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Thirsty Thursday: Elements of Garland Ranch

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: Junipero Gin and Tonic

Another Thirsty Thursday means its time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. One of our favorite local spots to hit up for a trail run or a leisurely hike on the weekends is Garland Ranch Regional Park. Its a lovely off-leash location, so Massey can run around (and get covered in poison oak) while we either run up the crazy Skyline climb, or wander around with our cameras. 

We went to Garland a few weeks ago on a beautiful, coastal California winter day. Our winter days are pretty fabulous. Here are a few of the little bits of nature I found during our stroll. 

Get out there and find your own bits of nature this weekend!

Thirsty Thursday: Exploring Forest Park

Rambler: Beth

Drink at Hand: Anchor Distilling Co. Junipero Gin & Tonic (I'm so hooked on this gin)

Thirsty Thursday here again! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. Regular WP Thirsty Thursday readers may remember my Portland urban wandering a few weeks ago. That was fun, but I'm more in my element when I'm out in the woods.

Fortunately, Portland has this amazing forested oasis right in the city. At the time, I was training for a crazy epic mountain bike / ultramarathon event (which I am no longer training for, but that's a whole other story), and I needed a nice easy 10-mile trail run while in Portland. Some friends gave me directions from the streetcar to a trailhead and off I went.   

I have to caveat these photos.  First, I was in a weird mental state when I went there, given that I'd spent the last day and a half in class and I'd just received a funky work email before I headed out to the trails. Distracted and in need of deep thinking for sure! Second, a light, PacNW rain was falling...my favorite conditions for running long and slow. And third, all I had with me was my iPhone, so all these photos are from my phone's camera. So while I should have been more focused on quality training time, I so needed this romp through a new-to-me trail through Forest Park in the drizzle and with a camera in hand. It was like all my favorite things all at once. If only I'd had Terry and the dog with me...that would have been the perfect afternoon. 

It was a great, albeit very unproductive run from a fitness perspective, but I enjoyed the trail and playing around making photos with the iPhone. Forest Park is a must every time I go to Portland from now on. 

Get out there and explore your own new trails this weekend! We will be! 

Thirsty Thursday: George Lake Trip

Rambler: Beth
Drink at Hand: Jekel Pinot Noir

Thirsty Thursday here again...time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. We headed up to the mountains a few weekends ago for a backpacking trip to George Lake in the Kaiser Wilderness. You may remember this as the intended destination of our snowed-out Memorial Day weekend trip.

The weather was gorgeous, bordering on hot for 8500' elevation. We didn't realize that all of the mosquitos in Sierra were also holding a reunion at George Lake the same weekend. Obscene! But we haven't contracted West Nile or malaria just yet, so I guess we survived. All in all, a fun weekend.

On the trail... Exploring around the lake. Sometimes its tiring. We did a little off-trail cross-country exploring and found a couple more lakes up higher. I think this was College Lake. Back at George Lake it was time to cool off, if only we'd had swimwear. Time for dinner. Then some waiting for the evening light to get nice. Then it was time for bed and a hike out in the morning. Terry loaned me these two images for tonight's post. Pretty nice!

We've got another backpack trip planned in a few weeks, so more mountain fun ahead for us! Yay! Love summer weekends spent in the high country. Get out there and discover a little high country yourself in the coming weeks!

Massey Monday: Running in the Snow

Over Memorial Day weekend we headed up to the Sierra to backpack. The Welliver Photography staff meteorologist completely blew the forecast and, given our lack of a 4-season tent, we bailed on the backpacking. Massey didn't seem to mind though. She ran her little legs off over the course of a little 4-hour hike we took through. Non-stop running for 4 hours.

Thirsty Thursday: Tahoe Exploring

Rambler: Beth
Drink at Hand: Water...boring, I know. Tough run tonight.

Thirsty Thursday here again! Time to pouring something yummy (or rehydrating in my case!) and make those weekend plans. A few weeks back I was looking at a weekend home alone while Terry was out of town, so I decided to go somewhere. My original plan was Mt. Shasta, but after a long day of work on Friday, I decided to go somewhere closer. I'd never been to Tahoe, so the dog and I jumped in the car Saturday morning and off we went.

I didn't really have a game plan. I literally woke up Saturday morning and decided that Tahoe was the destination. I usually do a little research to figure out good photo spots (and good places for grub), but this time I was flying blind. Ended up at Zephyr Cove for sunset, above Emerald Bay for sunrise, and took a little snowy stroll in Desolation Wilderness with Massey before heading back home Sunday. Tahoe was beautiful and I can't wait to get up there for a couple of backpacking routes I've picked out for the summer.

Get out there and explore a new place this weekend!

Massey Monday: Hike Patrol

One of the best parts of hiking with Massey is simply watching her. She's pretty funny...always has to be in front, goes into huntress mode all the time, and will suddenly dart off into the brush after birds or bunnies or who knows what. Those darts almost always start with the tilt of the head and a curious look.

Thirsty Thursday: Sneaking Shots

Rambler: Beth
Drink at Hand: North Coast Brewing Company PranQster Belgian Ale (Belgian because its cyclocross season!)

Welcome to the first Thirsty Thursday of 2012! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. This past weekend was a busy one for Welliver Photography, shooting a beautiful New Year's Eve wedding in Big Sur on Saturday, dinner with friends on Sunday, and the most ridiculously absurd photo-exploration adventure on Monday...one that is sure to be a Thirsty Thursday in the coming weeks.

