Category: nature

2023 In Print!

Here it is! All the blog entries from 2023 in a book. This marks the ninth year for my blog and the eighth book. In 2023 I posted 35 times.

Where’s Treve 2023

Travels included Baja California to Lopez Island in the Pacific Northwest. We also make a trip to England. We made good use of our Four Wheel Camper, carrying our kayaks to Baja and Lopez Island.

It’s such a great feeling to pick up the book off the coffee table and browse through last year’s adventures, remembering travels and details that have already grown faint.

The book is 85 pages long. There’s no point in showing much of the book since you can simply view all the original posts on this website. We’ve been using the service Intorealpages.com which makes turning a blog into a book a breeze.

Adventure is worthwhile – Aesop

Thanksgiving

On Thanksgiving Day we congregated at a cabin in South Lake Tahoe. Eight of us: our two kids, their spouses, their kids (grandkids), and two dogs. As grandparents it was a delight to watch the kids playing together. They are five years old and a month apart in age.

Being that we were traveling on Thanksgiving Day, it seemed like cooking a dinner with all the trimmings was out of the question. We arranged to take most of the dinner fixings with us, provided by a friend of ours, Peter, who runs a catering business, The Table Catering. Highly recommended if you need a caterer in Berkeley.

In addition to the catered dishes, our daughter Amy cooked an apple pie, and daughter-in-law Serena cooked at pumpkin pie. We brought an olallieberry pie from our local FATAPPLE’S bakery. More than enough pie for eight people.

On Friday, November 24, the day after Thanksgiving, we had a birthday to celebrate and we took a short drive to the Cascade Falls trailhead, donned our hiking boots, and had a very pleasant hike on a beautiful and chilly day. The kids found playing with ice in frozen puddles an entertaining activity. The frosty mornings led to some exploration of ice crystals near the cabin. So much fun to be together as a family. More photos are available in an online gallery.

To Bishop and Back

With our recent travels we haven’t had much opportunity to play grandparents, so this past weekend we made our way to Bishop. Along with visiting family we had the task of delivering a Tigermoth camping trailer. Here’s the trailer ready to tow over to Bishop and a photo of my son’s family sitting inside. This should be a great camper for a family that loves to camp. Well designed and quite fun!

Our short trip and the fact that we were recovering from colds kept us close to home, although we did manage to get out to explore a bit. The Cottonwoods were showing color. And we took a short hike in Birchim Canyon just off of Highway 395.

On Sunday November 5, we made the return trip, stopping near the Groveland Ranger Station just off of Highway 120 to enjoy the display of the black oaks – a mix of green, yellow and red.

Big River Paddle

The Big River offers a spectacular opportunity for a calm water paddle in Mendocino. This is a favorite paddle for a number of our BASK club members, and an option when conditions on the coast are a bit challenging.

Today we had quite a group of paddlers launching from the beach, both well-seasoned, experienced paddlers and a few people new to kayaking. Paddling here feels like being in a canyon between the towering redwood and fir trees lining the river.

We split into two pods, with the faster paddlers in the lead and the slower paddlers poking along behind. This worked until we happened on a family of otters that were feeding along the bank and seemed to be oblivious to us. We watched for quite a while before continuing up the river. Trying to photograph the otters was a challenge. I did not capture anything of interest.

Along about noon we found a spot where we could land for lunch. There are not many places where one can land easily. After lunch we continued up the river until several paddlers decided it was time to turn back. Three of us split off from the main pod and paddled back.

It seems that a logging company had done some work maintaining logging roads. We explored a couple of culverts they had installed and poked our noses into a little waterfall that was flowing down the bank. We logged a little over nine miles by my recollection. My phone battery died before we got back to our landing, and I lost part of my GPS track.

Albion River Paddle

This was our first full day in Mendocino, having arrived the evening before to join our fellow BASK members (Bay Area Sea Kayakers) at Van Damme State Park. The fog was just starting to clear as we launched from the boat ramp at the Albion River Campground. This is a private campground and there is a $10 fee to launch a kayak here.

There were 11 of us and we were on the water at 10:20. What makes this paddle fun is following the meandering river through the coastal forest and passing houseboats that have untold stories to tell. There are also plenty of pilings and remnants from logging days. Along about noon it was time to find a landing spot for lunch.

