Thirty Four

This past Friday, I turned another year older, putting me at thirty four.

Since I’ve been more comfortable with my body these days, I’m exploring this whole new world of… dresses? It’s still a bit weird for me. I never thought I’d ever get into the whole ‘dress’ thing since I was forced to wear them every Wednesday at my Lutheran grammar school. It’s becoming more fun for me though as of late. I love some of the quirkier/dark stuff out there like this dress that portrays an Aurora Borealis. You know me – your neighborhood sky/star gazer.

I had to work on my birthday. I know, boo hoo for me, but it was with good reason. We’re planning a trip to Pittsburgh, PA in the near future, and the time off that I had saved up was used for that. I guess it’s kind of like a prolonged birthday celebration, so I’m cool with that! The day went well, but on my way out of the work doors, I was greeted to a flat tire! How f’ed up is that? Luckily I knew how to change a tire, but still needed help cracking those lug-nuts. Upon arriving home, I was greeted with this lovely bouquet, then whisked off to dinner at The Salted Pig.

I wanted to have a low-key birthday this year, and do something that didn’t require much money. Nature has been calling to me, and with the suggestion of my friend, Viviane, we headed to Cucamonga Peak!

We got started a little slow, but we picked it up eventually.

This beautiful blue bird took a rest with us along our path. I was surprised at how fearless he was around people. Perhaps he was guarding a nest?

We tried to make it to the top, but I don’t think we realized what we were getting ourselves into. This is what we decided to call ‘Saddleback’, even though we had about two miles to go before reaching the real thing.

After a good rest, we started our descent.

This was probably the most curious thing we saw on the trail. It was a burnt tree, and if you look closely, all but a quarter of it’s root base is missing. It was so astonishing that it was still standing!

I snapped pictures of all the signage on the way back down, and was probably a mile from the start of the hike. Going up, it marks 4.3 miles to get to Ice House Saddle, or more commonly known as “Saddleback”. From there, the trail branches off into different trails, going to Telegraph Peak, Thunder Mountain, Timber Mountain, and Cucamonga Peak.

We saw this deer on our way down, grazing near the creek. I wish I could have gotten a better shot of it! Next time, it’s all about automatic settings!

Horacio and Angel posing for their Flaming Buttocks band photo. Yes, we really are that silly! Looking good, gentlemen.


This little guy was our farewell committee.

Overall it was a great birthday!! We started the trail at 8:30AM, and hit our climbing limit at 10:30AM. This was our first time doing anything like this, and didn’t know how much our bodies could really handle. We ended up playing it safe, and conserved our energy for the way back down. We took a 15 minute break at our “peak”, and headed back down around 10:45AM, pausing to take photos along the way. We finally reached the bottom around 12:50PM, had some sandwiches, and made our way back to the city. Before parting ways with Horacio, I treated the men to some drinks as a reward and thanks for accompanying me on my wish to go hiking for my birthday. Cheers mates!