Mother's Day Events 2008

This Mother's Day mom wanted to do something outdoorsy. So I made all the food for a picnic and found the trails in Crystal Cove and sure enough we spent three hours or more hiking up hills and down.

Our first nature sighting, towards the beginning of the trail atop the BFI hill. The cute roadrunner.

Then from a distance, I spotted a quail....well we didn't know it was a quail until after we looked at pictures and saw the poof on its head.

Finally, the day started to clear up and blue shown through the clouds. The breeze was still nice, keeping the heat away.


We finally made it on to flat lands. Admittedly, we were all pretty tired from the long steep hill we just climbed. The hill was so inclined, that every step you took more so resembled lunging than a step.

As mom and I were being "chatty cathies" dad froze in front of us and held both his arms out. Silently and slowly, he grabbed his video camera and pointed to the trail in front of us. Yes, that is a red diamondback rattlesnake. The kiosk at the beginning of the trail said that we most likely would not see any in Crystal Cove. With just our luck, on our first visit, we spot one.




After having bravely attacked another serious incline, we started out gentle downward slope back to the car. The view was beautiful since the marine layer burned off.

After the hike, we drove a mile North on PCH to the Los Trancos parking area to take our picnic to the Historical District. We crossed under PCH and make it to the cottages that are situated on the beach. We found ourselves a picnic table and enjoyed the sun, ocean breeze, and people watching. I had made "Unfried Chicken"Drumsticks, Brown Rice and Crunch Vegetable Salad, a twist on Antipasto Salad, and Banana Bran Walnut Muffins for dessert. Afterwards, we headed back to my place, but stopped on the way for some gelato. Nothing like a nice little sweet Italian treat after a long hard day of fitness.

We started the hike by taking "B.F.I." that connected to Moro Ridge. The entire leg of the hike was uphill at this point. Then we turned left on to E. Cut Across a.k.a. "I Think I Can". This is when we saw all the animals and some great views of the back country. For the most part it was either downhill or flat and windy. From there we cut a quick right on to El Moro Canyon, then a quick left a the three pronged fork of the trails to take Poles. Now I realize it is called Poles because it is steep and dirt that poles would have come in very handy. But at the top, it is very fulfilling when you look out across the back country and see little dots which are people of where you just were not too long ago. That connects to "No Dogs" where we took a left and started the gradual decline back down to the car. In all, it was probably a 4 mile, or slightly more, hike.