powderfreak

Congrats man. You earned it.

Late day sun angle making the hills even more red this evening. Best reds in a long time. High of 81F in the valley at the ASOS... it was just an amazing, warm, breezy evening to be out wandering the mountains. Normally hiking in the late day shadow of Mansfield would be quite chilly, but that south wind was blowing pretty mild... no sharp drop in temperature with the shadow line today.

Bingo. Hazelton hiking trail comes out of the woods right there and meanders up the Upper Nosedive.

Haven’t been here since last weekend because was on the Gondi side during the week. But this route is by far the least busy hike up the hill and I like that as the dog can be off leash the whole way. We then loop down the mowed ski trails, if moving quick it can be an hour up, hour down, total time away from house about 2.5 hours. With the fading daylight it’s been harder to hike after work these days. What a day though... classic 2020... take the wife for a COVID test and then go for a hike. A normal Saturday.

Standing here right now, just enjoying this view. It’s straight magic right now as the sun goes behind Mansfield’s ridge line.

Gonna be a very extended stick season this year. The rain this week might bring ‘em down. Maybe all of October and November is just sticks?

Just hit 80F at the ASOS. Let’s see how high we can go after last week’s 24F.

That seems to be a recurring theme right now. Maybe all we need for the best bright red/orange foliage is a drought and very early freeze, ha.

Yeah it’s hot aloft. 66F at MMMV1 at the picnic tables. Given that temp, we should have no problem hitting 80F down here in the valley with normal lapse rates.

Up to 76F at MVL here at 12pm... brilliant sunshine. The vegetation has to be thoroughly confused at this point lol. We should hit 80F.

To your north and to your south. Also to your west. It's pretty much got you surrounded.

It is mind blowing that Nature puts on this type of display each year. Every year it's mind blowing to see just acre after acre of a kaleidoscope of color.

Yup already 71F here too.

Defense mechanism running overtime these days. The models look widespread very wet, hard to argue against it right now.