Three paddlers opted to land early at a convenient spot on the bank. The rest of us paddled on until we found the waterway blocked by a downed tree. With no convenient spot to land we paddled back down the river to join our fellow paddlers who had stopped earlier.

We were back at our launch site at 3 p.m. having logged nine miles. You can see more photos in an online gallery. You can also read about previous adventures here.

Back from Bishop

Our adventures recently took us over the Sierra to visit family and celebrate birthdays. We left Bishop on the afternoon on July 29 for our return trip, with a stop at Donna the Dog Lady to pick up our dog Carson. Carson spent the night there since we were involved in some activities where Carson was not welcome.

With daytime temperatures of 100 degrees, we were hoping to gain elevation and find some trees for shade. Green Creek near Bridgeport seemed to offer a good bet for the night. We turned off onto Green Creek Road and followed the well-graded dirt road for a little over six miles, finding a level spot to park the rig for the night at 7900 feet. Carson was happy to wander around camp off-leash. Having set up camp, we discovered that the mosquitos were quite abundant, so we did our best to cover any exposed skin and break out the repellent.

Green Creek is a gorgeous spot with Jeffrey pines, aspen and willows. The California Department of Fish and Game maintains the Green Creek Wildlife Area, a 720-acre protected area that includes habitat for mule deer migration and fawning. It’s also home to black bear, beaver, bald eagle, grouse, mountain quail and various waterfowl. We decided to camp outside of the wildlife area, which is marked with signs.

I wandered around our camp in the evening and again in the morning with my camera, in this case an iPhone 14. I was intrigued by the lush green vegetation, the aspen trees and the wildflowers. We saw lupine, penstemon, and prickly poppies. Once the mosquitos became annoying, it was nice to take refuge in the camper with its screened windows that still offer a view.

Rock Creek

Our granddaughter’s fifth birthday was reason enough to join family at Rock Creek. So here we are at the East Fork Campground on Rock Creek in the Eastern Sierra: our granddaughter, her parents and two sets of grandparents.

We spent two nights here at 9000 feet of elevation, a cool retreat from the heat of the Owens Valley. For breakfast we fired up the Dutch Oven and cooked up a mushroom and brie breakfast strata, one of our favorite breakfast recipes. The hot coals provided heat to warm hands on the chilly morning. With two days to explore, our adventures included hiking around part of Rock Creek Lake and also paddling on the lake.

The trails were lined with wildflowers including Sulphur buckwheat, paintbrush, Lupine, penstemon and a host of other flowers.

Between us we had three boats, two canoes, and one kayak. We even managed to get our dog Carson into a canoe and were pleased to discover that he was a mellow pooch in the boat.

It’s such a lovely experience to paddle a boat on a quiet High Sierra Lake. It’s not a big lake; I logged 1.4 miles paddling around the perimeter. A peaceful and relaxing paddle. At one point we poked our boats up into the creek that feeds the lake and got a sense of white-water paddling. We were here mid-week, arriving on Wednesday and leaving on Friday, and we were surprised at how many people were here. This is a popular place for fishing, hiking and other outdoor activities. I would imagine the weekend would find the campgrounds full and parking for fishing and hiking scarce.

Going on a Lupine Hunt

June 7. Time to go on a wildflower hunt. I had seen photos of some amazing Lupine blooms, so we set off to see what we could find. Following the suggestion that we explore North Oak Creek Road, we ended up at the Baxter Pass Trail Head. It was a chilly day with drizzles of rain off and on, but the dark sky added drama and some nice soft light for interesting photos.

We found quite a bit to photograph including wild roses, prickly poppy, and paintbrush.

There seemed to be endless photo opportunities with the dark and stormy clouds and the patches of color. Eventually we grew hungry, so we headed back down the mountain to the Old Mount Whitney Fish Hatchery where we found a picnic table to break out our lunch.

There’s always something to see in the Eastern Sierra, and Carson enjoyed some off-leash time in the mountains.

Bahía Concepción

Today we arrived at Playa Santipac. At the gate we paid 200 pesos for one night thinking we would move on the next day, but we ended up spending two nights. The campground was fairly busy, but we did find a suitable site with a palapa about 1/2 mile down the beach.

