Hiking with Friends!

June 26^th/27^th

Last week we advertised via Facebook to all our friends about the “Hiking with Friends” group hike, and I think the word is out not to go hiking with us. Only one person joined us on the hike and she isn’t even on Facebook! Really people, it only seems like a 9 mile hike, even though it’s 13 miles! And towards the last part of the hike, there are no more hills, just a steady downhill for a good half a mile.

Well the one person who joined us was our friend AJ. She loves hiking almost as much as we do. Saturday started off cool but warmed up once we started up the grueling hill of Moro Ridge. However, this time it wasn’t as grueling since Patti and I both are using trekking poles, also known as “Dorky Poles” according to her daughter, thanks Katie! The poles might be considered dorky (which I thought as well) until I purchased mine to help me during the long downhill ascent of the Gaviota Peak hike. What I found out during that hike was the poles actually helped on the up hills too. It’s like you have four legs! I let Patti try them during the Gaviota hike and she commented on how they made her feel like she was flying. So we both used our new trekking poles on the El Moro hike and they really made the hike more enjoyable.

Once we got to the top we added more rocks to the Lucy memorial. It’s becoming a home to a bunch of rabbits now. I think they like the safety of the stone walls. Well, the weather warmed up and we started off towards Bommer Ridge…We mentioned that it was warming up and chances were we would be seeing some snakes. It wasn’t long after that we ran across a garter snake. I really don’t think I’ll ever be able to catch one of them out in the bush cuz they are just too fast. Once they see you, they’re gone! I’ve caught them before, but it was in water. No water up there. Now AJ’s a little worried since she hates snakes. I think Patti is starting to get use to them. After we hit No Name Ridge I was thinking our chances will be getting a lot better in seeing and maybe even catching a snake or two. This 3 miles stretch of trail is crawling with snakes. Just about a half mile into it we saw our first snake, a gopher snake. I set my bag down and went running after it. I picked it up by the tail and this snake was really aggressive! It tried to bite me several times coming close more then a few times. I just could not get my hand behind its neck. After trying for about 5 minutes I finally put him down and he went off into the bush. Then about a mile after that snake we saw another one, and again this snake was super aggressive and came so close to biting me I actually felt his teeth on my hand, but managed to pull it away before he got me. I was able to pick up this snake and hold it long enough for a picture.

The rest of the hike was uneventful, snake-wise, but it’s the favorite part of the hike. The ocean breeze is hitting you in the face and you’re overlooking the deep blues of the Pacific Ocean. It’s a very nice part of the hike.

After we made it down and back to our cars AJ followed us over to the bluffs in Corona del Mar. We sat on our favorite spot over looking the beach and had tasty sandwiches that Patti made that morning. The perfect way to end a hike.

The next day, Sunday, Patti and I got a late start but managed to get to El Moro by 9:30am. It was warm/humid and a bit overcast. We again went the same way and once we added more rocks to Lucy’s memorial the sun came out and it was hot! We drank a lot of water trying to stay hydrated, which we did, but it was so hot we were hiking at a snails pace. We didn’t see any snakes during our Sunday hike, but it was fun anyways. After the hike, Patti and I ended up on the bluffs again eating sandwiches which she made that morning. She was so hungry that she ate her whole sandwich. After that we headed home a little tired from the two days of hiking 23+ miles. Sunday night we felt okay but Monday we both could feel our weekend hikes. July 3rd and 4th we’ll be hiking El Moro again, but we’ll be getting there earlier to beat the afternoon heat. July 5th I think we’ll be heading up to Mt. Baldy for a 10 mile hike. Should be fun!

4 snakes in one day!!!

June 5th & the 12th/13th hikes!

Haven’t updated for awhile, sorry! And now Patti and I are just getting ready for our trip to Santa Barbara to hike Gaviota Peak this coming weekend, so kinda wanted to catch up before our next hike.

