I'm back home from California. The amount of stuff you have to deal with when you come home from a vacation is a real deterrant to going in the first place, but I'm getting through it all.
One of my last outings in California was a hike in Riley Wilderness Park. Anyone who has watched rich women behaving badly in Real Housewives of Orange County may be familiar with the area, it is just outside Coto De Caza where that show took place.
I went there, because I had never acutally been there before and most of the trails were listed as easy with only one listed as moderate. Apparently, my definition of "easy" is much different than theirs, considering much of it was fairly steep hills. The best part was trying to get my extra-large, less than agile body across a small creek with no bridge. It wouldn't have been so bad if the sides hadn't erroded away making the banks at least twice as wide as the water was. The long jump is definately not my sport. But I made it with a small splash and a lot of mud, but there was no one to see my ungraceful bound so it never happened, right?
After wheezing and panting up a hill more vertical than horizontal, they were at least kind enough to provide a bench on which to die. On the way down the other side, I came to a fork where one way took you to more trails and some "scenic view" spots, and the other took you back to the parking lot. I'm sad to say, I took the second. My back and knees don't do well on hills, especially when schlepping many pounds of camera equipment around with me.
But I enjoyed the shortened walk on a beautiful day and leaving early put me in the path of the cutest squirrel (or maybe a chipmunk?) trying oh so hard to tug some potential nest bedding out of the dried mud and having very little success. Way too cute for words.
