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March 5, 2024 49 mins
Dune 2 is the big blockbuster in theaters, but with a break in rain and cooler weather now's a great time to head outdoors to explore some of California's best dunes, including less known places, best for sunsets, and--bonus--the Oregon sand dunes that inspired the novel Dune. In this episode, Brad and Holly talk about some of these surreal sandscapes, in addition to other outdoor adventures that are good post-rains, what it means to hurkle-durkle, and Big Bear’s famous bald eagle pair—Jackie and Shadow. Later in the podcast, they are joined by Janice Lim, founder of the travel blog WheresJanice, for a conversation about some top California waterfalls, national parks, camping areas, road trips, and tidepool destinations. Dune it right for outdoor adventures.

Dunes to visit in California and Oregon

Janice Lim, @wheresjanice
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Transcript

Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:17):
Welcome to the Weekend Chirper Podcast.Take it Outside. I'm Brad Day,
I'm Holly Koulak, and we're notin spring yet. It's official. It's
still winter. It is hanging on. What wtf with this weather? Oh
my god? I mean the waterfallslove it. I know the waterfalls have

(00:38):
been crazy. I know every it'sthose waterfall stories are trending on our website.
Of course everyone's going. Everybody's goingto waterfalls. I don't blame them.
I mean, they're going to beincredible for quite some time to come.
But I mean this is getting I'mgetting tired of it. I'm and
I grew up in Canada. Peoplelike I'm cold and I'm over it.
Oh, it's been so wet andcold. It's like this these storm has

(00:59):
been coming in, not from They'renot like, uh what do they call
those? Uh? Oh Pineapple Express? Like come on, listener, you
know what we're talking about. PineappleExpress. You always go to me.
The atmosphere rivers. Atmosphere rivers,thank you? These are coming from are
these recent ones came from Alaska?I think, which is why it's the

(01:21):
dumped so much snow up in theSierra and Interstate eighty was closed for several
days. I know, what didyou think of that? So, like,
Tahoe is buried and I hope peopleare staying safe there. It was
quite something to see, but Iwas surprised so Donner passed, you know,
there were all these kind of warningsthat this blizzard's coming, this blizzard's
coming, please don't travel, staysafe. And I understand like residents there,

(01:45):
people who live there, they've gotyou know, they're kind of moving
out, but like they were tryingto kind of tell people don't go right,
and what happened, I mean,it seemed like possibly a lot of
people still went and got stranded onDonner Pass. I don't know all the
deeds. Yeah, maybe they werelike residents, but it seemed like a
lot of people were just trying toget up there and when they were worn

(02:05):
not to I hope everyone's okay.It seems like it's been okay. I
think so, But yeah, talkabout a pain in the ass. I
mean, how would you like tobe stuck and trying to rely on CHP
or something somebody to come like digyou out. Like they're busy enough because
they're trying to help people vocally.Yeah, I don't know. It just
it's like it's wild. They gotso much snow. I mean I was
up in Tahoe a few weeks ago. This was some time in kind of

(02:30):
like mid mid February, and therewasn't I was a little bit surprised by
how little snow there was, consideringhow much rain we received down in the
Bay Area and in southern California.And then I go up to Tahoe and
there wasn't as much snow as Ihad expected. But now I think they
just got such a dump that thesnow levels, which is what we rely

(02:52):
on for our water. Once itmelts to fill our reservoirs, I think
is going to be quite high again. So I think this is like two
year years in a row that we'rehaving some above average precipitation, which is
great for the drought. I don'tknow how it affects like wildfire stuff,
you know, that's kind of theother thing that people begin to think about,

(03:13):
you know, come summertime. Buthopefully it you know, dampens out
a little bit. But yeah,maybe too early to know it's wild because
and I saw an article on theLa Times. It was saying a story
in the La Times saying that we'restill not at like, you know,
the levels that we meet. Imean it's like, hi, it's high
eighties. Yeah, and that weneed a couple more storms. I'm like,
please, no, this is Ifeel like we're good, this is

(03:34):
good, but it is it's justwild because here we are with this epic
blizzard and then in Texas there's thisinsane, terrible wildfire, you know,
and just like it's hot, it'slike really hot there. I'm going,
what is going on with the climate? You know, it's crazy. It's
a real it's like whiplash. Itis it is. It is wild.

