Memorial Weekend! Great Hiking and Great Food!

May 29-31, 2010 – So we kinda got a head start on the weekend by Patti making spaghetti sauce Thursday night. Patti makes the best spaghetti sauce! The sauce simmered over 14 hours. And you could really tell that, when you bit into one of the Italian Sausages. It was grrrreat! So we loaded up on pasta Friday and then early Saturday morning, we packed up the car and headed off to Holy Jim Canyon to hike to the well know Holy Jim waterfalls. Well Jim wasn’t a man of God at all, he was a foul-mouthed beekeeper who was referred to as “Cussin’ Jim”. His claim to fame was being known for killing the last known California Grizzly Bear for going after his honey.

The actual trail to the waterfalls is just short of 3 miles. The hike to get to the trailhead is 4.5 miles, down a rocky dirt road. If you have 4 wheeler that can handle such a road, good for you, but we didn’t so we walked it. We saw a few people drive by in some family cars, looking like they were getting beat up pretty bad. It was a long walk to just get to the trail, but it was worth it. Once we hit the Holy Jim trail, the hike was really nice, complete with lots of foliage and creeks, which at times were tricky to make your way across.

I caught a nice gopher snake, and Patti almost stepped on another snake. I didn’t see that snake, but Patti saw it right as she was about to put her foot on it, yeap, she jumped. That was on our way back to our car. I think we crossed 10 creeks, only getting our feet slightly wet. The whole hike was 13 miles in about 4 hours. It was nice to get out and hike another spot. The Holy Jim trail is picturesque, but the amount of people and the long hike just to get to the trail made it a hike that I don’t think we’ll do again. We’re happy we made the hike, and Patti made some great sandwiches, that we shared under a tree with some ice tea, that is until the big red ants started attacking us.

So that night we decided on homemade, big greasy cheeseburgers, they tasted really good. We also went out to purchase two Nike Plus Sportsbands. We normally don’t listen to music when we hike together, and to bring our iTouches with us just to record miles when we could wear a wristband that does the same thing, it was only natural that we would pick up the Nike Plus Sportsbands, plus Katie just got one and hers looked so cool, we decided we needed one too.

Sunday morning we decided to go hike El Moro, this time with Nancy and John. Nancy was a fitness instructor and John loves backpacking and does so all over California. Patti and I always think it’s no big deal hiking at El Moro, and for those who are reading this, and want to join us, please think twice. The first part of the hike is almost straight up the hill for two miles and then there are small hills for the next 10 miles. Nancy and John did great, but they both wished they started off with a 5 mile hike instead. It was nice to have them along and the weather was prefect.

Sunday night and we downed another big greasy cheeseburger and decided to hit El Moro early, about 7:00 AM Monday, coz it’s starts warming up earlier now. It was a nice hike early, and we did see dolphins playing in the surf while we were making our way up Moro Ridge. Once we got up to the top, I thought for sure we were going to see a rattlesnake or two, but we didn’t see any snakes, but we did see a few snake trails. For the first time in about a month, Patti and I did our full hike, all the way around El Moro State Park. It took us 3.5 hours but the time went by so fast, it seemed like it was only two hours. We made it back home around noon. Patti made us a huge breakfast and we sipped on mimosa…very nice and tasty!

One thing I forgot, on Sunday, hiking with Nancy and John we hike a small portion of, Elevators, which is a trail, and the last trail we needed to complete our goal of hiking every trail at El Moro! We celebrated with a marinated pork loin, which was so “melt in your mouth” good!

It was a great weekend. We wish every weekend was a 3-day weekend!