Climbing high

This weekend was an interesting one in that quite a bit happened, but mostly it was a quiet weekend.

Came in on Friday and enjoyed a dessert with a friend while chatting about what we each were doing this weekend. None of us noted the tragedy of the massacre in Aurora. Nothing here we can speculate about, let the police do their job and the families heal.

Saturday helped Dad with the drip system and weather station. Stupid juniper bush gave me a rash that I dealt with all day. But got the ground cleared around it and water flowing again so it stops turning brown. Weather station wasn't transmitting so had to crawl up to it and give it a good solid whack to get it working (as well as push the reset button). Afterwards, Puzzleman swung by and it was time to go hiking. The plan was to go around the Kingsbury North section of the Tahoe Rim Trail and pick up the numerous caches along there. The first one was about three miles from the trailhead and knowing how freaking slow I walk lately, I suggested driving up then back to hike the closer ones. Well, we ended up driving all over up there and grabbing several outlying caches (with two DNFs) before going to dinner. My buddy has a neat thing he does with the waiters and this time ended up with a gumbo dish that reportedly was good. I'll stick with my steak thank you! We then went back and set up camp to stargaze and just chat about stuff.

Then the coyote hunters rolled in. Yeah, that was interesting to say the least...

Sunday morning we drove back down trail a bit and took a bushwhack short cut down to the TRT. The third cache we went for left a bitter taste in my mouth and almost had me truly quitting right there. It was a small pill bottle tucked up under a rock overhang that created a small shelter. The problem was it was several hundred feet up the mountain side, pushing through thick manzanita, fallen pine trees, dead branches, and slippery rocks. About a hundred feet away I was silently complaining about the placement. I mean really? What's the point!? (mental version had a few more choice words as colorful as the rainbow.) I was happy to get back on trail but afterwards had really low interest in even bothering to look for others. We did stop at the ones along the trail, but I was more focused on keeping my pace steady, my breathing regular, and my knee functioning. I think the best part of the day was when we ran into a family with kids and introduced them to the fun of geocaching. (See, I can promote how fun and exciting this is even if I am personally getting to hate it.) Then it was back down the hill to grab lunch and a drink while talking about the weekend before going to clear a few DNFs that he had. A lightning storm had started a big fire in the Pinenuts so I watched the smoke billow up into the clouds while he looked and signed logs.

Homeward bound through the monsoon was entertaining, but it was good to get home and crash on the couch with the kitty kat. Been watching Eureka and borrowed season 5 since its not on Netflix yet. Sucks knowing this is the last season. Why do the good shows cancelled? Damn! :-/