California Wandering

 One of my regrets of leaving CA is being away from hiking the marvelous hills and mountains, either alone or with friends or ESPECIALLY with The Sonoma County Wanderers. I delighted in the steep hills, massive trees, windswept rocky coasts, and open vistas. The east coast is FLAT, until one gets up into Maine. I loved St John for this reason, although the heat made hiking hard for me, especially in summer months. Maine delights me, especially Mt Desert: perhaps I'll spend much more time there this summer.

ANYWAY, I loved this last visit to Sonoma: I went on two trips with my Wanderer friends, once I had regained confidence in my knees and feet. The second was the Carson Falls trail, an 8-mile loop with a bit over 1/5 mile of climbing. We hiked through scrubby brush blossoming after a nice wet winter and along chuckling creeks under a canopy of towering redwood second growth. This rough-hewn bridge delighted me...

 as did the huge redwood....

and the red-bellied newt on the verdant creek-side moss.

It is surely one of the great pleasures of life to be in nature with people who are similarly inclined to appreciate these delights. 

Now I'm in St John with dear old friends, working on their boat, trying out things like open mic night (WAY too loud, but nice folks there), and generally adding to my carefully accumulated store of good memories.