(no subject)

tshar and I hiked the Palisades today. Which was really cool, though not as spectacular as last year. I think it's better to go when things are more in bloom. And last year it was a noticably long hike for me (especially as slowly as I took it, as canyonwren no doubt remembers. Now it's... middling average, and not particularly steep.

I want to say that everything is very dry up there, but it's only partially true. I think there is a lot of dew at night, and a lot of the ground was wet. But the blueberry bushes are all sun dried red, most of the creeks had no water, and Upper Palisade lake was something like 12 feet lower than it had been last time I was there. The lakes were still (of course) that amazing blue green, and the air smelled sweet with parched berries. Pikas were everywhere, as were chipmunks, some particularly fearless stripey squirrel thing that wasn't your typical chipmunk, and something that looked like a furry orangey-brown turtle with a chipmunk tail.

There were many wasps, but I didn't see any mosquitos.