Wow..can you belive that in 5 days I will have been living in california for 3 years! OMG...time flies.
Friday was my day off of work and I decided to enjoy it on my own doing 2 things I love. Photography and Hiking. I woke up early and drove the 2.5 hours to a trail head near Lone Pine, Ca in the eastern sierras. The drive up was very nerve racking. As the road was about 15miles of switchbacks and it felt like there was no shoulder or anything to keep you from going off the edge. So I drove very slowly. I was okay until I was bout 5ooo feet up. The traiil head started at just over 9,000 feet. I seem to have a fasciantion with these mountains latley. I love the fact that you can easily hike above the tree line and enjoy looking out at nothing but sky and granite rock. This hike was one of the easist I've done lately since the elvation change was only about 1200 feet. Ihiked the Cottonwood Lakes trail to 5 amazingly pristime lakesand enjoyed time photographing them and just relaxing. I was gone about 7 hours and even though I was by myself I really enjoyed the day. To keep me occupied I brought my IPOD which worked really well. As last year when I hiked by myslef I felt rather lonely since I had no one to talk to. During the hike I saw Llamas, Mules, Horses (even a wild one) and Marmots! If you don't know what a marmot is it is a gopher looking thing that lives in the granite rocks. They are so cute! 
The Sierras are so amazing. I just love them. I can't imagine living far away from some sort of incredible mountain range. Like some people have to have the beach, I have to have the mountins. Its so incredible to be in total peace and quiet and just enjoy nature at her best. I love how blue the sky is once you hike above the haze and pollutants. I love the lakes and how clear they are. And I love the grante peaks towering to anywhere between 11, ooo - 14, 000 feet. During this hike I went to a bit over 11, 000 feet and completed 12 miles.
More photos: http://schanker.smugmug.com/gallery/3151935#173062643
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