With 1800+ images to go through from the wedding between the two of us, today's post is a quickie break from editing before I get back to my levels and curves. I snuck in a few of "non-wedding" photos during the day on Saturday. Did I mention that the sunset was unbelievable?!

No matter what you're up to this weekend, hopefully you can sneak in a capture or two of some beautiful scenery as well!

Thirsty Thursday: Color-Free Joshua Tree

Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: Fog Head Chardonnay...Monterey County makes some yummy chards!

Welcome back for another Thirsty Thursday! Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. I found out today that I might head to the desert for work in a few weeks (who knew you could grow lettuce in the desert?!), which made me think back to my trip to Joshua Tree National Park last year. I had the privilege of having the park shown to me by a couple of incredible local photographers who just wanted shoot with some friends for a few days. It was a fun week.

I revisited the photos from that trip in the archives this week (mainly because the "archives" are getting much too large for our storage space) and found a few I didn't share yet. In that group were 3 images that I processed in Nik's Silver Efex. I'm in love with Silver Efex (now Silver Efex 2) for black and white processing. So enjoy a few rockscapes from Joshua Tree. Visiting there in winter is really nice. Just make sure to bring some pilars to get the cactus spins out of your shoes.

Get out there and do something fun this weekend!

Thirsty Thursday: More Aspens

Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: Hot apple cider...mmmmm

Thursday is here again already, so that means its time for the weekly installment of Thirsty Thursday. Time to pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. I just got back from a drizzly and chilly trail run, hence the warm drink in my hand! Fall continues to slide into winter, and sadly tonight will probably be the last weeknight trail run of the year with the time change coming this weekend.

Before I let fall scoot all the way out of my mind, I have to share some more autumn color. Last fall I spent an week in the Eastern Sierra chasing golden aspens and snow-capped peaks. I happened to be there in the days immediately following the first major snow of the year. This makes the commute from the central coast over the Sierra Crest a pain in the rear, but it was beautiful. This was the scene at North Lake. Yeah, not your typical North Lake perspective, but I was happy to work for this view away from the masses on the shore.

Sometimes the close-ups are just as good as the big views.

There's a big storm headed for California this weekend, so the high country will likely see quite a bit of snow. Heck, the snow level here is supposed to drop to around 3000' by tomorrow night. Who knows, maybe there will be a little dusting on the local peaks (probably not, but maybe). The first snow of the year is always magical. So clean and fresh.

Get out there and find something pretty to look at this weekend!

 

Thirsty Thursday: George Lake

Rambler: Beth Drink at Hand: Ginger Ale (its my go-to airplane drink, don't know why!)

Howdy folks, time for another Thirsty Thursday, so pour something yummy and make those weekend plans. As you might have guessed from my "howdy folks" and airplane drink, I've been in Texas all week at a little weather nerd conference. Not going to lie, I am a weather nerd, so I was right at home. But just like Terry's post last week, there's something about being cooped up inside that makes you want to be way-the-heck outside. So this week, we'll review my little backpacking trip way out into the Kaiser Wilderness.

As you might remember from this post, Massey and I went for a little backpacking trip in the Kaiser Wilderness, with George Lake as our planned final destination. I picked Kaiser because it was on the west side of the Sierra Crest (hence a short drive) and I wanted a short-ish hike since we were going in Saturday and coming out Sunday. We picked up our wilderness permit in Huntington Lake at 8 am when the ranger station opened and headed straight to the trailhead...where it promptly started spitting rain. Grrr. I kept getting the backpack cinched up and ready to go while passing showers scooted overhead. A dilema...do I go or do I bail? I really didn't want to hike 5 miles in the rain with a 45-lb pack on my back, but I also didn't want to give up potentially the last backpacking weekend of the year. Plus I had a brand new backpack that I was dying to use. So we went.

Massey loved the trail and her little backpack, too. We strolled along, dark clouds shadowing behind us, but bright blue skies ahead. My fingers were crossed. Massey chased pikas and I sucked in the scents of juniper and sun-warmed pine. Heaven. We topped out at Potter Pass and thunder started cracking as the wind picked up. I was nervous. But fortunately we dropped down the other side of the pass while the storm headed a different direction. On to the beautiful Lower Twin Lake, where I was surprised to see wildflowers still blooming. We quickly passed Upper Twin Lake and I noticed dark clouds coming again. The trail scrambles up a granite boulder field...one mile to go to George Lake. It was a tough mile--lots of elevation gain--further stressed by the approaching storm. I found the first suitable camping site near the lake and tore into the backpack to dig out the tent pieces. I've never pitched a tent so fast! I threw the dog and my pack in the door and zipped the rainfly just as the first huge drops hit. All five of them. Maybe it was six. We sat out a pretty wicked lightning storm but we dodged the rain.

The rest of the weekend we had beautiful weather to enjoy the beauty of the place. The upper alpine lakes of the Sierra are so beautiful. Rocky, clear, pristine. Massey also enjoyed the water, jumping in every time possible. She didn't seem to mind that she was ruining the perfect mirrored reflections by rippling the surface of the water, so I had to act fast. We had a great time and can't wait to get back out into the woods again. Hopefully with Terry next time. Enjoy a few images from the weekend.

Its getting a little late in the season for backpacking, but if you want to head out to the Kaiser Wilderness next summer (or with a very warm sleeping bag), head east from Fresno toward Shaver Lake. Keeping going up the climbing mountain road to Huntington Lake. Here you'll find the ranger station where you can pick up a wilderness pass for the outing. Make sure you have your bear can...I didn't see any bears, but I saw signs of them.