HIKING: Sunday Hike At Nimbus Hatchery (23 April 2006)!

Hi Everyone,

I went on a hike today at Nimbus Hatchery with the Rancho Cordova Walking / Hiking Meet-up Group... very nice folks and a pleasant hike. I think that there were about seven of us on the hike.

The above lady, Cheryl and I, quickly became pals and I spent much of the hike by her side. She was very kind and we chatted about a number of topics. She also had a very fancy water rig. It had a tube that came over her right shoulder so that she didn't have to pull out a water bottle like I did... fancy shmancy.

It was advertized as a four-mile hike, but I think we did closer to five or six miles. We started around eleven am and ended around one-thirty pm. Much of the trail looked like the above photo... a worn earth trail with plenty of rocks.

Here I am, doing my best to look studly. I'm wearing a T-shirt that I sort of "borrowed" from my little sister. My sister is a Rock Med volunteer and the shirt has a colorful story... Apparently it was given to her by a paramedic named "Barf Bag Bob"... you probably don't want to hear the rest of the story...

http://www.rockmed.org/

We mostly walked along the foot and horse trails and spotted a good amount of wildlife. We saw all sorts of varmints, a pheasant, some quail, a swarm of butterflies and a whole variety of small birds. The above photo is of one of the many butterflies we saw. It looked sort of like a black Monarch Butterfly.

This is what I call the Seven Dwarves "Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go" shot... James is in the front of this photo. He's a former US Marine and loves to hunt in Wyoming. His wife Kathie, is behind him. They're a very nice couple. James and I spoke about world politics during the hike and I enjoyed the chat.

I later learned the name of the trail thanks to this handy sign, which wasn't so handy... The little red dot that showed where "here" was must have faded off of the map. On the map key, but not on the map of the trail area. Bummer.

In a number of areas, the trail passes by the river and we saw some canoeists and kayakers.

The path eventually turned into a morass of mud and unpassable areas so we backtracked to the bike trail. The walk back was as pleasant as the one on the way there. Some horse riders passed us at one point. We also found an ampitheatre area with a big fire pit and logs to sit on.

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On the way home, I stopped by a local Persian market and bought some Taftoon bread, a sort of pita-like flat bread. I also bought some Persian carrot-orange jam (Sima's), a jar of Israeli cocoa spead (HaShahar H'aole) and a jar of Persian pickles with onions and garlic. Bon apetit!

And I'm sure that they will go well with the novel I'm currently reading:

Against Gravity by Farnoosh Moshiri, formerly of Tehran, Iran. It's an interesting novel and I didn't think I'd be enjoying it, but I am. It's about a Persian emmigre that has moved to Texas and her life there. Very clever and the characters are strangely likeable.

http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,0_0143035681,00.html

And, as a side note, since I've received several E-mails about it, Persian and Iranian are about the same thing. It breaks down like this... most folks who escaped the Ayatollah's regime in 1979 and after prefer to be called Persians. Persian is also the older historical term. The Ayotollah's regime prefer to be called Iranians and the terms "Iran" and "Iranian" have became the de facto default since. So, Iranian nationalists along the former Shah's line like to be called Persians and Iranian nationalists along the Ayatollah's line like to be called Iranians. You say to-ma-to, I say to-mah-to; you say po-ta-to, I say...

See! That degree I earned in International Relations is good for something other than collecting dust...

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Have a great Sunday!

Shalom,
Maksim-Smelchak.

P.S.
Learn more about the group here:

http://walkers.meetup.com/121/

P.S.S.
I have all of the photos from the hike here:

http://s44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Maksim-Smelchak/Hiking%202006/