(03:58):
Yeah, I hope most people havehave stayed safe. But you know when
I saw in the news, Iwas saw like an Amazon vehicle and a
Walmart truck stuck, and I'm like, man, I hope I hope they
were like not feeling pressured to work, you know, where it's like you
have to do these deliveries. Like, come on, people, we don't
have to have the deliveries. Idon't know, I don't know what that
story is, but you know,you don't want to see giant Walmart talk

(04:23):
or Amazon stuck on Donner path.How often do you get your deliveries from
right, Yeah, No, it'strue. I think I actually do think
about that. Then I'm like,I don't need my delivery tomorrow. I
try to do like Monday deliveries.Oh, it's good for you as often
as I can. I mean,it has to be the only thing I
could think of doing. If youdo this, I don't think so.

(04:43):
But it's just like you end upordering, you know, I order a
lot. You order everything? Well, yeah, I do. Oh my
gosh, people are not gonna likethat. I do shop local too.
I do shop local, but Ido get stuff on Amazon and then I'll
just do it ahead of time.But everything, like, I don't a
nice Amazon. You order like avariety of things from all kinds of online
retailers. We don't need to talkabout my shopping habits, but I do.

(05:10):
Yeah, I'm not. I geta lot of stuff online. I
have a lot of stuff shop.Yeah. Well, I guess the flip
side we were mentioning earlier is thatthe everything is green in the state right
now, which is super cool.Waterfalls are are flowing. The trending stories
on our website right now for NorthernCalifornia three out of the four are waterfall

(05:30):
stories. We have this one onMount Tam that is a bit under the
radar called Cascade Falls, which isit's a really cool little waterfall that's in
kind of residential mill valley, socheck out check out our site. The
story is called from Town to Falls. And then one of the real kind
of beauties I think on Mount Tam, I mean, Cataract Falls is a

(05:56):
gorgeous, very well known waterfall,but Carson also really a cool waterfall and
that requires a little bit of ahike. I think it's about a three
mile round trip hike, but it'slike one hundred foot kind of multi tiered
waterfall. It's called Carson Fall.Then that's trending on our site too,
so you can find out the detailsunder a story called the Carson Show on

(06:18):
our website. So lots of goodstuff to go. Check that out,
very very timely right now. Yeah, And also trending is a story about
tide pooling in Santa Cruz at NaturalBridge State Beach, and that was by
Janice Lim, who we're going tobe talking to later in the podcast.

(06:38):
She's the founder of the blog Where'sJanice, And it's a fantastic resource for
adventures both in California and beyond placeslike Vietnam and Taiwan. Jana tells us
about her favorite places to hike,camp, but take a road trip and
explore throughout California, and she hassome great ideas on adventures. So she
did that tide pooling story which isalso very popular are and it's natural Bridges

(07:01):
State Beach is also it's great spotalso for a sunset and watching. Oh
yeah, it's down in Santa Cruz. Yeah, really really stunning. The
story is called Seasonal Wonders. Goodtime check it out for winter tide pooling
and you know you don't want togo there obviously in a storm, very
dangerous, but it's super cool oncethe weather if if the weather ever clears,
it's going to clear, right,Like, what are you doing to

(07:24):
keep active? Right? So hard? Well? Yeah, I mean,
I don't know. There's something kindof relaxing about like going on a hike
in the if it's a light rain. Maybe not if it's a light right,
I'm just like you trying to putlipstick out a pig or something.
But no, there are some reallykind of nice like the Redwoods, for
example, hiking in mirror woods inthe rain can be really quite nice,

(07:47):
or some other redwood hikes beside acreek. You know, it's just kind
of a matter of being prepared forit, you know, having a rain
jacket and a hat and maybe somethingthat hand to see if anything's closed or
the conditions of the trail for sure. What are you doing? Well?
I I wait, I gotta goback to you for saying you're also going
out in the rain on your bike. You're doing some bike rides. I've

