Nature Deficit!

One thing I can say for sure since we've relocated from rural Alaska to less-than-rural California is that I miss the wilderness.  Truly miss it.

The unbelievably crisp, fresh, clear air.  The stunning views from the top of any given peak we hiked.

The irreplaceable calm that results from being able to just be - in a natural environment, almost completely untouched by the hand of man.  Heavy-handed, I know.  But oh, so true.

One of our first California hikes at Eldorado National Forest

John Muir said it best:   "Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity…”

I couldn't agree more.

That's why our road trip about an hour or so out of town to the Eldorado National Forest in the central Sierra Nevada not too long ago was so necessary.  Now this isn't exactly "untouched by the hand of man," but I'll take what I can get!

We hiked around Jenkinson Lake during a lovely fall day.  Not too hot, a delicate breeze, waterfront trails.  It was perfect.

After hiking around the lake and checking out some of the campsites, it's safe to say we were all rejuvenated. Including the Pugbull.  Nature deficit begone!

The location is definitely a contender for a camping trip at some point.  Might need to be the Cricket's inaugural California camping excursion.

The forest smelled so piney and fresh

It's funny - I appreciate Kodiak more now that I'm not there.  I realize this smacks of a classic idealizing the past scenario, but it's true.  I miss the raw, natural beauty that was right outside our front door.

Not the climate, mind you.  But, that unforgettable environment and magnificent  landscape that was so accessible to us.

I guess that means we're going to have to step up our road trip game and get outtta town more often now that we're in the land of the light rail, sports arenas, and traffic.

"Wilderness is a necessity..."  I hear ya, John Muir.  I think I have Kodiak to thank for that.

Ta-ta for now.

PCS-a-Palooza

I'm not sure what it is about this PCS (Permanent Change of Station for you non-military folks).  Somehow it feels...prolonged.

In reality, it isn't.  But for whatever reasons, it still feels that way.

Boarding the ferry in Kodiak, AK seems like a lifetime ago.  Okay fine, maybe not a lifetime.  Perhaps I'm exaggerating.

We left Alaska on June 11th.  As I'm writing this, it's about 7 weeks, and 4,000-ish miles later.

I guess it makes sense that I'd be feeling tired.

We spent about 3 weeks in an extended stay Marriott while we house hunted. It was exactly what we needed and wasn't a bad spot to park ourselves while we started the process of finding a new place to live.

Our temporary digs

While we scoured the area for Pugbull friendly housing, we managed to clock our first California hike.  It was...hot.

We thought the trail would lead us down to the river where Cheety could take a dip to cool off, but it wasn't quite close enough for him to take a swim.

We'll just say that this family isn't quite acclimated from Alaska weather just yet!  We didn't almost kill the dog.  I swear.

We finally secured a rental property after an unexpectedly competitive 3 week search for a house. Who knew Sacramento rentals were such a hot commodity?? We sure didn't.

So, I'm thankful we found the place we're in.  It's a cute neighborhood & it's walk able and bike able to restaurants, pubs, live music, and Trader Joe's.  I can't tell ya how happy I am to be back in the land of Boar's Head.  That's one of those items you don't know you'll miss until you can't have it!  It's the little things.

Our cute, little house in East Sacramento

 
We've been living as temporary minimalists while we wait for our household goods to be delivered. It's the old house camping scenario, with camping cookware, fold-up camp furniture and an air mattress to tide us over.

Which brings me back to my original point.  The short of it is - I'm ready for this PCS to be done now.  I'd like to get my life back together.  I'd like to get our stuff back.  I'm tired of living out of a duffle bag. 

I want my couch.  A bed would be nice.  Maybe a normal-sized chair or two.  I know...wah, wah.

When this whole 'rip up my existence and relocate' party starts to get old, I remind myself of something very simple.

It's all temporary. 

And this unfamiliar place that's supposed to be home will slowly start to feel like home.  And this sense of prolonged transition will end.

And most importantly, I'll get my couch back.

Ta-ta for now.

But We Still Love Him

Note to self:  Dogs who roll in rank, questionable things on the beach do not easily de-stink.

It's not my first rodeo with a smelly dog, but this particular brand of putrid, fishy stank is unholy.  And bonus points for us?  It doesn't want to go away.

Even after an exceptionally sudsy bath.  And the addition of baking soda to the still repugnant neck area where he got all up in it.  And even after copious amounts of baby powder and some essential lemon oil.  It's tenacious.

So about now I'm basking in a lovely combination of dead salmon and rotten sea kelp with a dash of lemon.  We'll call it Eau De Cheety.  Tantalizing, no?

Hey, at least he had a good time, right?  Case in point:

Rolling around in mysterious, decayed nature makes for one happy pup!

We were treated to another precipitation-less day not too long ago, so we hauled ourselves out of the house and went for a hike.

I wish I could say it was legitimately sunny out, but I'll take not raining and run with it.

Adventure dog extraordinaire

F/V Leslie Lee

Hubby and stink butt

We hadn't hiked this area on Near Island in a while. - It was a reminder to us both that we have so many different perspectives to see the shores of Kodiak from at our disposal.

