This wonderful trail in the Northern California Sierra, with abundant spectacular views is a must-do if you traverse around Donner Summit. The trail starts on the PCT just down the road from Donner Ski Ranch. You then take the Mount Judah loop trail from the PCT. Don’t forget to hike up to the summit of Donner Peak while on your way around and look out the “window” onto Donner Lake! WOW!
DON’T FORGET TO HIT THAT FOLLOW BUTTON AND PUT IN YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS SO YOU DON’T MISS MY NEXT AWESOME ADVENTURE!
Loney Meadow and Bowman Mountain are located in the Northern Sierra in Nevada County California. This 8 mile look is abundant with spectacular views, wildflowers, old growth pine forests and is probably in my top 3 favorite places to hike!
WOW.. it’s been a pretty lame winter here in California. Not like last year! We finally got a little powder in the Sierra, so we took advantage of the winter wonderland! Let’s go for a walk in some white stuff!
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 –
2017 is the year of record snow and raging waters in California. I’ve been hearing about hikers fording creeks and streams in the High Sierra and having near death experiences. Hiking in the mountains definitely has its challenges this summer! Fordyce creek is in Northern California portion of the Sierra just North of I-80 off of Hwy 20. As you will see be this vid, this creek is a flowing monster! Take a rainy walk with me as we hike from Lake Spaulding to Fordyce Creek Falls.
On this episode of Twylaworld, my hiking buddy John and I backpack to Coast Camp at Point Reyes National Seashore. This magical gem of Northern California is a MUST SEE place even if you just go for the day. Our hike was a little over 6 miles each way, however, the particular route we took was little steep in places and the uphills went on for quite a while. We went up and over a few ridges.
Coast camp is right next to the beach, nestled between some hills which protected us from the wind. The surf was just a 2 minute walk from our camp.
Day one was AWESOME. It was foggy, but there was no rain. However, at 2 am, it started raining HARD! The next morning, we packed our gear and hiked out in the rain, skipping out on a good hot cup of coffee. It rained on us most of the way back, but it was actually a lot of fun! ***On a technical note, I had a weird issue with my Rode external mic on my Sony Action cam. You can hear a weird clicking noise in places. I found out through some YouTube searching that I needed to turn the wifi off of my camera! I’ll know next time! I also need to re-work my mount and windscreen. Sorry for some crappy sound in places. I’m working out the bugs in my DIY rig!
Today on this episode of Twyla World we take a nice hike from the American River Confluence to the town of Cool. It’s only 6.2 miles round trip, however there is a little of a climb to get out of the canyon. You can make this hike much longer if you do the trails in Cool that loop around back to the trail into the Canyon. AND we met a rather large rattle snake!
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”!
Sooo…. we were just strolling along the Crabby Joe’s pier in Daytona Beach Florida, after having a fabulous fish sandwich (great restaurant by the way), when we ran across a guy that just caught a Blacktip Shark in about 2-3 feet of water. From what I have read, the Blacktip shark is typically shy and leave the swimmers alone. However, there ARE instances of swimmers getting bit. These sharks can get pretty big, up to 9 feet!
From Wikipedia
Blacktip sharks showing curiosity towards divers has been reported, but they remain at a safe distance. Under most circumstances, these timid sharks are not regarded as highly dangerous to humans. However, they may become aggressive in the presence of food, and their size and speed invite respect.[1] As of 2008, the International Shark Attack File lists 28 unprovoked attacks (one fatal) and 13 provoked attacks by this species.[31] Blacktip sharks are responsible annually for 16% of the shark attacks around Florida. Most attacks by this species result in only minor wounds.[2]
What I DIDN’T know, and wouldn’t have believed if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyeballs is that a dead shark with its guts completely removed can still bite you! It’s nerve reflexes are still quite active!
WARNING GRAPHIC AND BLOODY
And if you’re like me, this warning will make you click the watch button even faster!
The food at Crabby Joe’s is FANTASTIC and I highly recommend a visit!
At 40, I decided I wanted to ride a galloping horse at full speed while hanging by one foot upside down. This is called trick riding!
Mid life crisis? Hells yes! It all started when I saw a photo of a woman riding a galloping horse standing up on top of the saddle! I NEED TO LEARN TO DO THIS. This sport was huge back in the 30s through 60s, with trick riders performing at all of the rodeos. But for some reason, it started to die out and there were only a handful of people doing this sport in the entire US! There was no one to teach me! There were no YouTube videos, no DVDs, nothing in Google that showed me how to trick ride. NOTHING! The only thing that I found was a book called “Trick and Fancy Riding, 140 ways to break your neck” that was written about 50 years ago. In this book were stunts that were done on a galloping horse with little stick figure drawings showing the prospective lunatic how to get in and out of each trick! NUTS!
Then one day, after searching and searching in Google about anything to do with horse stunt riding and finding zilch, I came upon a very crude personal webpage of a man named Rex Rossi about 20 pages deep in the dark reaches of Google. Rex Rossi is in the Stunt Man Hall of Fame. His trick riding saddle is on display in the Gene Autry Museum in LA. He was a national Trick Riding Champion many times over and performed at Madison Square Garden for 19 consecutive years as a trick rider and trick roper. He had been in a zillion movies and had doubled for John Wayne, Roy Rogers, Clint Eastwood and many others. He was also a stunt man on TV shows such as Bonanza. He was legendary. I about fainted when I clicked on his contact page and it said he lived only 45 minutes from my house!
I practically had to audition for the man in order to get lessons from him. Once I proved I was serious, he finally let me bring my horse to his ranch. He was in his 80s at this time and I was lucky to find him when I did. He passed away a couple of years later!
I became a professional trick rider performing at fairs, rodeos and private events throughout the state. I started my own trick riding team called the radical riders. I gave lessons, filmed a trick riding documentary and started the website www.rodeotrickrider.com that had the first forum about the sport before Facebook was around. I have to say that my website brought so many people into this sport and trick riding has made huge comeback. I was also profiled in this fantastic book call Wild Women and Tricky Ladies by Jill Stanford about legendary and present day trick riders!
In 2008, I broke my arm while trick riding at a rodeo and this led to the end of my performing because my doc said I had bone density issues and I didn’t need to be hanging upside down from a horse any longer. However, I still gave lessons at my ranch and traveled to other states to give clinics and private lessons.
Today, my chapter in this wonderful world of trick and fancy riding has come to a complete end as I start another chapter in my life. My horse is old and I quit giving lessons at my ranch. The sand in my arena has washed away from the past two winters, and I’m selling my custom trick riding saddle that I had specially made in 2008. That was a hard decision. But, its just sitting in the barn and I need the funds to buy backpacking gear! My new chapter!
What will I do next? Hike a few hundred miles? We shall call it my golden years crisis!
twylaworld.com 
You must be logged in to post a comment.