Thursday March 10, 2016 Guerneville, CA.
The day started out raining nicely
It was supposed to rain today and when I got it going, it was. Ray and his brother John were coming over around eleven to go for a hike up behind Armstrong Redwoods State Park, which is right next to my house.
They arrived on time with their raincoats on and ready to go. We took off from my house and walked up to the park about a quarter mile.
Armstrong Woods State Park
Here, we just entered the park and I’m following Ray and John and it’s raining good, just how we like it. Interesting enough, there was a bus load of school kids out today.
Using the waterproof camera
Since it was raining fairly heavy today, I had to use my waterproof point and shoot camera and most of the time there was water on the lens so the pics are just as it was, what I saw too, sometimes a little fuzzy because of the water drops on the lens or just the mist in the air.
I was still following those guys up through a park trail.
Up the hill and along the creek
We started up the hill in back of the park walking up along the road when we came to this creek that was flowing nicely. We took a right across the creek just above us and went through the forest along the creek.
With all the rain there were quite a few salamanders out today. Here’s one, about three inches long.
This was the creek we walked up along which drains out of the pond at Pond Farm which we will go to later.
Reflection Bridge
We made it up to the bridge just below his house and stopped to reflect as one should in a spot like this. It’s still raining nicely. I call this Reflection Bridge.
Nathan’s house
I usually go in the back way to their place, but today we tried to go that way, but couldn’t cross the creek, so we had to go back to his main gate which is locked, that’s why I usually go in the back way.
Walling up to the locked gate where I hollered for someone to come and unlock the gate not letting them know it was me, just to get their goat a bit. :O)
It’s me
Eventually Gene figured out it was me and came down to unlock the gate. They’d been working on trying to keep their old green house from falling over. Apparently all the rain had loosened some dirt on the hill side and it put a bad lean on the green house, but they almost had it under control and fixed up.
Here’s Nathan. He’s 86 and still going fairly strong although I notice his steps are shorter now which might have partly been because it was raining and slippery out.
Checking out Nathan’s garden
I asked Nathan and Gene to show us around the garden so Ray and John could check it out, even though things were not in bloom. He has over five hundred roses among a lot of other stuff in his garden. This is his vegetable area.
The storm turned cold
We were standing around just outside his house in the rain shooting the bull when it got cold.The storm had changed to cold, so I was thinking we needed to get on our way so we said our goodbyes and headed on over to Pond Farm about a quarter mile from his place.
Pond Farm
Here’s the little pond as we approached it. We headed down through the grass to the left and started down the hill, headed for home. Ray and I were getting real tired out. John’s a bit younger than us, so we had to slow him down a bit. I understand as I used to be able to go like John.
John’s waterfall
We were following the road down the hill just below the pond when John says he wanted to go check out a waterfall he used to take his family to, just down below us. We jumped off the road and went over to the creek which was fairly steep with Ray and I getting more tired out.
Here’s John checking out the creek, looking for the waterfall.
We could hear the fall just below us, so I told John to go down and check it out while Ray and I sat down in the grass for a little break.
Back through the park
Eventually we headed down the hill again, back into the redwood park and through the big redwood trees. The rain had let up a bit by this time, but the cold hadn’t.
Pooped
We made it back to my house ok, a bit damp and cold. They headed on home to warm up and I headed on in the house were I changed into some warm clothes and had a cup of coffee and mostly spent time on the couch for the rest of the day just plum tuckered out.
We all agreed it was a nice little hike in the rain. Nice day.
great report