It was excellent to get outside without it raining, but as is always the case when it comes to bald eagles, my day was made when we spotted this handsome guy:

I love catching a bald eagle at a head on angle. They somehow exude wisdom and just epitomize nobility. They also look completely bad-ass. Especially when they look directly at you:

He's all, "Come at me, bro!"

While we were tromping around, we got to see the Tustumena coming in for the afternoon.  It's one of the ferries that serves Kodiak on the Alaska Marine Highway, and might be the one that takes us off of Kodiak for good this summer.  

We see it docked all the time because it comes and goes twice a a day several times a week, so it was kind of fun to see it in action from such a close spot on the shore.  Of course I had to take a few pictures.

People jokingly call it "The Rusty Tusty."  I've only been on the Kennicott - the other Alaska Marine Highway ferry that serves Kodiak, but the hubby rode the Rusty Tusty twice.  It's smaller than the Kennicott, but still a pretty damn big boat.

 We had a good day trekking around with the boy and enjoying our not quite sunny, but blissfully not raining day off together.

Even though somebody decided it was the ideal day for next-level stinkiness.  But we won't name names.

Ta-ta for now.

High Time for a Stroll

I didn't know how much I needed a walk in the woods until I was immersed in the crisp, wintry air, peering up at the slits of blue sky through mossy, towering Sitka spruce trees.  Let's just say I was starting to grow roots out of my ass.  And they were attached to the couch.

It's not as easy to motivate for hikes when the temperatures dip below 35 or so.  At least in my case.

But, I managed to peel myself from the cozy confines of my living room and get out with the hubby and pooch to take a walk.  It was a little chilly, but once we got moving it wasn't uncomfortable.

Lake Gertrude

It was exactly what I needed!  A couple of long deep breaths of that brisk, clear air is nothing but invigorating.  My day was just about made when we came upon this magnificence hanging out in Lake Gertrude:

If you look closely, you can see that there's a noticeable amount of blood on his right talon.  I prefer to think that he just finished a tasty snack and didn't wipe his claws, but the reality is that he was probably injured.

We saw him at the beginning of our hike, and when we looped back around about an hour and half or so later, he was still there.  Bald Eagles tend to hang out for a while once they land, but an hour and half is a little out of the ordinary for any bird to stay in one spot.  Hopefully his injury wasn't too debilitating or life-threatening.

It really did make my day to get some pictures of him.  I love that when I zoom in with my camera, it's like I'm sitting on the branch right next to him.  They're so damn regal looking.

Cheety had a good old time rampaging around, too.  I think he likes napping and hiking equally.  Not unlike his owner.

So, I guess my goal for this last Alaskan winter will be to get myself outside and hiking on the weekends more often than I find myself growing roots into the couch.  We all need goals, right?

Ta-ta for now.

His highness at his post on the couch.  I think I see a nap coming on.

Kalsin Ridge

I have one word for you: bushwhacking!  That's basically what the entire first half of our hike up Kalsin Ridge was about.  Definitely not my favorite hike.

Taking a rest after thrashing through the bushes

We're talking alders thick as a mass of cable wires, the dreaded pushki, thistles, rampant thorny branches, and endlessly scrambling through seemingly impenetrable bushes. - Until we got above the trees and brush to the alpine level, anyway.  Sounds fun, right?

This was also the first guided hike we went on.  The Kodiak Audubon Society has a guided summer hiking schedule each year, and one of our acquaintances was leading the hike, so we decided to check it out.

It was an excellent weather day with sunshine to spare, and the views were spectacular as usual. - But it's not a hike I would go on again.  We weren't even on a trail, we had to bushwhack a path through all the not very friendly vegetation as we went.

It was a big group, so that helped in the whole hacking our way through department, but it was mostly annoying.  I couldn't help thinking, "Where's Jack T. Colton with his machete to clear the trail for us?"  Bonus points if you get that 80's movie reference.

Once we hiked up and out of the alders, it was much more pleasant.

Getting higher...and less thorny!

So the trek through all the brush was slow going, as you can imagine, but once we cleared the treeline, it was nothing but outrageously green mountains & stunning views as far as you could see.

This really is what it looks like.  No enhancements here!

Another favorite hubby & Puggy Boy in Alaska shot

It took almost 2 hours of not that much fun jungle wrangling just to get to the first ridge.  At one point, the woman ahead of me started singing "Welcome to the Jungle" while we struggled to create a trail. I think she sang what we were all thinking.

The first ridge was about where we decided we'd rather renew our energy with our standard PB&J hiking lunch and head back down. Somehow ascending that final ridge became less compelling after the morning slog through the alders.

I have more than my fair share of scratches and bruises from the Kalsin Ridge hike.  There's nothing sexier than a three inch, mottled, blue contusion on your thigh, by the way.  It was totally the tree stumps fault.

