Arty and I went for a hike in Deer Park this morning. Very nice but it's awfully mountain-bikey there on the weekend. And Arty has this inconvenient characteristic where, if a mountain bike is hurtling downhill toward him and I yell "Come!" he turns and stares up the trail at the approaching mountain biker rather than coming off the trail to me. Consequently, he was on leash for the steep downhill portions of the hike.

We got on the trail a little before 8 this morning; it was still socked in with fog but very pretty. I took the Deer Park trail (off to the left once you get past the school) which climbs a steep, narrow drainage up to Worn Springs Fire Rd., which climbed Bald Hill (1141'). If I had a camera, I could have taken a comical "The view from Bald Hill" picture of the fog that was all around, but since the camera is in Alaska you'll just have to forego that wickedly clever bit of visual humor. Actually, I could see a bit off in the direction of the Bay, and I could tell that the views of the Bay and Mt. Tam must be really amazing on a clear day. Other trails lead to the top of Bald Hill as well so I'll be back again. From there I continued on down Worn Springs Rd. to Phoenix Lake, where I skirted the lake for a half-mile or so. The Phoenix Lake area was crazy busy with people, including one guy who was simultaneously fly-fishing and talking very loudly on his hands-free cell phone. His voice literally echoed across the lake, and when I say literally I literally mean literally as opposed to some folks who say literally and really mean figuratively (Wow- when you type literally that many times it starts to look really weird). Anyway, it was gross. I can't wait till I'm working part time again and can hike on weekdays. From there I continued up Shaver Grade to the Five Points Junction, where I picked up the Deer Park Fire Road back down to the trailhead. It was around a six mile hike with a good variety of habitats and some good ups and downs.

It was a nice day for good naked-eye looks at birds. I saw two horned larks on the top of the hill; I don't know if they're common around here or not but they were quite mellow. The Deer Park Trail up the canyon yielded a warbling vireo. Because the canyon was quite steep, the bird was at eye level with the trail even though he was in the treetop. And, there was a spotted towhee that just sat and sang in a shrub for around 5 minutes while I watched. This lack of a camera is becoming an issue... I could have gotten great shots of any one of these birds that I could have shown you instead of stealing other people's. Of course, Victor will have far more stirring and interesting photo ops in Alaska. But I'm seriously considering picking up a little point-n-shoot for myself that I can keep in my jacket pocket.

What else? I was thinking today about how inconvenient it is that I can't hike and blog simultaneously. I think when I'm hiking my brain is stimulated by all those good exercise endorphins and the ideas just pour forth, and I think, "Yeah! I should write about that!". But once those endorphins subside and I'm all sleepy with a bowl of pasta in me and I'm in front of the computer the stream dries up. Oh well. It's just another form of chemical alteration anyway, and wouldn't you rather have the 'real' me (because clearly the sleepy pasta-full me is much closer to my true essence than the hopped up on endorphins me)?

I just had an idea. I could get a hands-free device and blog, really loudly, as I hike. -Kelly