As some of you may know, I'm embarking on a 6 day 427 miles riding starting Monday. I've been training for the last 10 months, and now the time has arrived to ride for EMTs and Paramedics who have died in the line of duty. I made this video to give my supporters a taste of what they are supporting. Please, enjoy the following video.

Video Link

(Click the link above)

Like a Phoenix from the ashes, this blog shall rise again! I've had requests to make this little hobby go live once again. So, stay tuned!

Far behind

Hello my adventure followers! I just wanted to let you know that I know I am pretty far behind in blogging about my adventures. Life has been really busy the last 7 months, and while the adventures haven't stopped....the blogging has really slowed down. I'm going to try to get all caught up within the next few days and then really try to stay on top of things. Happy trails!

Hay Meadows

Beauty Lake

Wow! that 5.5 miles was MUCH harder than I had anticipated. The trail was called, "Hay Meadows", but in actuality it should have been called, "Hay HILLS".  I should have looked more closely at my topo map... The pups and I took all the western forks in the trail and ended our day at Evelyn Lake and found the geocache we were looking for.

Evelyn Lake

The trail itself wasn't all that spectacular. It was basically just cut line through the middle of the forest. The lakes were the highlight of the hike, for sure. We went past 2 actual lakes and I took a breather and let the dogs go swimming. After we found the cache we cooled our feet in Evelyn Lake for a bit before we hit the dusty trail back.



A nice place to take a break

The mosquitos were INSANE! I used Repel Lemon and Eucylptus repelent (DEET free formula) and I was thankful that it worked so well! 

Lava Beds National Monument

Such an incredible, secluded National Monument. Located way up in the North East corner of California, Lava Beds National Monument has an incredible variety of lava tubes that one can explore and get in touch with their adventurous side. I took such a trip yesterday with my Dad and we had a great time. We visited, and recommend to explorers of all ages, the following caves: Mushpot, Sentential, Skull, Valentine.


Valentine was by far the largest cave we explored. It had pillars in the middle of the room and you had to choose Left or Right.The floor was a bit uneven causing me to trip a time or two.

Valentine Cave. Which path would you choose?

 Sentential being the longest, was the most fun. I scaled the lava wall and found an adjacent tube. I slithered like a snake, then crawled on my hands and knees, and hit my head a couple times, then came out to this large lava balcony that overlooked a chamber and I could watch little lights walk under me. It was an amazing feeling.

Coming out of the dark

Lava tube crossing with natural sky light.

If you visit this hardly known natural wonder, be sure to be prepared! It is the desert after all. Bring extra water, extra flash lights, and wear proper shoes. And unfortunately, Fido will have to stay home on this adventure.



The small lava tube I crawled through.

'Tis the season for hiking!

So, I know it's been awhile since I posted anything, but with all the great weather we've been having I've been spending my time hiking. We've done some great trails lately; Upper Bidwell Park, Susanville ranch Park. and Heart Attack Hill (it lived up to its name!) I'll post some pictures with a quick synopsis of the hikes in this blog.

 This hike was just around the Lake Almanor shore, my own backyard. It was a beautiful but chilly day. We hiked about 3 miles that day and saw some amazing snow capped mountains. The girls thought it would be a good idea to swim in the very cold lake, but everyone is just fine. :-)

Here we are posing for a picture nearing the end of our hike around the Lake Almanor shoreline.

Here went for a nice stroll in the Susanville Ranch Park. About 4 miles that day. Nothing too tough, just more leisurely and fun.

The girls putting it into 4-paw drive for the steep climbs Upper Bidwell had to offer. About 5 miles that day.









Gotta stay hydrated!

 Group shot in Upper Bidwell. GREAT hike, amazing views.

And, Heart Attack Hill, our most recent hike. Here is a clip of what it's like to be on a desent with me. About 4-5 miles that day. The map is also of Heart Attack Hill.

Caching in January in the mountains?

I like my adventures on the rocks!

You better belive it! This winter has been the driest on record since the 1880's! So I'm taking ever advantage of the wonderful weather before the white stuff flies, then it'll be time for a whole different set of fun! 

A rare snowless January day near Lassen Peak

We went caching just about every day this last week... and we didn't just do the quick park-n-grabs in the City, we busted out the topo maps and headed out deep into the depths of our local mountain ranges. We started off up County Road A-10 (know to the locals as "The 10 Road" and got some amazing views of Lassen Peak with just a minimal amount of snow dusting. We snagged a couple caches that we've been itching to get to all Summer. Mud was our greatest obstical of the day. Tons and tons of thick mountain mud.

