At least, I think it’s a Japanese maple.

It’s almost mirabelle plum season
(actually, I already found one tree with ripe fruit) so I’ve been paying extra attention to the trees around here lately.

Yet another masterpiece by infamous Berkeley graffitist Meck.

After walking the Bay to Breakers course with Sarah on Sunday, we walked home a different way from the Ashby BART station. I’ve been walking down blocks that I’ve never been on before lately and have been amazed that there are so many so near to home!

This route proved to be particularly fortuitous, given that I spied two new Mecks!

…as viewed through a chain link fence (one of my favorite things to photograph!).

For the last night of vanstravaganza up to the swimming holes of the Tahoe National Forest (more pics coming soon…), we camped at an AMAZING campground on the American River. There were some blackberry bushes growing near the bank.

(The sky wasn’t really that orange… My finger slipped in photoshop and I liked the result!)

Also seen along the South Yuba River Trail: many pine-tree-y vistas.

We were a-fixin’ to hit another swimming hole on Sunday, but the weather turned cold. We hiked down to it along the South Yuba River Trail any way. (I jumped in, quickly wished I hadn’t.)

Not a bad hike anyway! I panned for gold using a salsa container lid and took some lovely pictures along the way! Above: red flowers coming out of a rock.

Exploring upstream from the swimming hole I mentioned the other day, I found a wheelbarrow full of water. Steep cliffs all around it.

That’s the thing about gold country. You get to a spot where you think nobody’s ever been before (let alone brought mining equipment down) and then you stumble across some old prospector’s gear.

This fern was hanging out right next to the barrow.

Not a bad beer, actually! Great way to finish off a trip!

We just got back from a van trip with Anicia up to the Tahoe National Forest. Our mission: to see what this book
had to offer.

Turns out: quite a bit!

After a little trouble finding an open campground on Friday night, we made our way over to the Oregon Creek swimming hole.

Out. Stand. Ing.

Crystal clear water, big polished granite rocks for getting sunburned, plenty of clean pools, deep enough for rock jumping. OMG.

Here are some mossy rocks I found downstream. (More pics to follow…)