Jenkinson Lake - August 17, 2009

Cindy and Karen joined us today for an 8 1/2 mile walk around Jenkinson Lake which is located in Sly Park. This is a good place to go when your time is limited and you don't want to drive very far. An early start is a must because it can get very hot in the stretches where there is no shade. Cindy is now a full fledged member of the "Best Day Ever" gang, complete with voting rights.




























The big controversy of the day was is this a nature walk or a hike? I came home and looked up the definition of both to see if I could find the answer to our question. Nature walk is defined as a walk on a nature trail, while the definition of hike is to take a long, vigorous walk; tramp or march, esp. through the country, woods, etc.





























I don't think anyone worked up a sweat, but what some consider a walk may be considered a vigorous walk to someone else. The bottom line is as long as you are out walking and enjoying nature instead of laying on the couch, it doesn't really matter what you call it






























We weren't the only ones enjoying the beautiful lake.





























A word of advice, when nature calls while you are in the woods, it is always a good idea to make sure there are no bees in your pants before you pull them up.






























If you don't heed that advice, you really can't blame those with you for laughing.





























and laughing.............

That's not very nice.






























It doesn't matter if you call this a nature walk or a hike, as long a you call it a "Best Day Ever"

MONTERA -MCKNEE RANCH AUGUST 8, 2009

Polly and I did this hike about three years ago during  our Everest by the Bay obsession. I remembered the mountain was covered with a variety of plants that were so pretty they almost looked fake. What I forgot was how steep portions of the hike were, how much poison oak there was, how little shade there was and hot it can get going up hill five miles without shade.   I still love the hike, but will add it to my list of hikes that are best done in the spring.  I realize it sounds like I am whining, but I'm not.  I am simply documenting the facts so I don't forget next time.

It appears that Bart is very excited about participating in this weekends best day ever. However, in reality, the source of his excitement was his Friday night poker games.  Apparently he won big and is giving  Polly and Cindy a play by play of his winning hand. 

After about an hour we finally had to remind Bart of the "no personal phone calls while hiking" rule. By then he had already called everyone he knew and a few people he didn't know and tell them about his big win at poker the previous night.

The hills were a glow with the pretty colors of the poison oak.

As steep as the hike was, we had had no problem going up hill at all. We are all in good enough shape that we can keep up with most hikers, young and old  alike. However, going down hill, we were slipping and a sliding while the young hikers flew passed us. I asked the others if they knew why we were so slow when going downhill. Their answer was "because we are old".  I felt sure their was a better reason and decided to study the young hikers as they passed us by. I was determined to figure out how they could be so quick without slipping and landing on their butts.   After closely watching as they passed us by, I noticed they all had two things in common; 1) they walked with confidence and 2) they had a slight bounce in their walk.  I decided to add a little bounce to my walk to see if it helped.  Amazingly enough, it did and I was able to cut my slippage in half.  As far as the confidence, I am very confident that if I speed up  I will fall and am likely to break something that will take forever to heal because I am not as young as I use to be. That is not the same as being old.

Our planned lunch spot was located at the bottom of this trail.  As Cindy started down the narrow trail, we noticed it was overgrown with poison oak.  We decided it would be in or best interest to find a different lunch spot.

Not bad for a last minute change of venue.
.

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Finally something to distract Bart from his tales of last nights poker game. This is when he declared this his best day ever.

"Best Day Ever",  I think that goes without saying.  Don't you wish you had joined us?