The Great Thing About Not Posting Much

The great thing about not posting much at all this whole year is that now, when I most need blog topics, there are so many things I didn't post about! And I can post about them now!

So, for example, this was a stellar year for lupine blooms in the Bald Hills. The Bald Hills are gorgeous open mountain sides in the southernish part of Redwood National and State Parks. Some springs, they are dotted by lupines. This year, they were carpeted in them:

 That bit of red is me, for scale. So dense. So lovely. (The flowers, not me.)

 Our little imp almost blends in.

The Missing Picture

Michael claims the picture was on the computer all the time. I still have my doubts. Either way, here is Darcy reading at the library on Monday afternoon:

And here's a picture from the hike Michael and I took a few hours before the library trip:

It's a little washed out, but that's a cute red eft hanging out on the moss. We took a "hike" a few weeks ago that ended up being a tiptoe through the over-200 efts on the trail. This time, we saw a dozen or so. Very nice amphibians they are.

Darcy In Nature

We are incredibly lucky to live in a place with many outdoor play opportunities. Our weekends have been beautiful for several weeks, so we've been out and about. Here's our girl in a few different environments:

 Two weeks ago, we hiked near Lake Earl and spied ospreys around their nest and other cool stuff. Darcy asked to be able to run a head twice and spent time out of our sight on the trail for (I think) the first time. She was never out of sight for more than a couple minutes, but it's an exciting step for her to be capable of being "alone" in wild spaces.

We spent a sunny day in the interior parts of our territory recently. This is the Rough and Ready River and it's neighboring botanical area. There were amazing wildflowers, but I haven't uploaded those photos yet. The Rough and Ready is dry most of the summer, but was practically raging this day. Even though it was warm enough for the beloved halter-top dress, we could see snow on the mountains nearby.

 You may recall a beautiful picture of our girl lying in the sand dunes a couple months ago. If you don't recall it, you can revisit it. The way in was full of mud. On the way out, we tried a different path, only to find it covered with (luckily warm) water. I assumed Darcy would insist on a carry-out on this one, but no! She just waded right in and did it herself:

Picnic At Yontocket

Today was sunny and actually warm. I was out and about for work during the afternoon and the thermometer read 74! In Crescent City! So I got a picnic together before Michael got home from work and we all went out to enjoy the evening sunshine. A coworker had told me about three hikes that share a trail head in the dairy lands of Fort Dick, so we decided we'd try those. One trail leads to Yontocket, a historic Tolowa village site. In the 1850s, the white settlers of Crescent City and Smith River attacked the Tolowa and Yurok tribes in a series of massacres. At Yontocket, local tribes had gathered for an annual world renewal ceremony and 600 people were killed.

This might seem to make for a strange picnic site, but it is an absolutely beautiful place and there's a picnic table just outside the fence for the memorial site. We weren't exactly expecting the picnic table, but we took advantage of it. Looking out over the mountains, dunes, Smith River, flowers, and incredible trees, it's hard to imagine how people could come to such a place for the purpose of killing other people.

The sun was still warm while we ate. Darcy enjoyed her standard sesame seed bagel with butter. Adventurous eating -- in other words, not-starch -- is not in her game-plan these days. She tried a bite of strawberry under great protest and then moved on to starchier and better things.

And then it was time to go play in the flowers. These rolling hills are really grown-over beach dunes and some of them were covered in these white flowers. After we packed up, we followed a second trail to the Smith River, almost at it's mouth. I have more pictures, but they'll have to wait. It's too late and we have another indoor farmers' market tomorrow morning followed by a haircut for Darcy in the early afternoon. It's going to be a big day.

Boy Scout Tree Trail

As part of our Christmas/New Year's outdoor fest, we hiked the Boy Scout Tree Trail last weekend. It is a gorgeous trail leading to a smallish waterfall. We started it later than we should have due to an untimely nap, but we forged ahead and managed to get to the waterfall and back before Michael's headlamp was necessary. Near the beginning of the trail, Darcy was in the backpack, but soon after they posed near this leaning redwood, she got out and hiked on her own for (we estimated) about .75 miles!

Darcy and I disappear among the trees (you may have to enlarge the picture to see us).

The fern mass on the trunk near the left of the picture is huge, but the picture I took that gave some sense of just how huge didn't come out very well.

Part of the trail ran right alongside and old redwood log. It was gorgeous.

The final destination: Fern Falls.