Lake Almanor

Later in the week he headed South on HWY89 to a little Forest Service road that winded around to 6,000+ feet and we ran into a very minimal amount of snow. We had some pretty darn good views looking North to Lake Almanor and Dyer Mountain.
We found a few more caches and created a (get ready for this) DUST trail on our way to the old town of Seneca. We came across a quick moving section of the North Fork Feather River on a very beautiful day. The Water was crisp and very cold, about the only thing up in these mountains that resembled what Winter really was.

Near the Ghost Town of Seneca

December bike ride

Nice day for a chilly ride

I know right? A bike ride in December in snow country? This year I'm totally thankful for, a so far, dry (yet very cold) winter. It's the first week of December and we have NO snow to speak of (hope I didn't jinx it). So I'm being sure to take advantage of such great weather. The other day we went for a small 2.5 mile bike ride and did a little caching. Including placing a new cache on the Almanor Recreation Trail.

A particularly evil cache I placed

Here's to hoping the weather holds out a little longer for some more hiking and biking opportunities. Happy trails!

Ok all my adventure following fans, all two of you out there in cyberspace. I’m getting ready to take on my annual JDRF walk to Cure Diabetes adventure and I need YOUR help! How can you help? Easy, just by donatin a few dollars to the cause to help support me in my goal (only $125.00 we can do this together!) Just click this link JDRF and it’ll take you to my personal funraising page wher you can learn more about juvenile and click the ORANGE button to donate. OF COURSE the girls will be walking with me. Together all of us can help stomp out Juvenile Diabetes

1000 caches found!

Well this was the big week that I hit 1,000 geocaches found. We picked a fun and exciting cache for #999 and #1000. #1,000 was a nocturnal cache called " Nocturnal Mission: Eyes of Bigfoot". We followed "the eyes" a little less than 1/4 mile into the woods, dodging lights from cars on a near by road for about 20 mins until we found the red eyes, and of course, the cache.

#999.. INSIDE the log, had to crawl in a ways

the big #1,000!

Geocaching has indeed lead me to some adventurous and fun times, but I must say that these two are in my top favorites. Not because of the numbers they represented, but because of the interesting fun they allowed me to indulge on.

Making our own trails..

My Adventure Guy and I decided to pack up the dogs, load our CamelBacks, and break out the hiking grear. We found this great spot last week while exploring our surrounding area.. We parked the car, grabbed the caching containers, the dogs, and started on our way across the creek.

A steep hard climb resulted in a great rewarding view

Once we got on the other side of the creek the trail (old forest service road) was looking in pretty good shape, but once we got about .5 mile away..the story changed. So we took a side jaunt up a ridge line to a rock outcropping to check the view. And it was pretty amazing.









After our side trek to the amazing overview, we headed back down and back on the track we were headed. The trail continued to degrade and eventually, vanished completely. So..we made our own path, we stepped into the creek and walked upstream...dogs joyfully splashing behind us.

Roads? Where we're going we don't need roads

We placed a few caches along this beautiful area, took a ton of photos, and headed back to the car.  We had a wonderful time on our first hike of the season.

One happy Adventure Crew!

#900 caches found!

Thats right. On 6-29-11, this Adventure Girl officially found #900! I've only been at this 2003, but its the thrill of the hunt, not the number of finds that the important thing. But, I still having fun with the count!!

#900!!

Then after caching, we went exploring up a forest service road and quickly explored Rock Creek and the surrounding area. We scoped out the area for a near future hike with some geocaching placements.

                                                                       Rock Creek

We hiked half way up Star Butte and had some great views of the heavy flowing creek below. The area was very beautiful

The View from the middle of Star Butte





Geocaching, sneezing, and Chico

Thursday the other half, the girls, and I all went to Chico for some fun in the warm sun. We intended to do some hiking, but because I seemed to be sneezing my brain out every 30 seconds, we decided just to grab some geocaches in and around Upper Bidwell Park.  We spent the better part of the day finding various geocaches, click here if you want to know about geocaching, and just loved the weather...well.. except the crazy pollen blowing winds. The best one we found that day was the one pictured below. It was hiding under a burnt log and gave me a good scare because of how well placed it was. I nearly fell off the log and onto my butt. Then after I realized what it was, I couldn't stop laughing! A fun day was had by all, even me in my allergy invested state.

A geocache container inside a fake rat.



Susanville Ranch Park

After what seemed like an insanely long, cold winter, I finally ventured into the garage and rescued my mountain bike from the perils of dust, cobwebs, and a cocooned cluster of Christmas decorations. After a quick inspection, and some much needed air in the tires, I tossed my trail deprived Novara in the back of the car, grabbed the dogs, some essentials, and headed to Susanville Ranch Park for a quick trip around the trails.



