Happy New Year 2013

Someone once told me that whatever you do on New Years Day tells you what your new year will be filled with. So, for the last couple of years, I’ve made it a point to get outside for a hike on New Years Day, which is also my birthday. The first year we just went for a short hike in Annadel with my dear friend Cat. Last year, we went for a hike in Armstrong Woods with our friend Kyle and his out of town guests to show them the redwoods.

This year, I put it out for input from a larger circle of friends, looking for more people to join us and suggestions on places to hike. Our friend Kimberly offered to take us to the Willow Creek area. So, after about six hours of sleep, we got up early-ish on Tuesday morning and headed out. It was a cold and crisp morning — perfect for getting outside and moving around!

Willow Creek is a California State Park run by Land Paths, as a “people powered park.” I’d never heard of it before, and was really excited to check it out. We hiked in off Freezeout Flat Road. Since it was still quite wet from the rains we had a couple of weeks ago, we decided to take the steeper uphill route, and save the shallower portion for the downhill.

After hiking uphill for about 45 minutes, we made it to the ridge and a wonderful view!

Found this old fence. My Environmental History lessons kicked in and I had to hike over and investigate.

Then we headed over to a peak with a great view of the ocean to the west. Love the rock outcrops and trees.

I love the grass in winter. It always reminds me of fur that’s been rubbed the wrong way or something. Some people think it’s ugly, but I just think of it as a different kind of beauty.

I didn’t get any pictures of the downhill part. Mainly because it was a narrower trail going through denser trees. But also because it was muddy and it took more energy to pick our way through the muck. It was still quite lovely, though. More small streams running across the trail, pretty trees, and birds hopping around?

And, we had cows happily bellowing in this lovely pasture to greet us when we made it back to our car. All in all, it was a great hike and a wonderful way to kick off the new year!

What did you do to start off 2013?

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