Well, back on June 5th Patti and I were hiking at El Moro. It was our first time in about a month, hiking all the way around the park, about 11+ miles. We just finished filling up our water bottles and more then half way done with the hike. I was a little bummed we already hiked 6 miles and we have yet to see a snake. Right after I thought that, there was a nice fat rattlesnake sunning its self on the trail. I ran up to it and took some pixs, I guess I was too close, coz I never got a really good picture of him, but one of the ones I did take is attached. Then we continued on, and we saw what looked like a stick coming out of the brush onto the trail, it was in fact another snake, this time a gopher snake. I was able to catch this guy, and of course Patti was screaming about keeping my distance from her, while I was holding the snake. She did snap a few good pixs. And about a mile after that snake... in the distance I saw a snake on the trail, it was moving back into the bush, so I ran and was able to catch him, and he was hissing, and even opened up his mouth. Took a few more photos and sat him back on the trail, and he took off so quickly that he kicked up a lot of dirt with his tail. So now I am excited that we went from seeing no snakes to seeing three in one day, I was wishing for a 4th, but knew that the part of the trail to the ranger’s station that we were on, wasn’t really snake friendly and in the past, we've never seen a snake on this part of the trail. As we’re making one of the final turns down hill towards the ranger's station there was another snake! This one was a garter snake, by the time we saw him, he was moving so fast and was out of sight before I could try and catch him or even take his picture, but it was fun just seeing a different type of snake up there. Four snakes in one day! It was a great hike!

Now the next weekend (June 12/13)…it was a little overcast on Saturday, we did the full hike around the park again. Didn’t really see anything, but quail and their baby chicks, and some bunnies, and that was about it, we did see some falcons flying in a group which was different. On Sunday the weather turned really nice, and again we did the full hike, Patti and I saw quail, a roadrunner and some hawks, no snakes! But we had fun. We love hiking near the beach, coz you get that ocean breeze which is so nice on a hot day.

In the morning we’re off to Santa Barbara! Here’s the trail we’re going on;http://www.santabarbarahikes.com/hikes/frontcountry/gaviotahotspring.shtml

Look for our SB update next week!

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!

Slow 'N Easy - El Moro Canyon

Sunday, May 16^th - When Patti and I were driving to El Moro for our hike it was about 8:30 in the morning and we had our windshield wipers on! Not good, fortunately it was a light rain and stopped by the time we arrived, although it never warmed up like we had hoped. There was this thick marine layer with us the whole day, at times it felt like we were hiking in the clouds.

Joining Patti and I on this hike was her daughter, Katie, her boyfriend Griffith, Laura and her boyfriend David. We went on our favorite trails, up Moro Ridge we then headed left down Sommer Ridge, took another left on, Slow ‘N Easy, and that runs into El Moro Canyon through the oak trees and back to the rangers’ station. It’s always fun to get out and hike, just wished it was a little warmer. When it’s cold you really don’t have a chance to see any rattlesnakes, we did get to see a deer feeding on a hillside right off of the El Moro Canyon trail.

As a lot of you know already, Patti and I track our miles using our iTouches with the Nike Plus system. You have a sensor in your Nike shoes, and the iTouch has a receiver for the sensor, and it tracks your miles and calories burned, your pace and also the time. It’s a very cool tool to use, if you like to hike, walk or run. Well, we showed the system to Laura, and after we left our 12 mile, 3 and a half hour hike, Laura stopped by the Nike store and bought the shoes and sensor, she already had the iTouch. Yeah, Laura! What’s funny about logging miles via this system, is that it makes you want to log more miles, Patti and I always try to out walk each other. I walk a 5 or 10k in the morning before work and Patti walks at lunch. If you want to learn more about the Nike Plus go to; http://www.nikeplus.com

We’re having another group hike at El Moro this coming Saturday at 8:45. Contact us for details if you would like to join us.

Mother's Day Weekend, El Moro Hikes!

Saturdays hike was really fun. Patti’s long time friend, Joni and her daughter Kristen joined Patti and I on a 14 mile hike through El Moro. I was hoping the girls would see all kinds of wildlife. While Kristen and I were waiting for her mom and Patti to come back to the Rangers’ Station we did see a hawk flying with a squirrel in his talons. The hawk landed in a near by tree and started to eat the squirrel. Kristen said she never saw that before. It was cool to see, nature at work. Once Patti and Joni made it back from the car we started off going up Moro Ridge. It was 9:00 AM, nice and sunny on Saturday. The first part of the hike, you’re hiking right through the Mustard Plants, and you have the awesome view of the ocean and Emerald Bay, baby bunnies are running around, you really don’t notice that you’re hiking almost straight up this huge hill for a mile! We’ve done it about 20 plus times and we still feel it.