While out cruising the trails, I managed to find a geocaching in a nearby meadow. After the find we took a break and the dogs caught their breath, rolled in the grass, and were ready to hit the trails again. We rode for a couple more miles through another meadow when we came across a brook. The girls were hot again and decided that a impromptu wade through the shallow water was in order. I must say, I agreed with them. After they filled up on cold water and rolled in the grass once more we continued on our way. While our trip was only about 4-5 miles, it was an amazing 4-5 miles on a beautiful warm spring day. By the time we got back to the car, the dogs were tired and hungry...but 5 minutes later they were looking longing at the back in the back, whining, wanting to ride more. "Another days girls, I promise. Another day."

Mags cooling off



Katie cooling her dogs





Happy Trails!







A good day on the slopes

So,  while I had fun at the end of the day, that's not how it started.

I have a friend who patrols the mountain and gave me a free lift ticket Squaw. So I woke up at 4:30 in the morning (If you know me, you know this is NOT an easy task) and dropped the girls off at doggie daycare and headed West bound on I-80 to enjoy a day at Squaw.

Top of Links, Squaw Valley, USA





Squaw Valley, USA



                                                                                   

I got my rental gear and my bindings were so insanely uncomfortable, to the point that me feet get going numb. But the line was too long to turn around and go back. Then after standing in line and shuffling towards the cable car then being packed into the cable car like a bunch of sardines (which dangles over 500 ft at one point on the vertical 2000+ foot climb to High Camp), my attitude was horrible at best. I was irritated, sore, and claustrophobic. When I stepped off the cable car, all I did was complain about how "miserable" I was. I hadn't even made it to the runs yet when I called my boyfriend and said I was going to quit and head home. After I hung up, I thought, "Hey! Groucho! You don't quit! Why in the WORLD would you quit now? Look around you! It's gorgeous outside and you're willing to quit, get back in the car and waste a whole day for nothing? I don't think so... get your butt on that lift, NOW!" So, I listened to the wiser inner me, who apparently wasn't in as much pain as my outer me was in. I hopped on the "Links" green run and headed up the hill. After one run I was still cranky, disappointed, and just unpleasant.  But, I kept going back... I REFUSED to waste my precious day.

All the sudden, on my way up on the third run I noticed something that wasn't there all morning, I had a smile. I was having a good time! So, I ignored the incredible pain in my feet, knees, and legs and just went for it, and had fun. After all, isn't that what skiing is about? Fun? I ended up skiing for a few hours and getting in a lot of great practice runs, and improved my skills.  Eventually, my physical fatigue got the better of me and I was forced to call it a day, but I didn't want to.

Life's short, play hard.

Skiing Day 2, Sugar Bowl

Went skiing the other day (April 22,2011) with my friend and coworker, Megan and her 4 year old daughter, who is a far better skier than I. We spent the day at Sugar Bowl and just had a ton of fun. We hit a couple of green runs then I made my debut on a blue run.

While it was daunting, it was overwhelmingly fun! After they left, I decided to hang out for a bit longer and made my first solo run, sucessfully! Only ate snow twice that day, so all and all not too bad.

It was a very beautiful say for skiing, not too hot and the powder was perfect. As an added benefit, it started to snow when I was skiing by myself. I did learn an important lesson though, a person can still get sunburned even if its snowing and overcast. Well worth it. I am loving my new addiction.

First time skiing!

Ok, so as I write this, my first time skiing was last week, April 14, 2011. So I'm going to just tell you what the experience was like for me then: in a word, PHENOMENAL! While I did take a few diggers in the icy snow (hey..who doesn't?) the overall experience was great. Dad and I had been talking about skiing for literally YEARS but, life constantly got in the way. Not this year, because we finally took to the slopes. After my first run, my addiction with skiing started. I haven't stopped thinking about it since. Once I find something I like, I tend to obsess over it and bore everyone around me with the same old boring details again and again, but for me... I get to relive the whole wonderful experience again and again to my hearts content, or until my mouth dries up from talking too much and I notice people rolling their eyes in my general direction.

Dad and I at Northstar



Beautiful day at Northstar.

 Skiing Village Run

Northstar was a wonderful place to learn. The hills were gentle and the staff was very knowledge, helpful, and friendly. I feel that if it is your first time skiing, this is one of the best mountain to learn on. Pay the extra cash and get yourself an instructor... it's much easier and much more fun learning with an instructor, you don't fall as much.

Skiing the final .25 mile of Village Run

Welcome to Adventure Girl's blog

Hi! I'm Dawn, the self appointed Adventure Girl. I love everything outdoors, and I take my two dogs with me whenever I can. (You can check out there blog here. )  Some of my favorite outdoor activites include hiking, kayaking, and just recently skiing! I also participate in an outdoor activity called geocaching. Basically, you use military technology to find boxes of trinkets in the woods. :-) Click this geocaching link to find out more, or just google it. Please bear with me as I am still fairly new to blogging. Enjoy!