training hill hike

Decided to go on a hike today with my brother Joe while he is in town for the holiday. We both enjoy hiking but he usually goes solo at home and I don't go often for lack of willing partners. He chose the Auburn State Recreation Area near the Middle & North Forks of the American River, a fairly short drive away.

We took both the dogs, of course, as they love to go hiking - and my daughter decided she wanted to join us, too. Moey (my adolescent staffordshire bull terrier) acted as though he has no leash training at all and was eager to pull me up the trail we chose, called "Training Hill" and promised to be steep, but was the only path that led away from the road (Hwy 49) and the accompanying traffic noise.

I brought my new iPhone & then used the BeFunky camera app to play with the photos later - I don't even have music on the thing yet, but I'm having plenty of fun with the toy camera aspect.

After a truly steep long climb, during which we took several breaks and some considered turning back, we found a couple little cairns, no doubt built by hikers who felt they had achieved something by getting to the top of that particular hill.

We had to go a little further to find any kind of spot to get a view that was something beyond our immediate environs - not an iPhone camera kind of view, but the viewers were plenty interesting.

The trail continued and led to some of my favorite kind of landscape - the oak savannah of the Sierra foothills.

Joe & Sparky, who is much more civilized on a leash than her housemate, wait for me to take a shot.

Having way too much fun playing around with BeFunky...

Large rock on the savannah, like a monument to something long lost.

There were a couple trails to choose from, but time considerations made us head back the way we came, mostly, until we came to "Pig Farm Trail" which headed down the right part of the hill - a dry gulley testifies to our lack of rainfall so far this winter.