Playa Santipac is a popular spot for big rigs but also suitable for smaller rigs and tents. We had fun visiting with fellow campers who were walking along the beach, many of them from Canada and other northern locations that come down to Baja for several weeks or more. One of the joys of traveling is hearing people’s stories. Everybody on the road seems to be quite friendly and happy to share information.

There is no running water at the campsites, but vendors drive along the beach in the morning and provide you with a blue barrel with as much water as you wish for a small fee. There are also vendors selling fresh fish and a variety of other things. We bought water to use for washing since we wanted to conserve the water we had on board for drinking and cooking. We also bought some fresh halibut which served us for a couple of dinners as well as a hammock and some carrot cake.

We did manage to get our boats on the water, paddling out from the beach and around several islands. In one of the photos, you can see Joann in the little wooden boat with a line of RVs on the beach in the background. The beach at our campsite was quite shallow at low tide, so we ended up dragging the boats until we had enough water to paddle. If I had been paying attention, I would have given priority to a campsite further west where the beach wasn’t quite so shallow.

After a few days of dry camping, it was nice to have a shower even if it was just pouring a bucket of cold water over my head. For lunch we walked down the beach to Armando’s, a rustic shack on the beach with delicious seafood tacos.

After a couple of days at Playa Santipac we moved on to Playa Coyote. This is a popular spot. We pulled into the campground at 10:30 in the morning and found the last open site. We were surprised to discover that the campers next to us were kayakers, fellow members of BASK (Bay Area Sea Kayakers). We pooled our resources for dinner. I fired up the Dutch Oven and baked up some Halibut. In the morning we paddled together around Isle Coyote. It was a gorgeous day to be on the water and the flat calm gave us the opportunity to look below the surface. We saw many sting rays.

And talking about sting rays, I managed to step on one. Ouch! Before we launched our kayaks, I was tossing the ball for Carson and the ball went in the water. Carson wouldn’t go in the water to get it, and while the water was only six inches deep, I forgot to do the sting ray shuffle. Fortunately, I was wearing sandals and after a little first aid I was on the water paddling. I think I was quite lucky, since sting ray wounds can be very painful.

While we did have thoughts of driving further south to Loreto, Playa Coyote was such an idyllic spot we decided to spend time there rather than adding more miles to our trip.

More photos of Bahia Conception are available in an online gallery.

Whale Watching: San Ignacio Lagoon

We made reservations ahead of time to go whale watching on San Ignacio Lagoon with Antonio’s Ecotours. We arrived on the afternoon of March 14 and set up camp, which simply means putting the top up on the camper. The drive from San Ignacio is 48 km with 17 of it on gravel. Our rig handled the gravel road just fine, although we did hear comments about the washboard road from people in passenger vehicles.

Our campsite was on a bluff overlooking the lagoon. There was one other campsite occupied when we arrived. We had reservations for two nights camping and a whale watching tour. We had reserved an afternoon whale watching tour on the 15th. Upon arriving, though, we discovered that we could join an earlier tour, so we signed up for 8 a.m.

Camping facilities at Antono’s are rather spartan. There is no electricity or water at the sites. There are composting toilets and a solar heated bucket shower. The staff is very friendly and accommodating. There are also a number of small cottages available to rent. We had dinner in the restaurant with live music before dinner.

While enjoying the view from our campground, we were entertained by a pair of Osprey that were wheeling around just overhead.

In the morning we were at camp headquarters at 7:40 to get outfitted with life jackets. Then we climbed aboard one of the pangas for the 20-minute ride to the whale watching location. I had both my Sony RX100 and a GoPro with me to document the event. Here’s a short video:

It’s just simply amazing to be sitting in one of these small boats with the Grey Whales cruising by, most often pairs with mothers and calves. They will occasionally come so close to the boat that you can reach out and touch them. In the morning, with the sun shining, the spouts would create rainbows. We spent 90 minutes with the whales, and then it was back to land. It’s astounding to think that while we were here as friendly observers, 150 years ago these animals were hunted.

Watching the sun set over the lagoon was beautiful.