Gone Campin'

On Thursday I set out for a two-night, three-day camping trip out at Hopper Canyon. My first solo mission.  The campsite out at Hopper Canyon is nice: set into low shrubs on a rocky outcropping, it's far from the nest, but close to the OP (yay, no 5 am hikes through rivers and up sheer rock faces!) Best we could do. Plus, we still get radio service, so it's not as daunting a stay as camping at Agua Blanca. I also happen to get amazing phone service at the OP which is awesome, although I was careful to conserve my phone battery. I needed it for Saturday.

My days out at Hopper Canyon were long and fairly uneventful. The hike in is all downhill (though I was dreading all along the hike back up). On Friday I did something stupid crazy like twelve-and-a-half hours of obs. At one point, I heard a noise which I thought was just a lizard cutting through my camp but which turned out to be a massive rattlesnake, coasting on past my chair, only maybe 3 or 4 feet away. I remained as calm as possible, moving slowly out of my chair to stand and observe the snake coming to a rest in the bush just behind my chair. Oh good. And then he went to sleep. And I went back to obs. And we peacefully coexisted until three hours later, after my lunch break, when I looked and he was gone.

I fell asleep at around 9:30, the calls of the common poor-wills drowning out any sounds of approaching bears, mountain lions or their ilk, but unfortunately not the sound of drilling from the 24-hour oil construction project going on on the other side of the mountain.

Sunrise on the second day.

A crazy caterpillar

Dad sunning himself in the cave's entrance

The morning of the third day, I awoke at dawn to see fog beginning to creep up the mountainsides. 

Ten minutes later, it looked as if I was adrift at sea. Half an hour later, the world went white.

The reason I had to conserve cell phone battery was that the morning of the third day also happened to be my birthday! I received calls from all my family and friends, which at least made me feel not quite so alone on this of all days.

How I spent my birthday. Got to say, though : easily 20 times better than my last one (some of you know to what I'm referring). 

On account of the fog, I couldn't see the nest most of the morning, so I stayed late until I could at least get a couple hours of obs in. Hiking back was not the most fun I've ever had, but I made it back to the ranch house in one piece, eager to relax and do a little celebrating on my own.

"Celebrating" amounted to making a delicious stir-fry, downing half a bottle of cheap white wine from Trader Joe's, and watching "Pulp Fiction" for the first time. So yeah, it was a pretty good birthday.