Season's Greetings

We returned this year to the Historic Downtown Sonora Christmas Parade, which is held annually the night after Thanksgiving. This photo was taken at the start of the route near the Red Church. Amber made wreaths with lights for around the llamas necks, and Ediza was a pro walking her llama the whole way. Speaking of pros, thanks to Maggie Beck for the festive photo!

Earlier that week, we spent my birthday exploring Moaning Cavern (which we hadn't done before) and sampling beer at Prospectors Brewing Company (which we have done before). Also that day, my latest L.A. Times travel piece ran: Visiting San Francisco? Say yes to NoPa

We hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season and an incredible New Year ahead!

Fall photos

Here's some of what we've been up to the past month...

A dozen of Ediza's friends slept over for her 8th birthday party. It was an "under the sea" theme with lots of activities, including pin-the-tail-on-the-mermaid. In this pic, they are hitting a pinata (shaped like a whale, of course) in the backyard.

After a tea party breakfast and everyone left, we headed up to Bell Meadow that afternoon to check out the golden aspen grove.

The following weekend we took two llamas up to Camp Tuolumne Trails in Groveland to visit with some special needs campers. Here, Golden is checking out the view. In the background is a new lookout where you can see damage from last year's massive Rim Fire.

The mermaid theme continued for Halloween. Amber's sister made Ediza's costume complete with real sea shells.

We went to a variety of Halloween-themed events, including the festival at Sierra Waldorf School, trick-or-treating at Rocky Hill (which I wrote about) and "Dia de los Muertos" in Murphys. Amber also went to a midnight showing of the "Rocky Horror Picture Show," where she won a costume contest (no pics of that one). My coworker voted for her and didn't even know it was her....that's how good the costume was!

Lake Ediza (lucky #7)

Ediza's silhouette as we arrived at Lake Ediza

Our 7th annual hiking trip to Ediza's namesake started off not so lucky. When I drove to Mammoth Lakes to get our backcountry permit, the area was covered in white smoke from a fire south of town. The next day as we drove to the trailhead we experienced downpours of rain. Even as we started hiking we heard thunder and reports from other hikers of hail at Lake Ediza.

A family shot with llamas Golden and Nash on the way to Shadow Lake (below)

Somehow we managed to bypass the storms for two days, even as dark clouds and cold wind blew through. We were caught off guard a bit by the weather as our previous trips have been hot and sunny. But the weather ended up adding a whole magical element to this already magical place. We kept ourselves warm drinking tea and eating hot meals at our campsite high above the lake. Ediza, of course, kept herself busy exploring everything from wildflowers to wildlife.

The weather started to clear (although still smoky) our final morning. Here's two photos of Golden on a rock above our campsite followed by a golden sunrise over the lake.

Bishop Pass

We survived our craziest llama/child adventure ever this week as we hiked over Bishop Pass down to LeConte Canyon and back the next day. The 24-mile trek is steep, rocky and difficult — and that's without three llamas and a 5-year-old.

On the top of the 12,000-foot mountain pass, the sky was dark, thunder roared and hail pelted us. Here's Ediza covered in a tarp after we weathered the storm. She's quite the trooper!

We ended up arriving in the canyon at dusk to resupply our friends who are hiking the John Muir Trail. The three girls hiking the JMT go to (or recently graduated from) Ediza's school. We then hiked up to our campsite in the dark. 

Here's Amber and Ediza dancing on a bridge on our way back up to the pass. Once we were up and over the celebration stopped as one of the llamas, Tenario, decided he was officially done walking. Instead of returning as we had planned, we had to camp an extra night in the cold, howling wind. 

Ediza took this picture of the view from our sleeping bags (of course we had no tent and are getting very low on food at this point). The next day we went into survival mode as we were physically and emotionally exhausted. Tenario would only walk a couple of steps before sitting down again. It took us most of the day to hike less than four miles and get him out of there.

There was a party in the parking lot as Tenario approached with an entourage of people feeding him produce and singing to him. At one point, someone even performed Reiki on him as he sat on the trail. Tenario is now at home and officially retired!

Challenges make us stronger and we are grateful that everyone — both people and llamas — made it out safely. For motivation and inspiration, I kept thinking of this famous Helen Keller quote: "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing."

Back to Lake Ediza

We just returned from our sixth annual trip to Ediza's namesake, Lake Ediza. The trip started by heading over to the eastern Sierra and staying at our favorite hot spring on the 4th of July. Magic always seems to happen there and this trip was no different. As we got in our sleeping bags, we watched a giant orange moon start to rise on the horizon of the pitch-black desert. Soon after, colorful fireworks started exploding in the distance (at Crowley Lake). We climbed up on a little plateau behind us — watching the moon rise to our left while a fireworks display dazzled to the right.

