that's me and annie the mule. we went for a drive today courtesy otis calef, the president of sbtc board of directors.
honey and otis
bright an early this morning i showed up at jim's house, where otis keeps his mules. jim kindly loaned me his wife's saddle, which was already mounted on annie.
jim and annie
one of jim's cattle dogs
note the bok choy growing like weeds in jim's yard. jim harvested a whole grocery bag of it along with limes and habanero peppers for me to take home.
buddy and otis, taken during our ride to santa ynez
a very nervous schmee
who knew mules were so big? i imagined them to be more the size of donkeys than horses. annie is the same size as the rocky mountain horse riding in our group. and this would be why:
that dang mule was constantly eating. as soon as otis took his eyes off her, she headed straight for the oak tree and grabbed herself a branch. she continued eating through out the entire drive. it didn't matter if we were resting or moving. she had her head down grabbing at the grasses so frequently that ben commented how she looked like a vacuum cleaner.
looking ahead toward natalie and otis
looking back at ben and his mule timmy
ben studied archeology and is teaching natural history at midland school. he knows the area well so it was nice to pick his brain.
because timmy wanted to hang back, i handed ben the camera so he could get pictures of the group riding. my exact request: please take lots of pictures of me!
ascending adobe creek trail
perfect day, fantastic views
ben, natalie on her horse, and otis
(taken with iphone as ben had my camera)
ray ford was working on extending the adobe creek trail. we interrupted his john deer session for some schooling.
ray ford at his best
otis and honey listening to ray
on the way back ben didn't take many pictures and neither did i. annie decided to gallop down the steeper sections so i had to hold on for dear life. she kept running no matter how hard i pulled on the reigns. in fact, she didn't respond to one single command all day. scumbag mule.
timmy's eye
the three hour mule drive ended at 1:15 pm. my knees and bum were sufficiently sore. i couldn't wait to get off the gluttonous mule lest she decides to throw me off. anyway, we dropped off ben and timmy at midland on our way out.
sometime during the five star dinner experience it was decided that we would go camping in montana de oro. early friday afternoon tom+rubayi drove up early to secure a camp site. jg and i left town at 6 pm. by the time we reached camp, tom and rubayi were already enjoying a roaring fire.
the sky was nice and dark and the milky way was clearly visible over head. i couldn't help trying for a few night shots.
orion versus light pollution and dirty lens
big dipper
jg and i set up tent in the dark. the santa ana winds blew off and on at half hour intervals. none of us had trouble sleeping. i got up once during the night for water. i heard a coyote yipping nearby and decided to wake jg so he could hear it.
our camp site in glorious day light
($25 per night, $10 extra for second vehicle)
saturday morning the weather was perfect, sunny, warm, and clear. we decided to go for hike up valencia peak where tom and rubayi had never been.
jg preparing for a picnic lunch
heading for valencia peak
the trail past oats peak
geezers
peak registry
after the hike we headed down to spooner's cove for some tidepooling except the water was a bit too high to see much.
rubayi looking for urchins
jg looking for dolphins
cactus of the sea
mustache? booger?
one fine saturday at 5:13 pm
we left the beach and walked up to the bluffs to catch the sunset. i forced team goleta to pose for a glamour shot.
they can haz romanced
after the sunset team goleta headed back to camp while jg and i got back on the road to go home. on the way out of the park, we stopped for a few night shots.
looking south
looking north (morro bay)
while i messed with the camera jg heard an owl hooting in the eucalyptus tree across the road. we hung around for a good while just to listen. a pleasant way to end this all too short camping trip.
