Bad Knees Travel,

Western Route Trail: Dogs on leash, Wheelchair: nope, Outhouses at parking lot  Milage: 2.2   400 ft gain, steep in places Web site             Map In the middle of the flooding, hiking must continue. And currently have two goals. The first is to get to a 5 mile day by Easter. That means that I need to walk every day. The second is to hit every Sonoma County Park this year. So yesterday I dashed between storms to do Taylor Mountain. As I look back at the photos, I notice the dominance of green, fresh grass green. This is one of the newest parks and is, as in the name, a mountain. Breath taking views, windy at the top. Lots of friendly folk on the trail. These are the dedicated hikers, willing to brave the mud and potential rain. I took the Western Route Trail. It is a lovely loop, but does feature 400+ gain. Lots of stream activity. Fat squirrels, and a well fed coyote. The trail was clear, but there were times that my chant was “I love wool sox. I love wool sox.” There is

Joel and boobies The Galapagos trip ended up being a saga rather than a post. This will be the last post on this trip.  It was amazing. This post is dedicated to all of the folk that helped me get back on the trail, and stick to it.   For links to the whole trip please go to the first Galapagos post. This was our last day in the Galapagos. At this point I was whooped, tired, spent.  Look carefully at the time table listings.  Brutal hours. A million thanks to Lulu for insisting that I go  on this last walk. I was was going to forego this last walk.  I thought it was one of the rougher ones, and I did not want to give out and make everyone miss their flight. The whole point of this particular walk was to see the sun rise. What I didn't understand until later, is that this early, early time is the most active time for the birds. The boobies feed just after dawn. They fly along the shore, looking for schools.  The lead bird sees an opportunity, and starts the dive. Beak closed, they d