High Sierra Topix

Holy schmoley!!! Blue Dicks and Poppies!

The Bay Area is bubbling with Almond & cherry trees, mustard, wild raddish, etc., etc. It's funny: I'm trying to pull the "weeds" in my yard before they bloom and plant seeds and reveling in the ones on the side of the highway. Was it Thoreau who said, "A weed is a plant that no one has found a use for."?

Today I'm up at Soda Springs watching the glacier on the side of our cabin slowly rip the greenhouse window from it's moorings to the house. I think I'll get out there and shovel the snow off the roof (of this 2 story building) and see if I can slow the damage.

Yesterday I skied on virgin shaped skis. My first new downhill skis in 35 years. It's like cheating - instantly turned me into an expert skier! I love it.

That is how old my skis are. I want some Telemark/XC skis, but can't make up my mind which brand, style to get that would be best for snow camping. I need to head to the lake and see if there are any rentals or demo days to give some a go. Plus the expense and trying to turn loose of my hard earned money.

Beautiful! I live a bit south of you and the foothills are just starting to bloom here, too.

Hiker Duane: I recently got some Tele XC skis, too, for a snowcamping trip with the Sierra Club to Glacier Pt. in a week and a half. I just couldn't see snowshoeing when there's a groomed trail there. I got some Karhu Guides. I can either alpine or tele in them and they're nice and stable, especially compared to my old track skis with nnn bindings (eeek). Those weren't wide or stable enough to carry a pack with. Anyway, the Karhu Guides get a thumbs up-from me.

great shots - what a fantastic wildflower season this is looking to be this year. The southern part of Death Valley is coming alive including five spots, gravel ghost and mohavia.

Hiked in Southern Sierra this last Saturday just noth of Mojave. The hills are covered in green and a closed inspection shows lots of poppies, blue dick and other variaties. This area looks to be about 3-4 weeks away from coming in bloom; the blue dick is close now - I was one bloom starting to poke its head out of the plant.

can't go wrong with posie pictures
thanks again for posting - Tom

The above is Coolpix pic taken Sunday in Kern County about 40 miles south of Windwalker's Porterville on my way home from Joshua Tree NP where I caught the massive Cottonwood Wash bloom. The orange flowers are not poppies but rather fiddleneck, white are popcorn flower, purple are phacelia, and yellow one of a couple mustards. Ought to be even more flowers appearing in the lowest Sierra foothills each day for the next couple weeks before they peak and start moving up higher in elevation to the more mountainous foothills. Below is about a dozen miles north of Porterville near Lindsey. Solid waste high fiddleneck. ...David