Small trips continued.
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Mountain dog..
This is a great sunset at Deception Pass.
The bridge going to Deception Pass, it's the only way to drive onto Whidbey Island. I stopped to watch the sunset and let Ash stretch her legs.
This is me pointing to this huge fallen tree that had grown all kinds of ferns and stuff on it's base. We were just hiking somewhere in the forest and I thought it was cool. You totally have to see it in person, it looked very surreal, with it's roots pointing wildly all directions and the dark rich soil mixed with the bright green of new growth, it was great. Me and Liberty Bell rock. I climbed to the top of the right spire, more on the backside of it. We hiked up the center valley then did 6 pitches to the top, it's called the Beckey Route. We had camped overnight and started early in the morning, rappelled down as the sun set and hiked out in the dark. It was like 3 miles on the trail, so it was quite interesting. My body was so tired I could barely walk to the car. I had one cool experience, as I came down the trail a mountain goat was coming up. It was a large one too, probably male. I just happened to be standing at a part of the trail that narrowed with a rock wall on one side and a pile of rocks on the other. I was going down, he was going up, so I just stopped and looked at the goat. The goat stopped and looked at me, then kept coming toward me. I knelt down to be less threatening and kept still. The goat came within 2 feet of me and jumped up onto the rocks, then he just stood there and looked at me. His breath was hot in the cold mountain air and the steam came from his nose slowly. He wasn't even out of breath from the long journey up the steep trail. I was totally impressed. Finally he let out a big huff of air and went around me, barely looking as he passed by me, but keeping an eye on me just in case. It was the coolest wild animal adventure I'd ever had.
This was a trip to San Diego CA and Ensenada Mexico. This was the biggest slice of pizza I'd ever seen. We stopped at this pizza place in San Diego and I asked for 2 slices for myself. I had no idea what I was in for. I just had to get a picture, it was amazing. Needless to say I never finished both pieces. After a day or so in CA, we drove down to Ensenada to the ranch we were gonna stay at. They had all kinds of stuff to do, unfortunately it rained so much we decided to leave early. This was the famous blow hole by the ocean that all the tourists go to see. It was pretty neat, we got wet, tried to get the perfect picture with water in the background and then got lunch and did some shopping before we left.
We did get in some horseback riding at the ranch on our last day. My horse was a bit stubborn and I had to really pull him around to get him to move and keep up with the group. He would stop and eat the grass along the trail alot too. When we came down this slope I was a bit afraid we'd fall with all the ruts from all the rain and mudslides but the horse had steady footing and we made it down just fine. He was a good trail horse if nothing else. When we came to a small place where the trail had washed away the horse just jumped it and scared the heck out of me, but he knew what he was doing, I was the one that was freaking out. It was the best ride I'd ever been on, real back country stuff, I loved it, but my butt hurt so baaaaaddddddd. :)
After our adventures at the ranch, we drove up the coast and stopped at another nice hotel Rod knew of in Mexico. We went to the spa and got massages, had a great meal, and hung out in the bar drinking margaritas and watching Karaoke. It was alot of fun and I was glad we left the ranch. We stopped at Tijuana to do some shopping on our way out of Mexico, then eventually made our way back up to San Diego. Fun trip!!!