Rancheria Falls

[cary bertoncini]

Couple flora/fauna pics – was a good trip, though my sleepless and busy week caught up with me by dinner & I had to retire without the campfire merriment. Missed that & those who couldn't make it. Beautiful, warm & NO MOSQUITOES or TICKS!
"Harlequin Lupine." "Manyflowered Monkeyflower." Male "Greater Brown Skink" in mating coloration. Manzanita flowers, which are edible & I think pretty good. California Newt (interestingly, have seen one on each trip this year). Alligator Lizard

[Joshua Billings]

Come on Cary, don't hold out on us.Also show us some debauchery.

[cary bertoncini]

a couple of falls…

[Nate Meinzer]

There should be some debaucherous photos somewhere…..

waiting for Tony's (more people-centric, I presume) shots.

[cary bertoncini]

I went to bed right after dinner

Dennis made some amazing chocolate mousse & also brought a box of cracker jacks for everyone

I think Jeremy & someone else brought single malt that was gladly shared

Tony collected an amazing quantity of firewood and i presume will have the human-centric pics to share :)

Lane & I brought 12 cans of micro brews, shrimps, portabella mushrooms, zucchinis, wood skewers, and 2 mini grills to share with the group – it sounded like the fire festivities went on until about midnight, but i heard no stories of drunken mayhem

I do have to thank the early arrivers for their heads-up post and PM – that got me & Lane there several hours earlier than we would have otherwise (and meant we actually got to get our permits). the extra rush, though, meant a couple things were forgotten, including my bear canister – so thank you to all the people who shared a little space for our trash & day 2 food items.

and of course big thanks to Ken for the incipient rolling of the ball on this trip!

edit: couple pics of Lane

[Tony Wong]

Nathan,

Surprisingly, there was not too much craziness.

Ken was a bit more mellow, but probably in part because he was not feeling too well.

Cameron was the night's entertainment with his mega powered flashlight that threw a spot light on all of the campsites below us.

Not sure if anyone got a photo of me hauling wood into a good sized pile.

You have to have firewood to last at least 6 hours at base camp, right?

With all the good stuff that people brought to share, Ken and I were thinking that maybe we should do a low mileage trip where everyone brings their own dinner, but has communal food for appetizers and deserts to share.

After Jeremy, Cameron, and I returned from a short dayhike from the campsite, it was a real treat and pleasant surprise to have beer and cracker jacks….BBQ shrimps later that evening was just a dreamy treat.

I have about 300 to 350 shot to clean up and sort out.

If anyone has any photos that they would like to email to me to add into the photo essay, please PM me and I will give you my email address.

I have the newest version of Photoshop Elements, which allows me to do the auto idiot quick fixes to all of the photos in one shot vs. one at a time, which means that I should be able to get the essay up this week…depending on work and family requirements.

Again, great trip and love the photos that have been posted up thus far…keep them coming!

P.S. I will post the photo essay in the photo gallery vs. the trip report…habit I guess, I have always posted mine there.

-Tony

[cary bertoncini]

I think Jeremy & I think he's recycling beer …

[Robert Blean]

"meant a couple things were forgotten, including my bear canister"

I am surprised — the lady giving us our permits quizzed us about our bear cans and what make they were.

[cary bertoncini]

she wasn't at my house when i was hastily gathering my stuff before dawn that morning – i would have even let her spend the night if it would have helped, for convenience

when we got to the park, i brought it up at the kiosk & said i thought there would be room in other people's canisters since it was only one night & she said ok after asking me some other people's names & checking her list of permits issued

[Nate Meinzer]

I'm sure your wife would've loved that, Cary.

[cary bertoncini]

but she did suggest the other night i get a girlfriend – i think she actually said "chinese girlfriend" though, and she's a stickler for precise details, so american rangerette might not fly

[Robert Blean]

"when we got to the park, i brought it up at the kiosk & said i thought there would be room in other people's canisters since it was only one night & she said ok after asking me some other people's names & checking her list of permits issued"

I am pleasantly surprised they were that reasonable.

Glad you thought of that explanation, too — obviously there would be room, since by the time you got in we would have eaten a day's food from our cans.

–MV

[cary bertoncini]

mind trick does work sometimes ;)

[Cayenne Redmonk]

This was a good trip, after I hiked out of hetch hetchy, I drove into the valley where there were shockingly few people. The waterfalls were awesome !
. . .

[Tony Wong]

Just wanted to let you guys know that I hope to have the photos up this weekend.

Last two days I have been busy and have not been able to get onto the computer to edit the photos.

Plus, Denis has been nice enough to mail off a cd of all the photos that he has taken, which I will review add some to the essay. Cameron has also generously allowed me to use his photos too.

I am guessing that a number of people want to see what happened and all the gear and I will be working quickly to get them up for you all.

I can tell you that I have cut the photos from 350 down to 155, but I would like to see about getting it down to 100.

Unfortunatley, the more of these that I have done and the positive feed back that I have gotten from you all seems to have made me suffer from diahrea of the mouth and the number of photos that I post become more and more.

So bear with me….will have them up soon.

-Tony

[Ken Helwig]

Tony, take your time. That is alot of photos! I am sure we all are in agreement to say thanks for doing this!

[Tony Wong]

Ken,

Thanks….what I can do is to post up a few of the photos on the beginning of the trip tonight and add some at the same time I am editing.

I am being a bit self indulgent in that I am posting up duplicate photos of the trip in and back out.

So there are dupicates shots of the waterfalls, but from a different angle.

Hence the more photos.

I guess people don't mind if there lots of photos to look at…just time consuming to upload each photo, post it to make sure it looks okay with the caption and repeat.

I enjoy doing it and the fact that others enjoy viewing them is all the more reason to do it.

Anyway, enough of my ranting….back to work to be the good Asian Worker Monkey that I aspire to be!

-Tony

[Casey Bowden]

Ken,

Stop distracting Tony!

Tony,

Get back to work!

[Tony Wong]

Casey,

Where you up there that weekend?

Just after dinner, dusk, I went looking for you and I only found someone's Rainbow Tarptent and a backpacking sitting next to it or from a tree…not too far from the river. However, I could not find the owner of that site.

Was that your site?

-Tony

[Casey Bowden]

Tony,

If it was my site you would have seen my bike.

;)

[Ken Helwig]

Funny enough though Casey, we sent two different search and rescue parties for both you and Nate.

Saturday night was tame in comparison to the night at Point Reyes. I was suffering (for the first time at that elevation!!!!) some altitude sickness and was not up to par. It was a wonderful night and I hope that everyone enjoyed themselves. Highlight of the trip was seeing Cary and Lane cruising into camp around 3pm. We were a needle in a haystack and the they had their mojo working. Many of us were worried that if others were coming that they would not find us.

Nate, sorry you did not come in, it was an enjoyable evening. June will be fun….promise!

[Tony Wong]

Thank you for your patience.

The photo essay of this trip is now finished and available for viewing in the Photo Gallery Section.

Have some patience while it loads, I think that I have something like 140 or so photos.

Enjoy!

-Tony

[Ken Helwig]

As always Tony, a wonderful job. Thank you!!!

[Author]

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