This weather blows!

I am so sick of the Santa Ana winds. We So Cal natives get the fire winds usually in the fall but this year has been different and the last 9 days we have had temperatures exceeding 80 degrees. It's getting old already.

I went back to Tar Creek on the 17th for some R&R. I wound up doing 2 hours of trail work. I've taken to carrying trimming shears with me so I cut back a bunch of sage and manzanita and shoved some rocks around. I kind of consider Tar Creek to be mine so I felt that I had some house-work to do. As a reward for the day's efforts I was blessed with a glimpse of "my" condor doing lazy circles over the lower part of the canyon. I've seen him numerous times, as close as 5 feet away and have begun to take it granted that he'll make an appearance when I'm in "my" canyon. He even left me a blood feather once. Easy to forget that he's one of the most endangered birds on the planet.

I'm starting to plan for the spring mountaineering adventure. Split Mountain looks big and scary but Middle Palisade looks even more so. Dave and I have to work out which routes we'll take up those monsters but we'll be bringing rope, harness, and gear. No more scrambling up the Class 3 route to the summit, at least not this year.

Sorry, no pictures on this post. I'll try to live a more interesting life in the coming weeks.