In the morning, I got up to take an early-morning dip in the hot tub and, just as I've seen there before, a rainbow-colored hot air balloon was taking off into the clear blue sky. Not a bad way to start the day!

Once we got packed up and got our permit in Mammoth Lakes, we hit the trail to Lake Ediza. This time we took llamas Golden (the pro) and Nash (the rookie). Ediza, who rode Golden most of the trip, hopped off him once we arrived at "her" lake.

The next day I went for a quick run up to Iceberg Lake, just up from where we camp near the Minarets. Later, we headed down to Lake Ediza to play in the water.

We then went back to camp, where Ediza took Golden up on some large boulders. 

This is what it looked like from their perspective....

Here's some pics that Ediza (who happens to be an aspiring photographer) took of the "fairy house" that she built near our camp.

Summer in Sonora

I've written travel articles about the East Coast, India and beyond, but I just had to travel down the road to write my latest one -- Weekend Escape: Sonora, Calif.'s antiques, eateries and train ride.  

This picture is of "The Red Church," at the northern end of Washington Street in downtown Sonora. We've been bad with not taking pics at recent events, including bringing llamas to Sierra Earth Fest in Groveland last week and Amber skating with the Hellcats at the Tuolumne Lumber Jubilee this morning. At that event, Ediza got to sit in a convertible and throw candy to parade spectators:)

Lake Ediza (Part V)

We recently returned from our 5th annual family hiking trip to Ediza's namesake — Lake Ediza. It was a much shorter trek than last summer, when we walked from Agnew Meadows near Mammoth Lakes to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. This time around we just hiked into Lake Ediza and then back out two days later.

What seemed like a simple trip was still quite involved. A week ago, we drove to Mammoth late at night and camped in the forest so that we were there early the next morning. We had to get a walk-in permit because all the reserved permits were booked when we wanted to go. I arrived at the permit station at 7 a.m. to wait in line until they opened an hour later only to get a number (I was second in line) to return back at 11 a.m. and get our permit for the next day. So we went back home, packed, got the llamas ready and drove back to Mammoth the following day.

Because of all this we started pretty late so we camped a little bit before Lake Ediza on our first night. Unfortunately, we were swarmed by mosquitoes there. Amber took this close-up of my face, and if you look carefully you'll see a mosquito sucking my blood next to my right eyebrow.


The next morning we finished the hike to Lake Ediza. The lake had by far the most snow we've seen in the past five years. As we approached the lake, Ediza rode Golden (which she did most of the hike) over a snowy patch.


Once we arrived, Ediza was all smiles...


...and felt very peaceful.


We still had more streams to cross until we got to our regular camping spot up above the lake.


But it was well worth the effort after we arrived...


...and ate lunch.


But the best part was probably how the weather was sunny, breezy and mosquito free! A highlight for me is always watching the twinkling stars in the crystal-clear sky.

Amber and Ediza enjoyed sledding on our sleeping mats.


That night was so chilly that Ediza was able to eat some ice from a frozen stream the following morning.


It's difficult to imagine that back in 2007, on our first family trip to Lake Ediza, she was just a little baby splashing in the water on the lake's sandy shore. Now, she's an adventurer climbing granite like a pro. Here she is at a spot near our campsite which she refers to as "Dream Mountain."


I can see why she named it that. The whole area around Lake Ediza is quite magical and dreamlike!

Sierra hike

At the beginning of the month, we took a weeklong hike from the Mammoth Lakes area (where we went on our fourth annual trip to Lake Ediza) all the way north to Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. Naturally, I've written about this, but for now we'll just let the pictures tell the story...


Fresh at the start...


Ediza falling asleep while riding Golden hours later....


Back awake and in the carrier as we arrive at Lake Ediza...


Checking out her namesake the following day with mom...


Protecting herself from swarms of mosquitos...


Arriving at Thousand Island Lake the next day...


Taking a break for yoga by the lake...


Helping me set up the tent...


Back on the trail the next day, we stop under this tree for lunch...


And I filter water with this view...


Later, I soak up some sun at our new campsite...


The next morning, Ediza hops on Golden to go over Donohue Pass...


We cross snow going up...


And water on the way down...


After camping a night in Yosemite, we hike out the following day to this bridge in Tuolumne Meadows...


Just as we finish, we come across this nice ranger who introduces Ediza to her horse, King.

More than 30 miles with three llamas and a spirited 3-year-old and we survived!