Addendum to post below:

Firstly; what is this? Please, let me know, I'd like to hear YOUR take on the blue pig vehicle.

Secondly; as the three of us sat somewhat defeated by the gushing swollen "creek", Pringles picked up a piece of skree:

"Schist" he said, as a comment on the situation we found ourselves in.
I retorted with "I suppose we didn't have a gneiss day after all."
Rockbuddy Rich pointed out, however, that "we shouldn't take it for granite though."

It's great fun being a rock nerd at the best of times.

Last minute romping

I like deer.

The second "creek" we were to ford... no scale makes this difficult to imagine I think. But know that this water is deep and that this "creek" is too wide to jump.

A side view of the "creek" to cross... gives a better idea I think.

Speaking of jumping... since no crossing was to be had - jumping photo-op occurred instead.


Being me, and due to some scheduling difficulties, Pringles (new to the blog), Rockbuddy Rich, and I trekked up to Mineral King for some exploration that got cut short due to snow melt causing one of the creeks we had to ford to turn into a raging waterfall (see photo above- aieeeeee!). We saw beautiful blue sky, snow capped mountains, deer, marmots (see below), water falls (that we didn't have to cross) and enjoyed it not being 106oF up at that elevation. Couldn't be much of a better way to spend the day before I take off for Costa Rica. Although packing may have been more productive...

Marmotted!

As of today, that IS a word. Let me tell you a story...

The story begins like this: What the hell???? Why are those cars securely wrapped in tarps like they're xmas presents???

I mean, check THAT one out!!! There's no mini van for the tarp!!!
As it turns out, this is called "marmot-proofing". To which I gleefully responded; marmot-proofing????!!!!?!???!!??!?! And the story ran around that when you park up in the Sierras, marmots come out of hiding, and like to snack on your car engine. I nearly DIED for laughter! You people believe that??? You ACTUALLY think that a MARMOT, one of these cute over-sized guinea pigs pictured below, likes to eat bits out of your car engine when you're out for a hike??? I was shameless in the ridiculous rumour-believing that American hikers were showing. Pringles chimed in with saying that it surely must be an urban myth, I mean, has ANYONE we know ever actually experienced a "marmotting"? I laughed and suggested we get myth-busters in on this. We all thought it was great. We hiked and photographed the chubby little guys chuckling about marmottings the whole way.

Look at this guy, all fuzzy and smiling. He's not going to eat your SUV! We ran into some other hikers and continued the marmot discussion, when one guy informed us that "seriously, last year I hiked here and laughed at all the tarps and when I got back to my car I had to have it towed out ($700) and have $1500 worth of damage repaired due to marmots, who had evidently eaten the distributor cap and chewed through all the hoses causing ALL the fluids to leak out". We were impressed. Intrigued. Not completely believing. Stopping at the ranger station on the way out of the park I asked about "getting marmotted", and the ranger lady said that they seem to like eating the insulation out of the engine hood. What the????? Don't these little guys normally eat VEGETATION? It was definitely an unexpected hiking hazard...
Returning to our vehicle, Rockbuddy Rich set off the alarm to alert any foraging furries that we were coming and that they should remove themselves from the engine if they were there. Sure enough, out scooted a marmot from his snack beneath the truck next over, but not ours. On the drive back, Rich's engine light came on and cruise control stopped working... Pringles and I joked about having gotten "marmotted" today - what a laugh. Got home, looked under the hood, and what did we see??? Apparently the hood insulation and whatever is reponsible for cruise control made a tasty lunch for a marmot today.

Socks: Orangina

I finally finished the socks made out of Kroy yarn from eBay. They are orange and have cables. That sentence was for blind people. Oh wait. They wouldn't be able to read that anyway... So point being - socks. There they are.