Tag: Nature

A Look Back

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A Look Back, originally uploaded by dmzajac2004-.

Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

On the 21st of Oct. I had the pleasure of hiking with the Monterey Bay Area Hiking Group in Salinas, CA. It was the toughest hike I’ve done all year. Yes, even tougher than Horse Heaven Trail up to Mission Peak! There are 6 or 7 really, really steep mountains to conquer. The grade on each was 25-30%. Tough!
We hiked to 3 peaks; Eagle Peak, Ollason Peak, and Simas Peak. Here I’m looking back at Eagle Peak from the trail just under Ollason Peak. We had made a summit to Eagle peak first. The morning started out really foggy and soon I was cold and damp. It was such a relief to get up above the clouds and fog and into the sun.  8 hikers started the hike and all 8 finished!

Hiking Stats:
10.79 miles, 3,288ft gained, 6hours 12 minutes

Elevations of the Peaks- Eagle Peak-1,607ft, Ollason Peak-1,188ft, Simas Peak-2,245ft

Nikon D700| Nikkor 18mm AI-S| f8| 1/500sec| ISO 200| Manual Mode| Hand-held

Salinas, California, Toro Park, Hike, Nature

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”- Albert Camus

Posted in California, hikes, Nature, PhotographyTagged , , , 2 Comments

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Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved

The beautiful colors of autumn along the trail this morning. The air was crisp, and cool as I started my hike in darkness and perfect solitude, but now and then there would be a “crack!”, and rustling in the branches as another leaf fell to the ground to line the trail with a carpet of fallen leaves. For over an hour these were the only sounds I heard.
Fall is at peak in the mountains where I hike. Already many trees are bare. Winter is fast on Autumn’s heels.

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 85mm| f2.2| 1/40 sec| ISO 640| Manual Mode| Hand-held

Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve; Hiking; Photography

Mount Madonna Surprises

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I had the pleasure of hiking with the “Wednesday Hiking Group” today. I haven’t hiked with them in a really long time due to work. Today I didn’t have work scheduled so I met them.

The group split into two groups at 3.25miles. The Rabbits took a shorter route that would loop them back and give them a 6.5mile hike, and the Big Dogs continued on to complete a 10.85mile hike.

There were 5 Big Dogs, and I’m happy to say I was one of them. On the way back we took the Bayview Trail for a bit and there beside it was some wild Foxglove. I’ve never seen it in the wild before. It was a lovely surprise.

Foxglove Photograph by Deborah M. Zajac

 

Foxglove’

Foxglove Photograph by Deborah M. Zajac

 

A little later we saw some pretty Pacific Pea.

Pacific Pea Photography by Deborah M. Zajac

 

The fog hung thick in the Santa Cruz Mountain Range today, and several times we got rained on. It was definitely the place to hike on hot sunny day in the valley.

It was great seeing some old friends, and meeting new people today. I hope it’s not long before I can hike with the group again. There was another neat surprise during this hike I’ll share soon!

I’ve made my Hike Stats public if you’d like to see them, and the route map go here.

Info on Mount Madonna County Park is here.

 

“…the glory of our parklands is too precious to be sacrificed…Steps must be taken to protect our dearly won recreation lands…”~ J.D. Grant

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Via Flickr:
Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

It looks a bit compressed in this view. Please click in the photo to view it larger.

Took a drive out to Grant Lake with Dali today and wandered around. It’s really pretty now. I don’t visit this park often enough.

D300s| Nikkor 17-35@ 17mm| f8| 1/500 sec| ISO 200| Manual Mode| Tripod

Hawk she/he is calling its mate.

Posted in Birds, California, Nature, Nikon, PhotographyTagged , , , Leave a comment

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Copyright © 2011 Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.

 

I think this is a Red-Tailed Hawk He or she is part of a pair.
It was really exciting seeing this one and trying to get “in flight’ shots!

Nikon D300s| Nikkor 80-200mm| f4| /2500 sec| ISO 500| Manual Mode| Hand-held

San Francisco, Cypress Tree, Red-Tailed Hawk, Nature, Wildlife

New Photos Added to the Bistro Gallery!

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The Bistro 4 gallery has been updated with more great photographs by members of The Bistro. A Nikon users group in the flickr community.

Like this marvelous photograph titled “Eyes of a Predator” by Jesse Cox

Photograph by Jesse Cox. ( Used with Permission)

To view all the 2011 Bistro Galleries go here:   At the front page just scroll down the page to see the Galleries.   I’m curating through July 10th. Come back again!

Copyright © Deborah M. Zajac. All Rights Reserved.