Friday, June 19, 2009

OPP (other people's pictures)


Mt Hamilton and the Lick Observatory are one of the most photographed areas in California, so with the cool weather requiring me to bring a vest in addition to 3 GUs, 6 Powerbars, a bag full of tools, and about 8 lbs of water bottles and racks, I decided against trying to best photographers who drove up and could therefore carry as much equipment as they wished. (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it... ;-)

Given the rather unique weather though, I have to admit I wished I'd had a small digital camera along. We just don't get dark, brooding rain-clouds in June very often.

Here are links to pictures from GoogleEarth. I encourage you to click on "View in GoogleEarth" to get a great bird's eye view of the route. If you get the impression this route is rather remote, you are correct. Riding the Mt Hamilton/Lick Observatory ride alone will test your self-reliance, but your reward is peace and undisturbed beauty.


(San Antonio Valley near the junction)


(The peaceful home of suicidal squirrels)


(Doing it with 500X power and a lot of lean)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So pretty! Reminds me of all my runs ins Cali in the past. The west coast has just the best mountains!

Btw, where are those suicidal squirrels??? I hit one the other night and couldn't eat nor sleep for a day.

Grey Beard said...

Squirrels were hiding in the tall weeds overgrowing the sides of the road. So much tall grass and weeds to fuel fires this year, that when it dries out, the fires will be massive. Wet springs = big fires later.

Yeah, having lived in or traveled through 43 states, I have to say, California has more natural beauty than anywhere else. Such a variety. It's why the film studios all settled in Hollywood. Mtns, desert, ocean all within an hour's drive.