Day Two of our October weekend in Pismo found us again undecided about where to hike. Jane had some work to do preparing for a talk she’s giving at church, so we knew we’d get a late start. It was supposed to be warm in SLO so we originally thought we’d get out to…
Well, finally! After nearly seven weeks of various commitments occupying the bulk of our weekend attentions, we found ourselves with a free weekend in Pismo Beach. Among the hiking options we’ve been considering is the coastal access trail in Harmony Headlands State Park, located along Highway 1 between Cayucos and Cambria – formerly private…
It was Labor Day, and time once again for Chris and Jane’s Excellent Adventure, the annual hike we lead with family and friends in tow. Last year’s event was canceled since Chelsea was potentially going to deliver Ollie a month early, so we chose for this year’s destination the same one we were to…
We hadn’t spent any time at the trailer in Pismo since the end of May, so we were looking forward to a long weekend here (made a little longer now since Chris didn’t have to be back home for Sunday afternoon music obligations). So, we planned for Friday a long loop through the northern…
We just couldn’t get motivated for a long drive this weekend, so we had decided to simply hike up, down, and along the bluffs first thing in the morning before the day got too warm. However, Jane proposed that, since we’d be up on the east side of town already, we should just keep…
After nearly three weeks of no hikes since our last outings in Hawaii, we were eager to get back in the saddle, so we planned to drive to Quaking Aspen and tackle the 10-mile roundtrip up and down Slate Mountain early this Saturday morning. However, after Jane got very little sleep Friday night and our…
One area of Maui that we had yet to visit was Makawao State Forest Reserve, so we decided to spend Chris’ last full day exploring here. Makawao is in the “upcountry”, the farming and ranching region strung out north-to-south along Haleakala’s western slopes, lying on the northwest shoulder of the volcano. The landscape is…
On our way back down from the summit of Haleakala, we decided to stop just prior to exiting the national park and walk the short but remarkable Hosmer Grove nature trail. There is a campground here as well as the park headquarters, but the main attraction is a unique alien forest, meaning that the…
After returning from our short hike down the Halemauu trail, we drove up to the top of Haleakala once again, not really because we wanted to go there a third time but because we wanted to check out the short overlook trails along the west rim, the uppermost one of which can only be…
We went out for dinner after Mass on Saturday night, discussing a wild hair idea to revisist Haleakala early Sunday morning – we were hoping to catch the north side of the mountain without cloud cover so we could see the views we had missed when completing our hike through the crater in a…