A Hike at Huckleberry Hill

When I got home from the clinic today, I was in the mood to move but had no desire to work out at my gym. I had already spent 6 hours away from Izzy today and couldn't bear another minute, so I decided to get exercise for the both of us.

My Dad showed me the trails at Huckleberry Hill when I was in high school and I've been hiking them periodically ever since. They're close by, fairly strenuous, and provide an isolated venue to sing along to your workout playlists without your fellow gym-goers giving you the stink eye.

Proof that I am not making this up.

Serving as a welcome mat to the nature preserve is a giant flight of 175 stairs which also happened to be Izzy's favorite part. The best part about bringing a dog on hikes is that you can use them to pull you up the steep parts. Unless, of course, you didn't think this through and adopted a 22 pound dog like I did. Dammit.

After Izzy's 4,000th pit stop, I decided to start filling my downtime with mediocre photography.

After a leisurely jaunt through the woods, we came across everybody's favorite part: The Scenic Trail.

Looks pretty harmless, right?

Wrong. P.S. This is about halfway up.

I spent a majority of the trek up telling Izzy how unfair it is that her paws have built in cleats and I have to struggle in running shoes. (That's normal, right?)

Of course, when you get to the top, the view is absolutely gorgeous. The following mediocre pictures really don't do it justice, but you get the idea.

It was so pretty, even Izzy started smiling. She totally as an RBF (Resting Bitch Face - I'm allowed to say bitch because she is one), so I had to be sure to capture one of the rare smiles to cross her face.

"I'm scowling on the inside."

The best part about hiking Huckleberry Hill during the summer?

Huckleberries! (I'm really concerned if you didn't see that one coming.)

They're still a little on the sour side but that didn't stop me from eating as many as I could get my man hands on.

The view on our way down. Oh heyyy Montereyyy.

Time flew by and we ended up hiking for a grand total of an hour and a half. I was exhausted and Izzy was just getting started. Typical.

Saturday is my SISTER'S BIRTHDAY (!!!!!!!) so I'm making the 6 hour drive down to LA tomorrow night after work. The weekend is rumored to involve 3 of my favorite things: food, drinks, and sister pool time. I toyed with the idea of never coming back, but then I remembered that I will be going through strong Izzy withdrawals which may be detrimental to my health.

Looks like she'll just have to be my copilot. P.S. Notice the RBF??

Questions:

What are your plans for the weekend?

What's your favorite hiking spot?

Random Fact #14: I am so cheap that I've been using baby shampoo as body wash for the last 2 months. Don't ask me how I acquired baby shampoo in the first place.