mountain near Mono Lake. Found some obsidian.



To the hot springs.





Crab Cooker Hot Springs.



Desert was blooming.





Pine Creek and the Wheeler Ridge.

The Slanted Door.

The Tungsten Hills - Eastern Sierra.

Coming home from work.

Pyramid Creek, Lover's Leap.







Hope Valley.

Huge Panorama - 150 miles of Northern California Mountains

From our camp on Casaval Ridge we recognized mountains as far south as the Yolla Bollys and as far north as Preston Peak in the Siskiyou Wilderness. Much of the Klamath Range was visible including the Castle Crags, the Eddies, the Trinities, Trinity Alps, Marble Mtns, as well as the Siskiyou Range. Awesome.

May Skiing on Mount Shasta.

Up Giddy Giddy Gulch to a camp on Casaval Ridge. A sunset view of Shastina from camp.



But first, the hike up. From the parking lot.



Going up some more. At least there is still snow.



Looking up Giddy Giddy Gulch. Snow is disappearing fast.



View back down Giddy Giddy with Mount Eddy and Lake Siskiyou in the distance.




The snow ran out at the top of Giddy Giddy Gulch. The talus slog began.



Finding the perfect campsite atop Casaval Ridge. Shastina in the background.



Taking a load off under the full moon.



Looking back at Mount Shasta from camp.



Making dinner as the sun goes down over the Klamath Mountains.

Day 2 - Casaval Ridge and Cascade Gulch

Phong traversing the talus. With Mt. Eddy and the Shasta Valley below.



Casaval Ridge with the West Face to the left and Avalanche Gulch visible on the right.



Drew peeking over Casaval Ridge to Avalanche Gulch.



Crampons were only necessary for a small section dropping off Casaval Ridge.



Despite the mediocre snow conditions, fun was had.

Rafting the Tuolumne River

Meral's Pool to Wards Ferry Bridge. A good trip made better by the fact I caught the two biggest fish of my short fishing career.




The takeout is pretty neato. They use a big boom to lift the rafts out of the water and up to Wards Ferry Bridge.



A close up.



Wards Ferry Bridge is painted end to end with delicate prose from the locals.

Catching Up on the Last Two Weeks

Kristen has been gone for 10 of the last 14 days working and having meetings all over the country. The states I know she's visited in those ten days are Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Colorado, Virginia, Maryland and Washington DC. I wonder if she can walk into an Applebee's and order without looking at a menu...

To while away the time why she is gone I have tried to schedule as many days out of the office (and away from our empty house) as possible. The results are over 1600 miles of driving in two weeks, four days rafting on three different rivers, two days skiing, and a day of fishing. On the rare day at home, three of them were spent hosting friends, one of whom came into town for a funeral, another for work, and a third for fun.

Memorial Day weekend is coming just in time. K and I are going to drive the car to a nice spot with a good view and just spend the weekend kicking back and slowing down. More on that later.

Amador Saturday.

Friends in town. Off to Amador County for some California schmoozing.