Sugar Magnolia Travels to Bend

January, 2007: Bend, OR
After many months of talking about heading north to visit our long lost housemates, Becca and Eric, Sugar Magnolia & Friends finally made the long drive to Bend, OR over MLK weekend. We were also joined by the Seattle-ites, Jenny, Laurie and Molly. The weekend was full of snow, guitar jam sessions, Menamin's hot tubs, hiking, ocean rolls, yummy curry, and wonderful people. Thank you so much to Becca and Eric for being such wonderful hosts and to all of my incredible friends for helping me to smile again.

Brenna snowshoeing up the back side of Tumulo

The skiers contemplate the drop off into the bowl at the top of Tumulo. It was a beautiful day to be outside and from the top we had and incredible view of Mt. Bachelor, the Sisters and many of the other incredible peaks that surround the area.

Jam session # 1- learning to play Across the Great Divide to bring total songs that I am able to play up to two. Tomakin and I, of course, planned the matching capeline layers on purpose.

Eric- how do you feel about having 14 people staying in your two bedroom/one bath apartment with cranky neighbors?

Jenny and Shully waiting for food on Saturday evening

The scene in the living room in the morning

Heidi is ready to go.

Kelly and Laurie with the synchronous head bobs

The hostess with the mostest

Hiking at Smith Rock on Sunday: despite never having been there, the distinct rock forms were immediately recognizable from photos of climbing trips. As we arrived, the light was incredible as it fell over the huge rock faces of "welded tuff" (compressed volcanic ash) that rise dramatically out of the desert below.

Emily, Shully and Becca

Shully behind the camera

Tawni

Monkey Face- one of the most famous climbs in the Smith Rock area. While there are easier routes up to the top, the climb up the face shown in the photo above was one of the first routes rated as a 5.14 in the world.

Kelly demonstrates the practicality of the ear flaps on Eric's hunting hat.

Tahoe Snowsport Extravaganza

January 12 & 13th, 2008:

Shully and I embarked on a series of Tahoe adventures. After driving up to North Lake, we spent Saturday cross country skiing at Royal Gorge. Shully attempted to teach me how to skate ski, which after much time spent on my ass, I manage to move myself from place to place tolerably well and we spent the day exploring the many trails at the resort. I think Shully probably skied twice as far as I did that day as she was constantly bouncing on ahead and then doubling back to help pull me out of the snowbanks. Later that evening we headed down to South Lake where, fortified by a yummy dinner at Sprouts, we negotiated the very icy road to Sierra Camp. Driving in, I realized that I had not been there since I left in August two summers ago and it felt so good to be home again with those familiar lights greeting us over the water.

Watching the sunrise over Fallen Leaf Lake has to be one of the best things in the world. On Sunday, Shully and I set off on our second snow adventure as we snowshoed up into Desolation.

As we climbed past Lily Lake and assessed our options, we made the interesting choice to try to climb the Mid-Talac trail. Things were going relatively well until we hit a roughly 45 degree slope with few trees and a steep drop off at the end of the run-out. hmmm... what have I been taught about avalanches again? As we continued to climb, the slope began to get steeper and I began to pray for an ice axe. At this point the snow was getting really soft in the spring skiing-like conditions and our snowshoes were of little help in gripping the slope. scary. After I had a bit of a panic attack, Shully and I decided that to go further would not be smart as we had no idea if the snow was going to get any better and there was still a long steep slope to traverse before we got up on the ridge. This left us, however, with the prospect of traversing back across the soft snow about 50 m or so to a rocky scree slope that looked like heaven compared to the snow slope we were on. With Shully in the lead kicking steps, we eventually make it back across and enjoyed the downclimb into Glen Alpine.

Our path across the slope. Not recommended that you try this without some more gear. Even then, maybe not such a good idea.

The north end of Fallen Leaf Lake with the mountains of North Lake visible in the distance.

View of Sierra Camp from Baby Beach

Looking back at camp and Mt. Talac from Fallen Leaf Road

Photos of Lovers Leap taken while sitting in Tahoe traffic

Winter Break 2007: Misc Photos Part 2

December 2007 & January 2008:
More miscellaneous photos from hiking in NM and near Stinson Beach.

The view of snowy Mt. Taylor from the top of the volcanoes on Albuquerque's west side. Just in case you hadn't noticed, New Mexico is incredibly flat with these huge mountains rising dramatically out of the plateaus.

The view in the other direction; looking toward Albuquerque and the Sandia Mountians. From the top of these relatively small volcanoes, we could see seven different mountain ranges, the Sangre de Cristos (the southern tip of the Rockies), the Jemez, the Sandias, Mt. Taylor, the Manzanos, and at least two ranges to the southwest.

My hiking partners

Carter standing on a bluff above Stinson Beach and Bolinas Lagoon. This was just one day after a huge storm hit San Francisco and the roads and trails were definitely a mess with branches and trees fallen everywhere. After the hail stopped falling, we got a relatively dry (read: not soaked) hike in and when the fog finally cleared the view was incredible. While it was was incredibly difficult to be in a place filled with such strong memories, it was great to spend time with Carter and Karen and start the process of building new memories.

Looking out toward the Farallone Islands from a bluff above Stinson Beach. The sky was so clear you could see all the Farallones including the north islands.

Perhaps not the best picture of either of us but i am smiling at least.

Winter Break 2007- Misc Photos Part 1

December, 2007:
Miscellaneous photos from Christmas in New Mexico

Setting up luminarias on Christmas Eve

Esther looking remarkably awake after an early morning flight in from Miami on Christmas morning.

Oooh... Chocolate!

Cat gets a buddy with a rather rotund addition to the family.

Cousin Gabe shows off his dad's new shoes

Yup- I taught him how to pose for pictures. How did you guess?

The most ridiculous banana split the world has ever seen courtesy of Route 66 Diner. Yes it does have at least three whole bananas in in. Yes it does have three different types of ice cream, three different types of fruit toppings, and is then is completely covered in whipped cream. Lets just say that there were six of us and we did not even come close to finishing it.

The best waitress ever looking so cute in her 50's uniform.

Sequoia National Park

November 2007
Last trip to the mountains before the snow. We started near the lodgepole campground and hiked six miles in to Pear Lake which seemed to get a lot of day hikers but was all ours by the time the sun when down and it got cold! We hiked up the drainage a bit the next morning to get a great view of The Tablelands. A million and one things left unsaid....

5th Grade Outdoor Ed

December 2007:
My second year joining the 5th grade at the Headlands Institute at Rodeo Beach in the Marin Headlands. I missed my 6th graders but getting to know the incredibly energetic 5th grade class was both fun and exhausting.

Journaling at our sweet spots at Scotty's Bluff

Can you guess which one is the teacher?

Julia looks skeptical

The old military buildings at Rodeo Beach. Our dorms were just behind the row of trees in the center of the photo.

The waves were so large at Rodeo beach while we were there were so large that they were washing up over the beach into the lagoon behind.

David and Carter come face to face with one of the areas largest cats

Joannie drawing marine invertebrates in the new marine lab.

Strongylocentrotus purpuratus in the tanks at the marine lab