Bridgeport in Nevada County California is a hidden gem of Northern California! If you are into gold rush history, you are gonna LOVE this place! Just up Hwy 20 near Penn Valley, you can make a day of meandering the hills on the various hiking trails, looking at the cool historical exhibits, swim in the river and have a nice family outing!
It only costs $5.00 to park! What a deal!
And the best part is the awesome covered bridge that is the largest standing covered bridge in the world!
We live right next to Beale Air Force Base! Our property is just outside the back gate! Living next to an Air Force base can be weird at times. We hear all types of strange announcements over the loud speaker, weird sirens, and see odd planes coming and going. There is also a gigantic over-the-horizon radar structure that we immediately get asked about by friends who come over for the first time. The radar was built in the Cold War to give early warning of a nuclear attack. I guess that’s a good thing? When we first moved in 18 years ago, we couldn’t use our VCR or analog answer machine without hearing pops and static over our movies and messages because of this radar!! Thank goodness we are all digital now! However, it still interferes with some of my recording equipment and camera microphone on certain days.
The military has its secret,s and when they are your immediate neighbor, it spurs your imagination and sometimes paranoia. I can’t just go walking up to their door and say “howdy neighbor what’s going on here” without a large – fully automatic rifle pointed at me! I better have good reason to be there!
A few years back, there were 5 large planes from the base that circled our neighborhood at about 2000 feet for several hours every night! These planes carried a crew of six and were outfitted with equipment to listen in on phone conversations. We were told they were just training and not really listening to us.. hmmm…….
Our neighbor also has the U2 Spy plane that takes off like a rocket daily, flying to foreign lands to see what’s going on. The U2 can go check out the happenings in the middle east and be home by dinner! When it takes off, we can hear it climbing to its 70 thousand foot cruising altitude for a good 15 minutes! The pilot has to wear a space suit! Oh and our neighbors have a really REALLY cool drone called the Global Hawk!
Today our mysterious neighbors invited the public to enter this secret-mysterious land and treated us to an airshow free of charge!
With the Sutter Buttes as a backdrop, the show was pretty spectacular! If you are into airplanes, you are gonna LOVE this video!
Spring is HERE and the wildflowers are off the charts! One of the best shows for wildflowers in Northern California is Table Mountain just outside of Oroville CA. It’s amazing and a must see! The hike is very easy. The window of opportunity to see the flowers and waterfalls is pretty short. As soon as it stops raining and the temps rise, the flowers die and the streams dry up.
We also get a good look at the re-constructed spillway at Oroville Dam
Here is the link to Table Mountain: https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/lands/pla…
Spring is here and the window of opportunity to see wildflowers in the Sierra Foothills is very short. Once the temps start to rise, the wild grasses will quickly die along with the flowers. In just a short time, the land becomes fuel for wildland fires.
The area Rebel and I trekked yesterday is literally in my back yard (just down the road a couple of miles) complete with waterfalls, raging creeks and wild flowers galore. It’s a feast for the eyes. If you want to see this show, you better hurry, it won’t last long!
Alex and I have been going to Yosemite for many years during the fall. The crowds are gone, the colors are amazing and we can camp right in the Valley with pretty much last minute reservations! We have NEVER been there in the Winter.
So this time, Alex (my hard working husband) treated us to a room at the Yosemite Falls Hotel for two nights in the Valley… a little pricey, but way worth it in the Winter.
Chains were required unless you have 4 wheel drive with snow tires.
And Yosemite didn’t disappoint! We got a show of epic proportions! I wish we could have stayed longer, but at 288.00 a night, well, yeah… you get the picture.
OH And make this video FULL SCREEN! You need to see this BIG!
Follow along as sisters, Patsy & Twyla have an adventure in San Francisco.
First we take the Ferry from Vallejo to Pier 41 then we head over and meet some very famous people at Madame Tussauds, then we had a mis-adventure at “The Dungeon” next door. After lunch we head over to the Exploratorium and try our hand at traversing the Tactile dome.
I’ve hiked by the cut-off to Castle Peak a bunch of times while traversing the Pacific Crest Trail, but, I have never taken the trail that leads up to that majestic peak with it’s rocky points. I always continued on the PCT down to the Peter Grubb hut and Round Valley. Well, I finally did it! Little did I know, I would bag two peaks that day! We could have climbed back down the way we came, but we chose the longer route over a ridge-line to Basin peak and joined up with the PCT at the bottom. We made a big loop.
Castle Peak Elevation 9104 –
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/california/castle-peak
PS… I shot this in 4K for the first time. So, make this video FULL SCREEN and be AMAZED! I used a Sony Action Cam with an external Mic
On August 7th of this year, three women decided to take a trip on their horses from Tuolomne Meadows in Yosemite to Donner Summit. The trip was supposed to be 200 miles. However, after day 5, with equipment failures, terrain that is not horse friendly whatsoever, snow, and the extensive time it takes to pack and unpack each day at camp, they fell behind and knew they would be ending the ride for this season sooner than they planned.
Did this discourage them? Heck NO! They are going back next year armed with experience and lessons-learned to continue where they left off. I plan on hiking behind them filming each step of the way.
If you are debating weather to traverse this section of the pct on horseback, take a look at this film.
WOW what a hike. This is what I said all day on Friday. WOW, WOW, WOW! The Feather Falls trail is about 26 miles east of Oroville CA. This year it’s spectacular with the abundance of water coming out of the mountains (which are still deep in snow) and the wildflowers in every color of the rainbow! I have feeling this water will be flowing for quite some time – well into early summer.
This trail is just a little over 9 miles up and back. It has a good hill to climb just before you get to the falls, but the trail is not that hard, just a little rocky and uneven footing in places. If you are a beginner, just take it slow and you will be rewarded at the end with some serious Water Fall eye candy! And the sound.. oh the sound!
Sit back and enjoy the hike!
In this episode of Twylalword, we go on an 11 mile hike in the beautiful foothills of Northern California near the town of Foresthill. This is a GREAT hike and has very nice ups and downs and is the perfect interval workout. This trail is shared with mountain bikes and horses. Beautiful in the Spring! The trailhead is 3.7 miles from the center of the Foresthill Bridge on the Auburn/Foresthill Road. (Gate 118) You will need to display your state park poppy pass, or pay 10.00 for the day to park.
We come across a weird ode to Sesame Street, a GIANT tire in the middle of the woods, and we get to hear the story about a guy dubbed “sticky pants”!
Sit back and enjoy the scenery!
twylaworld.com 
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