Hikes – Page 24 – On the Loose Live

Mae Wang Bike & Trek Day 1

April 16, 2017May 23, 2017livevigorously

Tour company: Green Trails Guide: Tui My rating: Excellent, highly recommend

After lunch, we drove another hour climbing steadily North alongside a river and happy Songkran celebrants young and old. (Thai New Year Festival is April 13-15.) Songkran traditions include visiting local temples and offering food to the Buddhist monks and drizzling water on Buddha statues. This water ritual symbolizes the cleansing of one’s sins and bad luck. Paying reverence to ancestors and returning home are also an important part of the Songkran tradition.

The holiday is perhaps best known for its water festival, which is mostly celebrated by the young and young at heart. Basically, it’s a countrywide, good natured water fight.

Traveling in the back of a tourist transport truck we were sitting ducks for playful ambush by hoses, buckets and hopped up water guns from both sides of the road and passing trucks. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pics of this as I didn’t have a waterproof case for my camera. (I do have one for my cell phone so I will try to capture some of the fun upon return to Chiang Mai.)

We started trekking in the heat of the day. (About 103 F.) My travel buddy Walter and I were on a “join in” tour, but no one else joined so it was our private tour. We didn’t see any other foreigners until the end of the last day.

Trek Geeks

Starting the climb out of the valley

It was a hot, dry, upward slog. Far drier and a bit scrappier of a trail than I’d imagined. Of course, April is the hottest and driest month of the year. How hot was it? So hot there were no mosquitoes even along the stream that we followed up to a waterfall. Ahh, what a refreshing reward at the halfway point and an our first introduction to a couple of Karen tribesmen.

As my Dad used to say, “How refreshing!”

Some of my favorite pics of today’s trek are these of a local at the waterfall and a farmer and his ranch. The crop is peanuts, rotating from rice. I’m using my new Nikkon D3400 for most of these. (My first “real” camera.) Can you tell the difference?

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What an incredible experience this is! Up a hill and around the corner, an unexpected surprise…to be continued…

Mae Wang 3 Day Bike & Trek Adventure: Bike Portion

April 16, 2017June 2, 2017livevigorously

Tour company: Green Trails My rating: Excellent, highly recommend

Cycling level: Easy (While this was pitched as a half day tour it is very slow paced and doesn’t cover that much ground, but it is followed by 3 hours of moderately tough hiking in tropical heat so it’s a nice warm up.

Trekking level: Moderate++

Guide: Tui (Interesting fact, our guide does many different types of tours, and took Anthony Bourdain on a street food tour of Chang Mai. Hey Anthony, you missed out because Tui is also an incredible chef. He made us a couple of incredible dinner feasts in the mountain villages of the Karen Hill tribe. Video, pics and posts to follow.

8AM Our tour guide picked us up at our hotel in Change Mai. We loaded up and jumped into the back of the truck. (A bit rough and tired, but excited to embark.)

Notice the sky in this picture? So much for fresh mountain air. My first impression upon arriving at the airport in Chang Mai was “YIKES”. I haven’t seen smog as bad as this in a while. I was hoping it wouldn’t be like this in Mae Wang where we were heading. My second impression was hey, I thought it was supposed to be cooler here than Bangkok.

9:30 We started our adventure cycling dirt and narrow concrete roads through the rural lowlands, passing seldom visited Lanna style temples and various agricultural fields. We also stopped at paper making factory that was closed for the holiday. We were saw some of the materials they use mulberry trees pulp and the vats they use with natural dyes. Just had my cell phone on me for this portion. Wish I’d taken more photos en route, but I was in a bit of jet lag fog. Lots of great photos of the trek and tribe experience to come.

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We hopped back into the truck after our ride and headed further north into the mountains, stopping for a savory and sumptuous lunch (chicken and pork dishes) and supplies at a local market.

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Stay tuned for the trekking portion. It was AMAZING!