Cheety was a trooper, too.  I'm pretty sure our short-legged pup wasn't that into crawling under and over branches for as long as we did.  The big Labs and Hounds that came along on the hike had it a little easier than the Cheety boy.

He kept looking back at me as he struggled through the chunky undergrowth as if to say, "Are we really going to keep going?" I have to say I was thinking the same thing.

Oh who am I kidding?  A mud puddle or two and the open fields were enough to erase any unpleasantness he might have had on the way up.

Now that's the face of a content pooch.  He slept well that night!

Even though this hike was tedious & a little light on the fun-factor, it's still not a bad way to spend the day.  Kind of like bad pizza.  It's not really that bad...it's still pizza!  Sure, it was on the harsh side...but it's still hiking in Alaska!  Fresh air, exercise and sunshine? It's just good for the soul. 

And I have to remind myself that I'll pine for days like this when it's thirty degrees in December and still dark at 10AM.  Perspective, right?

Kalsin Ridge gets an "eh, you may want to skip it" review in my book.  Unless you need a good excuse to channel Jack T. Colton. 

Ta-ta for now.

♪ On Top of Monashka, All Covered with Cheese... ♫ Not Really.

I feel like someone ran over me with a truck.  Like, a giant 18-wheeler.  This is when you ask me, why is that, buttercup?

We decided to do a day hike up Monashka Mountain and camp overnight at the top this past weekend.  It was incredible and I'm glad we did it.  But.  You knew there had to be a but, right?  The short answer is the hike kicked my ass.

The Pugbull is ready to hike!

Put it this way - I've only day hiked.  This was my first overnight.  You know what's a really big deal with an overnight hike?  Weight.  Weight in your pack.  Because you're hauling all that crap up the mountain with you.  Note to self:  do not pack the two lb hard cover library book thinking you're going to read up there.  Not gonna happen.

Thanks for nothing, Neil Gaiman. (It was his 460-something page novel, American Gods)  Go ahead, ask me how many pages I read.  That's right, zero.  Just added a couple of pounds to my back for the joy of it.

Second note to self:  Hoofing twenty lbs on your back up to an 1,800 foot elevation is...intense.  What a friggin' workout!  Oh, but we were so bright eyed and bushy tailed when we set out:

I had no concept of what I was in for!

And hubby was the total pack-horse.  I'm bitching about the weight in my pack, but his was double.  For real - forty pounds of gear.  We weighed it before we left.  He carried the tent, sleeping bags, food, water, etc, etc.  God bless him.

All the stuff!

His pack was designed for loads like this, with a weight belt to counterbalance the load and all sorts of bells and whistles for back country hiking.  But heavy is heavy.  Lesson learned for both of us:  We don't need that much stuff.

After about an hour and a half, I looked about like this.  My sisters will commiserate with tomato face syndrome during exercise.  It's dead sexy.

That peanut butter crunch Clif bar was heaven

Just keep putting one foot in front of the other!  This isn't even halfway.

After the - we'll just call it challenging - hike up Monashka, we set up camp in a nice flat, alpine tundra with a spectacular 360 degree view.

I second guessed a lot of the things I chose to pack, but not one thing.  One of the heaviest items in my bag.  5 cans of Coors Light & a cold pack to keep them frosty.  Probably 5 lbs of weight.  Worth it!

I can't even explain to you how fabulous that first frosty sip was after the grueling trek up to our 1,800 ft camp.  And Coors Light isn't even really my beer.  I thought about that cold deliciousness as motivation the whole damn way up.  Like I said - worth it!

We had a surprisingly tasty dinner of freeze dried chili mac and cheese.  Or maybe it's just that when you burn that many calories at one time, anything tastes good.  Cardboard sandwich?  Yes, please, may I have another?  The hubby was our chef for the evening. And by chef I mean boil water and pour it in the pouch. 

We had a super cool Jet Boil contraption to cook

Cheety was highly interested in my chili mac

Speaking of his highness, in the morning after our camp, Cheety decided to tear ass down the mountain after...wait for it.  Mountain goats.  He bolted after them in a woefully unsuccessful attempt at herding.  I guess he needed a reminder that he isn't in fact a goat herder.  Don't tell him that, though.

I thought he was going to hurl himself off the mountain in his over-the-top exuberance about the goats.  They just casually glanced over at him and toddled away on the cliff side.  Maybe he was a cattle dog in his past life.  After that debacle, his roaming privileges were revoked.  Can't be having Pugbulls fling themselves off cliff sides.

That's a naughty goat dog!

We were treated to a gorgeous sunset at the typical summer in Alaska hour of 11:10PM.  We're about a week from the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, and then the days start getting shorter again.  The sunset didn't disappoint.

I'm glad we pulled the trigger and committed to the mountain over night camping trip.  It was beautiful, and unforgettable in all sorts of ways.  Good & bad!  But, I don't know whether I'd want to embark on a part two!  Maybe a less intense hike.  Something a little more low key at perhaps a lower elevation.  And no hard cover books in the pack!  But beers?  Oh, yes.

Ta-ta for now.

I love this family picture!