Alot of Catching up....

There is almost too much to catch up in one year......where do i start.......Underground Death hike?

my first climbing trip to Bishop....Tj, Kevin and I soloing in Joshua Tree...Paul leaving on deployment....Tj throwing a juggling ball in front of Eddys trucks on a skateboard.....can you say whip it?....lets see what else....learning to ski...way too addicting..who needs snowboarding when you can ski?........well im gonna try and keep this updated for real this time but you know how it goes....later daze

Another Hike

Today I met up with Ricardo and we decided to go hiking so we found this turn out on the padua side just before it goes up Baldy Road and started walking and found a cool Lupine Area that was just filled with Lupines. We chilled there for a minute then started the hike back up the fire road and it actually started to kick it up a notch and was getting to my calves and fast. We Got to where it splits off and goes down to Claremont Wilderness we decide then to summit the closest peak and let me tell you it wasnt easy i was hurting the whole way but we pushed on and my hat is off to Ricardo for pushing it in flip flops. Too intense for me to do in flip flops but kudos to him. We then hit the summit of it and the view looked like this.........
It was a good hike and an even better view then on the way down we kicked it into gear and ran down some sketchy sections and saw a Garter Snake. And this cool colored Scrophuliaceae Diplacus aurantiacus or Commonly known as the Bush Monkey Flower.

CRAZY HUMMINGBIRD SHIT

Two days ago when Ricardo and I went up to baldy to look for plants we saw this Anna's Hummingbird that was flying straight up in the sky then he took a downward turn and dove straight down then did it again and then once more.

We then decided to investigate, as we got closer he stopped and was flying back and forth between the tops of four small shrubs, calling every time he landed. Then we inched closer, then closer, then even closer. Eventually we were standing five feet from this Hummingbird that was calling and flying back and forth between the four shrubs. Landing on the same branches in the same trees every single time. We figured he was showing his courtship rituals and trying to call a mate or something but it was definitely one of the coolest things i have ever seen happen in nature.

It was even cooler that he was comfortable with us being five feet from him and he was not even worried, either that or he did not see us. That is the point where he stopped and turned around and was scoping us out for about two minutes, we then realized he was aware. So cool just thought i would share.

Now this is not a picture we took but this is how clearly we saw his coloring, and that is why i am buying a camera. For cool nature shit like that to document it.

Me and Ricardo and some crazy nature shit

Ricardo and I met up at 3:10 only to go on a pretty good hike to find plants for a plant collection that is due in my Plant Identification class at Citrus College. Here are some CRAZY things we saw and some pretty neat things we saw

Some of these pictures might be kinda bad but that is only because they were taken with my LG Voyager, so bear with me.
Above is some type of bee in a Penstemon spectabilis /\

The picture above and below are the same plant the upper picture is the flowers and the lower picture is the basal leaves. It is a type of succulent but i have been to figure the Family, Crassulacieae, and the genus Dudleya, but havent narrowed the species down yet. These pictures arent bad for it being just my camera phone.


More posts to come

Trip to the East Coast

So on April 29th i flew to the east coast for the first time in my life to attend Joe Siegmunds Masters Graduation from St. Leos University in Florida, then landing at Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. I then met up with Steve Siegmund at the rental car place and we took a drive through the country to Fredricksburg, Virginia, where Steve lives to have dinner with my Great Aunt Donna who lives out there too, she is my dads aunt. We got back to Steves place at about 10:30 or 11:00, packed the cars for the drive to Florida then went to bed only to wake up at 1:30 to start the drive. Steve, Steves mother and I then woke up after only about three hours of sleep and started our drive through Virginia to North Carolina, all of which i slept through then to wake up in South Carolina to eat at a place called Shoneys as we walked in we were three of like 8 people not including the staff. I then started to look around and noticed that out of everyone including the staff we three were the only white people in the resteraunt. We then left there to drive through the rest of South Carolina and into Georgia, that is where i got the first feel of the southern humidity and it was actually nice and it smelled amazing, and lets just say the woods on the east coast are about ten times better than the woods here, trees so thick you couldnt see 20 feet into the forest of all deciduous trees.

Georgia was wonderful and beautiful but i was really excited to see Florida which would soon happen in about two hours. When we entered Florida we first hit Jacksonville then cut back towards Orlando then to the house that we were staying at in Zephyrhills, Florida. A small town about thirty minutes outside Tampa. We showed up at about 5 or 6 o'clock and the house was amazing spanish moss hanging from the oak trees.

Heres a picture of the place to give you an idea.

That night Steve and I drove to Tampa to pick Joe Siegmund his older brother from the airport. We messed around with him a little and had him walk about seven lugage carousels down before calling him only to tell him we were standing right behind him. We headed back to the house from there to relax until David and Andie Siegmund got there, the younger brother and his wife, they eventually showed up at about 9 or 10 and instantly Andie starts to lay down the rules, but w/e.

The next day we drove to the university to take care of Joes graduation costs and pick up his cap and gown. Across the street there is a golf course called Abbey Course at Saint Leos University, and ill say that it is probably the nicest 20 with cart course i have ever played and the wildlife was cool as well definetly added to the good day.
The day after that was Saturday and was the day Joe was graduating and it was cool and he was having a blast and this picture shows just how much fun.



Sunday night we packed up and cleaned the house up because we had a plane flight at 7:30 am, so we did everythign the night before. We then woke up at 5 to be there to check in and eat in the terminal.

Thats pretty much it


Sund

First Post

First post so i dont really know wat to say except ill try and keep this updated and i know no one probably cares about my life but i thought i would share my adventures whether it be hiking or climbing or bike riding so thats it

peace out