Into the wilderness

As I stared off at the mountain thoughts of excitement filling my head. The scent of pine trees, mixed with fresh air reminded me why I enjoy the great outdoors so much. I could not help but flash back to past wilderness trips over the past three years, Mt. Diablo, Hetch Hetchy, Yosemite, Truckee, Don Pedro, and Angels Camp. Each trip has brought its own challenges, difficulties, struggles, learning’s, and successes. I looked back at the mountain and was able to see the snow covered peak.  It appeared at least the top 2000 feet was going to be cold.

“Did I bring enough cold gear?”, I thought. Yes I did I am always prepared for bad weather, especially the cold, nothing can stop you in your tracks quicker than wind, snow, and frozen feet.

“Boy, that bush looks tough”, I muttered to myself as I climbed past 7,000 feet on the altimeter.

“Shit, look at that bear, he is at least 600 pounds!” My best path may be not that way.

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Yours truly is preparing to head into the wilderness in a few days, and I want to take you all in with me.  I have targeted the Mount Lassen region of Northern California.  Base camp for me will be Lake Almador.  The agenda is full, including night vision hiking, high altitude conditioning, scouting, scouting, and more scouting of trails, and little cities that pepper the region from Susanville, to Shasta.

I plan early starts, and getting my legs and back into hiking shape.  Not sure what the weather will be in Mid May, it appears cold nights, warm days, with showers and sun.  I want to document much of what I uncover on this trip into blogs, pictures and work on finding internet connections to transmit to you. However it is always my experience that when I go into the deep wilderness that only satellites provide internet, and our cell phones are basically useless.

For those that have ventured into that neck of the woods before drop me a note and give me some tips.

Otherwise, I will keep you all posted.

God Bless.