{"id":16,"date":"2016-04-08T16:40:10","date_gmt":"2016-04-08T16:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/?p=16"},"modified":"2016-04-27T05:15:00","modified_gmt":"2016-04-27T05:15:00","slug":"a-view-of-the-blue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/04\/08\/a-view-of-the-blue\/","title":{"rendered":"A view of the blue"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-70\" src=\"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_0457-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_0457\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_0457-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_0457.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/>Yesterday was our weekly &#8220;big hike&#8221; day, when we load up our packs and head out for the whole day.\u00a0 We do shorter hikes on two other days, but Thursdays we try to replicate &#8220;the real deal&#8221; and hike all day.<\/p>\n<p>We went for one of our favorite hilly hikes out at Point Reyes National Seashore, where there are plenty of great killer hills to climb, with the bonus of awesome chances to get a &#8220;view of the blue&#8221;&#8211;the Pacific Ocean far below.\u00a0 It was windy and cloudy when we left the trailhead parking area at Bear Valley and headed right up the first climb&#8211;2 miles to the top of Mt. Wittenberg.\u00a0 I was carrying my new Z-packs pack, which I modified quite a bit by adding more net pockets to the sides.\u00a0 I love net pockets.\u00a0 I can stow all kinds of stuff and find it easily without having to open the main pack.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-68\" src=\"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_0450-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_0450\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_0450-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_0450.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/>At the top, bummer.\u00a0 No view of the blue&#8211;just cloudy, gray and brrrr, cold wind.\u00a0 We couldn&#8217;t even see the ocean at all.\u00a0 Oh well&#8211;we headed on through Sky Camp and then waaaay down to the road, followed by a rollercoaster contour for 3 miles or so along the hillsides.\u00a0 But then, wow!\u00a0\u00a0 There WAS a &#8220;view of the blue&#8221; only it wasn&#8217;t the ocean.\u00a0 It was whole hillsides covered with the blue flowers of ceanothus (wild CA lilac) in full bloom.\u00a0\u00a0 I stopped in my tracks to take it all in.\u00a0 The trail was dusted with tiny\u00a0blue petals\u00a0and the air was sweet with the perfume of the flowers.\u00a0 So I did get a view of the blue after all&#8211;not waves on the ocean, but waves of flowers on the hills.\u00a0 Works for me!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-66\" src=\"http:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_0445-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_0445\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_0445-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_0445.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/>After climbing Point Reyes Hill and down the other side, then up and along Mt. Vision, we stopped for lunch in wind so strong and cold that we ended up having to hunker down while we ate instead of sitting up on a bare spot to enjoy the view.\u00a0\u00a0The clouds did lift enough for us to see the ocean&#8211;the line of white at the beach was pretty sizeable, which meant that there were some big waves coming in.<\/p>\n<p>We returned the same way we came, and got home tired and happy.\u00a0 My new Zpacks\u00a0pack worked just fine, and it is a lot lighter than my\u00a0\u00a0good old tried &#8216;n true small aluminum external frame pack.\u00a0 Now for more CDT logistics&#8211;there&#8217;s still food to measure and bag up!<\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-16 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/04\/08\/a-view-of-the-blue\/img_0455\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_0455-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/04\/08\/a-view-of-the-blue\/img_0448\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_0448-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/2016\/04\/08\/a-view-of-the-blue\/img_0444\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/IMG_0444-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yesterday was our weekly &#8220;big hike&#8221; day, when we load up our packs and head out for the whole day.\u00a0 We do shorter hikes on two other days, but Thursdays we try to replicate &#8220;the real deal&#8221; and hike all day. We went for one of our favorite hilly hikes out at Point Reyes National [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-preparation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/montybillpct.net\/blog2016\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}