pulling on rock

We're almost at the middle of December and yet the weather remains fairly mild. Aside from the fluke snowstorm that arrived around Halloween, we haven't seen much precipitation, rain or snow. The sunny afternoons tempt me to come outside; it's perfect climbing weather. But by the time I'm through with school, the sun has set and my chance to get on the rock has disappeared.

Brendan and I took advantage of some great weather during the Thanksgiving break to head down to Lincoln Woods in Rhode Island and check out the bouldering scene. Our guidebook, New England Bouldering, features close to twenty boulders, and we decided to hang out at Ship's Prow and The Wave. With some cool traverses and some overhang with a range of difficulty levels, these boulders offered fun climbs and a good introduction to what Lincoln Woods has to offer.

Here are a few photos from the afternoon. Full album here.

a different take

If I had to name the one bridge of which I've seen the most photographs, I'd pick the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. So when I found myself staring the bridge in the eye last week, I wanted to do something different. I had to find a vantage point that others don't often use.

And so I found myself on a pedestrian path almost directly beneath the bridge, holding my camera overhead so that I could clear a construction fence, using my camera's Live LCD to help me frame the shot. A bit of photo-editing -- to eliminate a telephone pole that shot directly up the side of the frame, and to render the image in black-and-white -- and voilà!

seeing big sur

Our drive along the coast from Monterey into Big Sur featured many stops along the side of the highway. California definitely knows how to space out their turn-offs and they also know how to keep the real treasures hidden. We traveled 40 miles in three hours, stopping to peer down steep hillsides and cliffs, explore beaches, and hike through forests.

After seeing almost every bit of the coastline down to Julia Pfeiffer State Park, we marveled at McWay Falls, the only waterfall in California to empty directly into the ocean. (A bit of history: The waterfall used to land directly in the water. However, a beach now rests below, the result of lots of dirt and sand from a landslide just north of the fall. The ocean then carried the dirt around a small promontory and dumped it in the next cove.)



As was characteristic of most of our days in Monterey, we woke up to thick fog overhead. And as we traveled south, the fog thickened for miles before showing any sign of relenting. The lifting clouds revealed lush green hillsides and turquoise ocean water reflecting the sun's golden rays. From Andrew Molera to Julia Pfeiffer State Parks, we basked under blue skies and watched cows grazing on fields abutting the windy beaches. The varied landscape included tall redwoods, dusty trails, boulders and arches, and rocky seaside cliffs.

We had hoped that on our return trip north, the fog would remain at bay, allowing us to see those vistas that we had missed, but unfortunately for us, the fog returned and settled for the evening.



Lots of photos from our visit to Big Sur here.

andrew molera state park

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view from molera point, andrew molera state park

big sur

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big sur panaroma, from rocky creek bridge

tall trees

To escape the blustery winds and foggy coast of Monterey, we decided to drive north to Boulder Creek to see some redwoods. We could only marvel at the majesty of Big Basin State Park's tall redwoods, craning our necks upward to catch a glimpse of the trees' tippety tops. Thousands of years old, hundreds of feet tall, tens of feet wide and around, the redwoods towered above us, pillars of red splintered wood, sheltering the trail with a ceiling of green.



Hiking up the Sequoia Trail, we encountered the Sempervirens Falls, a measly trickle in contrast to its winter and spring flow. Charred stumps and felled trees littered the edges of the trail, a reminder of the wildfires that visited this forest not very long ago.

Some of the trees opened up, inviting us to explore their cavernous interiors. Even with two of us together, we could barely manage to span the trees. And to think that we were not even seeing the widest of the redwoods, bridges tunneled through them as had been done at Mariposa...



With miles of trails, numerous waterfalls, a ocean vista, and a beach on the Pacific Coast, Big Basin offered us much more than we could possibly see in a single afternoon. Click here for more photos from our trip to Big Basin, and for photos of the sunset at Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove, CA.

feeding sea stars

Earlier this year, I "audited" Marine Biology during my free periods. I marveled at the diverse life forms that make up the marine world, and I approached my tide pooling excursions with much more fervor and knowledge. However, much of what I learned dealt with creatures that I don't normally find on the shores of Massachusetts.



This trip to Monterey, in particular our visit to Point Lobos's Weston Beach to examine life in the tide pools, helped me to add a new dimension to what I encountered in class. Limpets and chiton are much larger than I expected, having seen them only in photographs. Anemone squish every which way as I poke them, and I almost expect to hear the Pillsbury Doughboy giggle. And sea urchin -- well, they're always spiky.



The highlight of the afternoon came when Bonnie and I found a sea star clinging on the the base of a rock, about two feet underwater. I clambered out on the rock and while precariously holding on to a dry patch with one hand, I reached into the kelp bed and extracted the sea star. We set it down in a small pool of water to study it more closely and soon we had a large group of people gathered around us; we became the marine biology teachers out in the field!



When it came time to put the sea star back in its original spot, it clung on to the rock for dear life. I finally managed to pull it up, but not without causing the sea star to lose quite a few of its tube feet. The reason it put up such a fight? We discovered a limpet half-engulfed in the sea star's mouth! Knowing that we had helped it find a meal reduced the guilt of the stress and trauma we had caused. =)



Click here to see more photos of Point Lobos, tide pool creatures, and the Monterey Bay Aquarium (including photos from a feeding in their 1.2 million gallon Open Sea tank).