Marble Mountains - September Snow

Tamara Lopez and myself hiked to the Sky High Lakes in the Marble Mountains during late September. I was getting over a strained calf muscle in my left leg so the going was slow. Nevertheless I dragged myself uphill for 6.5 miles. Near 5000 feet above sea level, cold showery rain changed somewhat unexpectedly to snow, and before we knew it, we were hiking across an inch of fresh wet flakes. Our shoes soaked through in no time, and our clothing choices for this hike were not optimal for early winter weather...it was a cold wet miserable hike, but despite the weather, we were thrilled to hike in the first snow of the season, and the mountain scenery was pretty fantastic. We reached the Sky High Lakes after 4 hours of hiking...drank a celebratory beer, and then headed back toward the trailhead.

Originally Tamara and I planned to hike with Tamara's friends from Crescent City...but they took off late from their home, so Tamara and I started the hike without them. We assumed they might have changed their plans and cancelled the hike...however, as we were hiking back down toward my truck we encountered them...we all chatted a bit, wished them good luck camping up in the alpine zone, and then hobbled our way back down.

After reaching my truck, we made a quick drive to Etna for dinner at the Etna Brewing Company...I definitely recommend this place if you are passing through the area...great food, good beer and spirits, and excellent atmosphere.

National Weather Association Annual Conference - Huntsville, Alabama

I attended the 2019 National Weather Association conference in Huntsville, Alabama during early September. The conference was very much oriented toward the social science aspects of meteorology...which I suppose is not a bad thing given my limited experience in the subject. There were some good meteorology talks as well, especially pertaining to Vortex-Southeast. The poster sessions were informative also, and I appreciated the chance to talk one-on-one with experts in subjects ranging from new satellite techniques for detecting wildfires, to new tools for communicating with users of NWS forecasts, to severe thunderstorms initiated by wildfires in the Texas Panhandle, and much much more. But perhaps the highlight of the conference was watching my old Paducah, KY SOO Pat Spoden receive an NWA member of the year award...Pat was a great mentor to me and the rest of the staff at Paducah...way to go Pat!

I was fortunate to reconnect with old friends, such as Carly Kovacik, Walker Ashley, Doug Spheger, Jared Guyer, Bryan Smith, Jeff Peters, and Jeremy Martin...and I'm grateful for the new friends I picked up during the trip while going out to eat for lunch, and grabbing beers during the evening.

I also got a chance to tour downtown Huntsville during my last day in Alabama. The downtown area is beautiful, clean, and lacks the homeless population that plagues my current hometown in Eureka, CA. I walked past the building in which the Alabama Constitution was signed. I also toured the NASA space museum located on the western outskirts of Huntsville, which featured a 2/3-rds scale Space Shuttle parked outside the museum. During my time at NASA, I was privileged to attend a talk by David Concannon, who led a team funded by Jeff Bazos to retrieve the NASA Saturn moon rockets from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. All in all Huntsville is a fantastic place in my opinion...I would have no gripes living and working in northern Alabama.

An assortment of pictures from my trip, which I plan to add captions to--eventually, are posted below.

Lyons Ranch Loop - Redwood National Park

I hiked the Lyons Ranch Loop for what was probably the fifth time in the last year during mid September with Tamara Lopez. As usual, the sun was shinning brilliantly bright up above the forested valleys far below our ridge top trail. In addition, during our drive through the redwoods to the trailhead, we encountered an amazing display of sun-beams filtered by tall trees and fog and mist. It was a very magical sight.

Bumpass Hell - Lassen Volcanic National Park

Tamara Lopez and I hiked out to Bumpass Hell in Lassen Volcanic National Park during early September. This is a feature I had not yet explored in Lassen. Bumpass Hell is basically a hydrothermal vent connecting the surface to a magma chamber deep underground. Water and mud is constantly boiling, and the smell of hydrogen sulfide is almost overwhelming. This area was once part of the main vent feeding Mount Tehama, a massive prehistoric volcano that eroded away due to chemical weathering--Brokeoff Mountain, a peak I hiked earlier in the summer, is the largest remnant of Tehama.

The main trail to Bumpass Hell remains closed due to park service restoration. However, a section of Bumpass can be reached by hiking 2.5 miles from the Kings Creek picnic area.

Castle Crags State Park

Tamara Lopez and myself hiked Castle Crags State Park in Northern California during early September. I hiked this granite pluton a couple of years ago, and it was just as fun and scenic the second time around. The views of Shasta were stupendous; the crags were even craggier; and the sun was shining brilliantly. Just another perfect summer day in Northern California. I've come to love this region a lot...it is the epitome of the western United States.