I spent Thanksgiving weekend with Tim at
Lake Cuyamaca, located in the mountains about 40 miles east of San Diego. We hiked to the top of Stonewall Peak, which was located across the road from our campground.
The weather was perfect during the day, but at night temperatures dipped to the upper 30s. It probably was a mistake to drink ice-cold beer on our first night around the camp fire, but we didn't figure that out until it was too late. We drank hot tea on the second night.
Here's the view looking north from the peak of Stonewall. The last few feet reminded me of climbing to Angel's Landing in Zion Canyon in southwestern Utah, only this climb was a lot safer and easier to reach.
That's Lake
Cuyamaca behind Tim.
Our campground was surrounded by dead trees. Most of the area around the lake burned during the 2003 wildfires that swept across San Diego County.
Even five years later, the scars of the fires are visible everywhere.
We took these photos with my iPhone using a new app called
Night Camera. It does a great job tackling a fundamental problem with the phone - the camera takes great shots when the lighting is good, but it stinks in low light.
Night Camera uses the
iPhone's accelerometer to detect exactly when the camera is being held still and grabs the image in that fleeting moment.
Both of these pics pretty much recorded exactly what was visible to the eye when they were taken. The only light came from a
fluorescent lantern that was hanging from a tree limb above us.
This screen grab comes from an Internet game found at aksaler.com. My sister, Michele, found the link and forwarded it to me.
Tim and I were among the thousands of San Diegans who headed an hour east of the city Saturday to frolic in the two-plus feet of snow that fell in the mountains a few days earlier.
The scenes were breathtaking. I was in heaven because I'm a snow freak and it was my first time to see more than a few inches of the white stuff. Another plus was getting to wear my spiffy new snow boots. Where have these been all of my life. They really work!
As usual, click on any pic to view it full size.
Tim and I got a good cardio workout hiking up and down hills through deep, powdery drifts.
The snow was equally deep at Lake Cuyamaca where Tim and I camped just a few weeks ago.
We ended the day in Julian where we had pie (apple pumpkin and strawberry rhubarb) and coffee.
Frosty was having no luck hitching a ride back to the beach.
Weather forecasters are predicting more snow on Monday and Wednesday. That probably mean I'll feel compelled to drive to the mountains again on Thursday to make it an official white Christmas.
I spent Thanksgiving weekend with Tim at Lake Cuyamaca, located in the mountains about 40 miles east of San Diego. We hiked to the top of Stonewall Peak, which was located across the road from our campground.
The weather was perfect during the day, but at night temperatures dipped to the upper 30s. It probably was a mistake to drink ice-cold beer on our first night around the camp fire, but we didn't figure that out until it was too late. We drank hot tea on the second night.
Here's the view looking north from the peak of Stonewall. The last few feet reminded me of climbing to Angel's Landing in Zion Canyon in southwestern Utah, only this climb was a lot safer and easier to reach.
That's Lake Cuyamaca behind Tim.
Our campground was surrounded by dead trees. Most of the area around the lake burned during the 2003 wildfires that swept across San Diego County.
Even five years later, the scars of the fires are visible everywhere.
We took these photos with my iPhone using a new app called Night Camera. It does a great job tackling a fundamental problem with the phone - the camera takes great shots when the lighting is good, but it stinks in low light.