Once we got to the top of the hill, Patti and I told our guest that was the hardest part of the hike and everything else from then on was easy. It actually was pretty easy, but they did start to comment on every little hill that we came upon. ;-) Joni is a workout queen at the gym and Kristen is only 16, so they both did the 14 mile hike without any problems. We really didn’t see any wildlife on Saturday, except the normal stuff, but Kristen and I did see the hawk, which was cool.

Sunday the 9^th, Mothers’ Day. It was just Patti and I. We started off the day early, and were on our way at 8:30 up, Moro Ridge again, but this time we wanted to take another trail once we were on the top. There are only a few left in the park we having hiked on.

So after we finished Moro Ridge we then headed left down Sommer Ridge. Just about 500 feet before we hit the trail head for the next leg of our hike we ran into another rattlesnake. This one was a nice one and blended in really well with the brush on the side of the trail. We almost walked right next to him. We stopped for a few pictures and then headed off to a trail we never hiked on before, it’s called Slow ‘N Easy. So far the most scenic trail we’ve been on. It’s on a ridge in between two other ridges we hike on a lot. We saw some flowers that we haven’t seen on the other trails, which was kinda neat. This trail started bending to the left and dropping into the canyon pretty quick, once we hit the floor of the canyon we merge onto another trail called, El Moro Canyon. This was really something; you’re surrounded by these old oak trees that had to be over 100 years old, and you’re under a canopy of trees. There was water running to the left us, next to the canyon wall, and also a few caves are visible. I was wondering where all the wildlife that lives in the park gets their water and I guess we now know. During this part of the hike we heard so many birds, we couldn’t tell what kind of birds there were, coz it was just too many of them. We did see a few that we didn’t recognize, and that was cool too, because you know you’re looking at something special.

On both Saturday and Sunday we did add about 100 pounds of large rocks to Lucy’s memorial. Saturday, Joni’s daughter, Kristen spelled out Lucy for us in white rocks, which was very nice of her. Patti and I both had a great weekend. Over the two days we hiked 25 + miles. Next Sunday we’re bringing another group of friends with us. If you want to come just let us know.

The Facebook advertised, “Frank & Patti's El Moro Hike”

May 2nd, 2010 - This past Sunday our friends and family, Grif, Katie, Laura, Anjanette, Brittany, Alex, Laura, Dana, Chris, Patti and myself all went on our Facebook advertised hike in El Moro. Patti and I were both excited to see so many people come out. We weren’t expecting a lot of people to participate, and come out to the canyon for a day of torture. Actually, only the first part of the hike is a bit difficult. Once we hit the base of the hill that overlooks Emerald Bay, you walk about a mile straight up that hill. We took a few breaks along the way, but everyone made it up the hill just fine.

Along the way some of the girls collected little white rocks to spell out “Lucy” for her memorial. I loaded up my pack with a few larger rocks to add to Lucy’s memorial as well and it’s really taking shape now. This was our 4th visit to the site and with a little help, we want to eventually make a memorial wall with a hole in the center for flowers. Lucy was a large part of my life along with Lucy’s mom Kristen, and all of our friends, and I will miss her forever.

So after adding to Lucy’s site most of our group had other commitments, so we showed them the trail back down to the ranger’s station. They headed down the “I Think I Can” trail…. haven’t heard from them yet, but I’m pretty sure everyone made it okay. That group did get a nice 7 mile hike in.

Now, Patti, AJ and I continued on with our normal hike across Moro Ridge to Sommer Ridge and then took a left on No Name Ridge for the home stretch. Our total hike was 3.3 hours long and 13 miles. It was a really nice day close to 80 degrees and sunny, but the wind did start to pick up. Our original plans were to hike down to Crystal Cove for a picnic but thought it might be too windy so we all three drove to the bluffs in Corona del Mar overlooking the ocean. After we ate the great lunch Patti had prepared the night before, we were all three so tired that we could have taken naps right there on beach towels. On a funny side note, AJ really enjoyed the cookies Patti baked and ate almost a whole bag of them by herself. When Patti and I drove away, AJ drove herself to the back bay and hiked another 8 miles to work off those cookies. She blamed that on me, since I might have been kidding her a little bit, oh well. All in all we had a great time with everyone coming out. Hopefully we all will do this again real soon.

