We had a wonderful visit to Central California on the occasion of Maia Bickert and Eric Guetter's wedding. In addition to attending their fabulous and fun weekend at Lake Tahoe, we traveled through the region for a couple of weeks. We visited places like Yosemite, San Francisco, Point Reyes, and Monterey; we started and ended the trip in Sacramento. The whole trip was great, with only minor mishaps, mostly fine weather, lots of amazing places, and plenty of fun people along the way! We started off in Sacramento, California's capital, where it was very hot! We arrived as a "heat dome" was settling in over the Sacramento Valley. Regardless, we spent a day exploring the city on foot and by car, visiting places like the city and state governmental bildings, a couple of cathedrals, the main city library, a few theatres and the fabulous Crocker Museum of Art. Sacramento The California State Cap...
The Ozark National Scenic Riverways is a park that protects and preserves a pair of rivers (Jack's Fork River and the Current River) that flow through a part of south eastern Missouri. This part of Missouri is on the Ozark Plateau, a hilly geological dome that is located in parts of Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas as well as Missouri. Six of us from central Pennsylvania (l-r: Mark, Vern, Brian, Dave, and Rick; me behind the camera) got together to explore these rivers. Our original plan was to take four days to paddle 40 miles of the Jack's Fork River, provided there was enough water to get down. We delayed our launch by a day because of forecasted storms, including hard rain, possible tornados, and hail. We got the forecasted rain and then some, so we were happy to not be huddled and shivering in tents along the river. The payoff for waiting a day was a perfect level (3.5' at Mountainview) for paddling Jack's Fork! And there was plenty of ...