Cheers to “Alcoholic Pass” Hike, Anza Borrego, CA

March 24, 2017March 24, 2017livevigorously

Scenery: Desert delight

Distance: You decide – up to 4.8 miles out & back

Difficulty: Moderate

This lovely little hike, was especially magical during the current wildflower super bloom. It entails some switch backs and a moderate climb (approximately 833 feet in .8 mile.) You can sign in at the top and keep going down the other side or turn around.

It was near the top when I captured a video of a bird greeting me with its morning song.

I’ve never experienced the desert quite like this – the morning light waking the shadows on the rocky ridges, the citrus wildflower breeze – oh my! Wish I’d camped at the top, it would have been fantastic to wake up to breathtaking solitude. Instead, I was running around getting wildflower pictures at dawn. (Post to come.)

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Local lore

The Cahuilla Indians originally used this route as a short cut between Coyote Canyon and Clark Valley. Subsequently early settlers also used the trail to cut off the 6 miles it takes to go around Coyote Mountain to get to Clark Valley. Some say it might have gotten it’s name from the drinking habits of the cattlemen and settlers who frequented Borrego Springs’ “watering” holes. Other say it’s just the winding trail that gives it it’s name. All this talk and typing is making me thirsty for a quenching margie and I know just the spot – the Ram’s Head Bar and Grill. (Post to come,)

Getting there: From Christmas Circle in Borrego Springs, drive east on Hwy S-22 and turn left (north) on DiGiorgio Road toward Coyote Canyon. You find the trailhead on the right, 2.4 miles past the paved road on an easily traversed dirt road. Desert Garden is just past Alcoholic’s Pass, you can take an easy stroll in a concentrated area of cactus and other native plant life if you’re short on time or prefer not to hike up Alcoholic Pass.

Footloose and Fancy Free: Off Trail in Fallbrook, CA

March 6, 2017March 6, 2017livevigorously

Spring fever anyone? The air is so crisp, clean and fragrant with the pungent fertile earth and the scent of jasmine and citrus blossoms. And the hills are abloom with wildflowers already. The plan was to take a lazy Sunday afternoon stroll / trail run at nearby Santa Margarita River Trail. When we got there, we discovered that the area was closed due to recent heavy rains. As we drove along De Luz road the lush hillsides beckoned to me. “Let’s just run up this first hill”, I suggested. And we were rewarded with a mini-meadow sprinkled with California poppies and wildflowers. And then we climbed the next hill and so on. There weren’t any “Private property” or “No trespassing signs so we just kept going. Scrambling up through the bramble and brush until our car was a distant spec below. So on we went, bouldering up to the highest point on the ridge. It was exhilarating fun though my legs did sustain a few scratches…Once we reached the top, we looked for another route down. That’s when we came upon a hidden estate. We tried to traverse down another section, but the scratchy overgrowth was taller than we were. We ended up following a country road back down to De Luz and the car. A fun impromptu adventure that no doubt was more thrilling (and a better workout) than what we had planned. And my boyfriend, Ken, knows me by now, if there’s a hill around, I’m likely to find it and want to “check out the view from there”.

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It was on this hike that I found that spontaneous stream for my nature mediation section.

Here are a couple more pictures Ken took and the cactus bloom I almost forgot to add earlier.

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Across the road from where we were is pristine fenced-off Camp Pendelton land. Oh, if only…

Mammoth area, CA: Parker Lake Trail

February 27, 2017livevigorously

Sweet, easy, out and back stroll through quaking aspens, along gurgling Parker Creek to pristine Parker Lake. The perfect site for a picnic, fishing or to while away an afternoon drinking in the spectacular views and crisp, clean mountain air. Truly mesmerizing natural beauty framed by the massive granite walls. (No trails lead out of the basin of up the walls.) An accessible, but fairly untraveled alpine gem.

Difficulty: Easy

Distance: 4.4 rt

Elevation: 8,000 – 8,318 ft

Getting there: Take the Parker Lake Road exit off highway 158, drive 2 miles before turning left on Forest Service Road 1S26. Drive 1 mile to where it dead ends at the trailhead. (Well maintained dirt road, but doable for all vehicles.)