The Jelly Bean President

Ronald Reagan was famously fond of Jelly Beans. He used them to quit
smoking and had them at all his cabinet meetings. We took a tour of
the Jelly Belly factory outside of San Francisco.

Mt. San Bernardino

We are still low enough that the snow was not a serious factor, but it was about to make life interesting. We are to spend the night about halfway up this peak.

Limber Pine Bench Camp

I guess the pines have to be limber so the wind doesn't snap them off. It was cold and windy as we pitched tents and cooked dinner. As soon as the sun set we were in our tents and asleep.

photo bomb

Here I am photo bombing Mark's record of entering the winderness area.

Sutter's Fort

Sutter's Fort was an early outpost in California. It was a safe place
that settler's travelling to California could stop at after their
journey over the Sierra's, get their bearings and move on. It is
located in Sacramento at the northern end of the Central Valley of
California. The Central Valley is the agricultural heartland of
California and in a dry state like California it has been the center
of water rights controversies since the early 1900's. The Sierra
mountains form the eastern boundary of the valley and snowmelt from
the eastern and western slopes is channeled into aquaducts that must
supply both the farmland of the Central Valley and the population of
southern California. As we drove through the western side of the
valley on the way home there were dust storms the entire way as there
is not enough water for dust suppression.