May 1st 2010, El Moro Canyon

El Moro Canyon

Today started off being a perfect day. The weather was nice, the ocean blue, Patti and I both had our Nike Plus systems to count our miles. It was just great! After last weekend, I knew we could collect the big rocks for Lucy memorial closer to the top of the hill, unlike last weekend when I carried 50 pounds of rocks straight up the Moro Ridge for over a mile. Well we collected another 50 pounds of rocks but didn’t have to haul them up hill, but still had to carry them on across the top of the ridge for almost a mile. Lucy’s memorial is going to be the best. I bet once we’re happy with it, it’ll be built with 500 pounds of rocks. All carried there by friends and family with Love.

Back to the perfect day… So Patti and I are 2/3rd into our 13 mile hike. Patti says, “This is the first hike I haven’t lost any miles on my Nike Plus” I said “I wouldn’t say that” well about a mile after that, Patti lost all her miles. It was due to human error, not totally Patti’s fault, but an unfortunate set of things happened that lead to her miles not registering. I felt bad, and Patti started stomping instead of hiking, with her arms crossed. She was very upset.

It was a beautiful day, a great hike, Patti wasn’t real happy, but towards the end of the hike she started smiling again. Tomorrow is our big Facebook advertised, “Frank & Patti's El Moro Hike” It’s the same hike we did today, kinda wanted to hike the trail before we brought up our friends on Sunday.

El Moro, April 24th/25th, 2010

Saturday started off nice and cool. We hit the Moro Ridge about 9:00. While we were hiking up the steepest part of our hike, we looked over towards the ocean and we saw dolphins playing in the surf. Out of all the hikes we’ve taken there, we never have seen dolphins before. About three miles into the hike we planned on setting up a memorial for Lucy.

Lucy was my baby, she actually was my friends’ Kristen’s little dog, but I considered myself her dad. I took care of her during the day and pretty much anytime Kristen needed me to. Lucy was such the love bug. She passed away April 21st, 2010. Okay, so we’re at the spot where we want the memorial. We planned on gathering rocks and setting up a rock memorial for lil’ Lucy. I didn’t think that there would be a problem finding large rocks at the site we picked, well, there was a problem and there were no large rocks. So we started off gathering any size rocks we could find, and that’s what we did. The next day, Sunday, we headed back to El Moro, but this time with a backpack. I carried, 50 pounds of rocks straight up the toughest part of the hike to Lucy’s memorial site. Patti picked some flowers along the way. We added the larger rocks to the small ones we sat down the day before, and her memorial started to take shape. We’re going to be adding larger rocks, and fresh flowers every weekend we’re up there.

After we left the memorial we still had about ten miles to go on our hike. Friday we did 6.2 miles, Saturday we hiked 10+ miles, and Sunday our legs started getting a little fatigued, but we kept on going. We ran across a gopher snake. I was able to pick him up, but he kept trying to bite me so I let him go on his way. No rattlesnakes sightings this past weekend, we did hear a few off the trail.

Towards the end of the hike the ocean breeze started blowing into our faces, cooling us down. We planned on heading back to our car and then hike down to the beach and eating the lunch that Patti packed that morning, but we were just too tried and drove to the bluffs in Corona del Mar over looking the ocean and we ate lunch on a blanket with our shoes off. ;-)

El Moro Canyon in northern Laguna Beach

My girlfriend, Patti and I have been hiking at El Moro Canyon in northern Laguna Beach since September of 2009. We started off just hiking a few miles at a time, which was fun. Our most recent hike was 5.5 hours, over 13 miles. Our favorite hike is the El Moro loop. We start off at the El Moro grade school, head down to Crystal Cove, hike on the beach for a few miles, head back up and start our real hike on Moro Ridge, which takes you over Emerald Bay. We think it’s the hardest part of the hike. It’s almost straight up the hill for two miles.

So far we’ve seen all kinds of wildlife up there, like, deer, rabbits, squirrels, lizards, road runners, quail, hawks, turkey vultures, falcons, sandpipers, lots of rattlesnakes, a scorpion, dolphins, and that’s about it so far. What’s cool about this place is that you never know what you’re going to see.

One Saturday this huge rattlesnake was hidden in the shade under a bush next to the trail, well we didn’t see him and he was just about a foot and a half away from Patti, and she and the rattlesnake both jumped in the air at the same time. It was crazy.