Wow, Wow, what a gorgeous day at Lake Morena
Fisnjack was the force behind getting both me and dillweed together for the long drive to Lake Morena to find the new caches placed by Cat & Bobby, and get to the Terracache placed by Travelita on the top of Morena Butte.
I met up with them at the Descanso Park 'n Ride and rode with dillweed to the parking place outside the park at Lake Morena. The trail had a closed sign in front of it, but we found a bunny trail up the road a bit and took that to get to the PCT and the first "Mountain Cat" cache for us, which was actually #3. It was an easy find, which is my favorite kind of cache.
We continued down the trail and I marveled at the gorgeous sky and clear air. The views in all directions were amazing.
After we found "Mountain Cat #4, we stopped so dillweed could look for "Traveling Turtles," a cache Princess Toadstool and I DNF'd two years ago . . . when the coordinates for the cache were off by about 35', a distance that was way too much in that jumble of boulders and tangle of chapparal bushes where I saw a little manzanita bush growing right out of a rock. The seed found a crack in the boulder and got a start. I wonder how big the bush will eventually get?
This is the amazing view of the butte, our eventual destination, and the section of Lake Morena near the dam where one of my "Historic" caches is, "That Dam Cache."
As we continued up, up, up toward the top of the butte, little piles of rocks, that I always called cairns, but locally are called "ducks," marked the way.
From near the top, I got this picture of Barrett Lake in the distance.
From another vantage point, we could see the lake, this time with a duck-shaped rock in the foreground.
Once on top, we didn't have too much time to play around because dillweed had to get back, however, the hike was so incredible, I think I'll be back. There is a "shortcut" to the Morena Butte trail I could use in conjunction with my mountain bike to make the trip shorter than the nine miles we hiked . . .
There was a "pinball" up near the top just waiting to be played.
Towards the end of our long hike, we found the remaining "Mountain Cat" caches and near one I saw this rock that sure looked like a bird.
On our way out of Lake Morena, we stopped to get some pictures of the antique barbershop pole which I can log as a "Locationless" cache on Terracaching. The woman who owns the shop came out to talk to us and share a cool photo of her place with an antique truck in front of it.
It was a fantastic day. I wish I could take hikes like that more frequently. Once again I am grateful to fisnjack and dillweed for doing the driving from the Park 'n Ride, so I only had to use one gallon of that high-priced fluid for my vehicle . . .
I met up with them at the Descanso Park 'n Ride and rode with dillweed to the parking place outside the park at Lake Morena. The trail had a closed sign in front of it, but we found a bunny trail up the road a bit and took that to get to the PCT and the first "Mountain Cat" cache for us, which was actually #3. It was an easy find, which is my favorite kind of cache.
We continued down the trail and I marveled at the gorgeous sky and clear air. The views in all directions were amazing.
After we found "Mountain Cat #4, we stopped so dillweed could look for "Traveling Turtles," a cache Princess Toadstool and I DNF'd two years ago . . . when the coordinates for the cache were off by about 35', a distance that was way too much in that jumble of boulders and tangle of chapparal bushes where I saw a little manzanita bush growing right out of a rock. The seed found a crack in the boulder and got a start. I wonder how big the bush will eventually get?
This is the amazing view of the butte, our eventual destination, and the section of Lake Morena near the dam where one of my "Historic" caches is, "That Dam Cache."
As we continued up, up, up toward the top of the butte, little piles of rocks, that I always called cairns, but locally are called "ducks," marked the way.
From near the top, I got this picture of Barrett Lake in the distance.
From another vantage point, we could see the lake, this time with a duck-shaped rock in the foreground.
Once on top, we didn't have too much time to play around because dillweed had to get back, however, the hike was so incredible, I think I'll be back. There is a "shortcut" to the Morena Butte trail I could use in conjunction with my mountain bike to make the trip shorter than the nine miles we hiked . . .
There was a "pinball" up near the top just waiting to be played.
Towards the end of our long hike, we found the remaining "Mountain Cat" caches and near one I saw this rock that sure looked like a bird.
On our way out of Lake Morena, we stopped to get some pictures of the antique barbershop pole which I can log as a "Locationless" cache on Terracaching. The woman who owns the shop came out to talk to us and share a cool photo of her place with an antique truck in front of it.
It was a fantastic day. I wish I could take hikes like that more frequently. Once again I am grateful to fisnjack and dillweed for doing the driving from the Park 'n Ride, so I only had to use one gallon of that high-priced fluid for my vehicle . . .
posted by Miragee at
10:14:00 PM
10-Day Forecast
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