Northwestern California, United States

Spring adventures in the mountains are always an uncertainty. Mountain roads are rarely maintained even during summer months and never during winter months (for good reasons). But in the spring it is a 50/50 chance of being able to get to your destination. The snow is only half the battle; throughout the winter the heavy snow brings down the weaker trees and they block roads until they are removed or they rot enough to drive over. This is exactly what happened to me this past weekend. After driving nearly 150 miles to the trailhead (and making it past two downed trees with about an inch of wiggle room for my car) I hit an impasse five miles from the trailhead. This is always a frustrating part of adventures. I could have hiked the five miles of road in, but I just didn't have the time to add ten total miles to my weekend trip, and it was already getting late. So I turned around and checked out my plan B. Low and behold, plan B was not possible either, so I had to head home.


This is the inevitable part of travel of any kind. Plans rarely work out perfectly, and once in a while the whole thing winds up being a minor disaster. But no matter what, there is always a bright side (sometimes you just have to try harder to find it).

This little guy was my bright side! I stopped several times on the way out of the mountain (a beautiful drive despite the inconveniences) to walk out to viewpoints and to try an salvage at least a bit of the trip. On one of those short walks a tree frog decided to hitch a ride on my backpack! I hadn't seen a tree frog since last summer and it reminded me of home. So naturally I spent the next hour stalking the cute little guy and got some adorable pictures.