(08:09):
been very committed to. You're verycommitted. Like that is impressive. I
mean most people are not. They'reon their's whiffs or they're pelotons, and
you're out there. You're out theretraining for mountain bike races and gravel bike
races your latest passion which is greatpassion project. Yeah, it's fun.
It's very impressive as opposed to mebecause I'm hurkle durkling. Remember I was

(08:31):
telling you, what's that I'm ahirkle. You just like saying that.
I know, well, because thealternative is called bed rotting, So gen
Z calls it bed rotting and theyso it's basically it's a Scottish phrase hircle
durkling, and it means staying inbed but not sleeping, so like it's
you're in bed, you're just kindof having trouble getting out of yeah,

(08:54):
and you're like maybe checking your laptop, reading, looking at your phone,
like you're just not leaping out ofbed ready to embrace the day. And
like the in the gray and rain. So gen Z was calling it bed
rotting and then people decided, no, that's like that sounds really bad.
I'm bed rotting today. No,So it's now it's considered a form of

(09:16):
self care. And I saw thisstory about it in real simple I think
online and it was talking about loungingin bed. This quote, lounging in
bed is a lovely way to makea slow start to the day, rather
than the hurried one we're so usedto. It has associations with being lazy
and unproductive, but we all needto learn to value rest and recovery in

(09:37):
our busy lives. Herkle durkling.So how long do you hurdle drkle?
I mean not that long, Ican't you know, but like I don't
know, like five minutes. Yeah, you start to hircle Dirkle past an
hour. It could be maybe frownedup and it does seem like band rotting.
But part of my Hurkle Dirkle ismy bald eagle session with Jackie in

(10:01):
Shadow. Yeah, you've been reallyfollow Oh yeah, So Jackie and Shadow
are two bald They're a bald eaglepair. They have this amazing for hear,
Yes, they have this amazing lovestory because I believe Shadow came on
the scene and kind of got ridof the other man on the scene really
or bald eagle on the scene real. Yeah, And so Jackie and Shadow
have been a pair for quite sometime. But you can follow their story

(10:22):
if you google big bear dot comBaldeagle Watch twenty twenty four. They have
laid a record three eggs this year. Is that rare? It is rare.
It's rare to three And they havelike this whole I mean, it's
like a soap op or history abouthow they came together. They've had some
unsuccessful eggs in the past, andthen I think last year one chick hatched

(10:43):
and they raised it and it fledgedand they don't they don't know whatever happened.
I'm sure it's fine, but soyou can follow and watch on YouTube
the live cam. It's just calledthe and they have an Instagram account with
the Eagles. Do you get Jackieand Shadow? Oh yeah, well someone's
running it for them. But theydo these great updates. Thanks for clarifying

(11:03):
that. Thanks for fucking Shadow didnot set up their own instagramd did my
story post? Did you see mystory? But the person who does it
is doing a great job and youcan learn all of that. I'm fascinated
and it's just it's mesmerizing and sometimesit's boring, but it's amazing sometimes when
you go to the webcam and youcan and they'll do and like Jackie,

(11:24):
your Shadow is doing something really cool, like maybe checking the eggs. Cool.
Right now it's there. They're underpip watch, which means that the
chicks pip Pip pip watch. Yeah, so after thirty five days, so
they take turns or sitting on theeggs, you know, and there's all
these antics because like Shadow comes alongand Jackie's like get out of here,

(11:45):
I got this, and you know, and then they have to get rid
of ravens who are in the way. They're amazing parents. But right now
we're all waiting for the chicks tostart hatching, which is called it which
starts about thirty five day, soit should have potentially started February twenty ninth.
So we're all kind of waiting andwatching and hoping that they have a

(12:09):
successful hat you know, that justshould be happening any day though it should.
And then I was all concerned.I remember telling you I'm so worried
because of this weather, and Iwasn't the only one, and you said
to me something like, well,holly bald eagles live in Alaska and Canada
too, and they they have chickssuccessfully. So I think these guys,

(12:31):
the so cow ones shoes, well, like the blizzard came through and you
can watch, you know, Jackie, your shadow protecting the eggs. Yeah.
So I'm just I'm really hoping thatit's successful. And that's been kind
of my hurcle Darkling during the day. Yeah, so what was the what
was the latest that you saw Whenyou see them on the on the nest,
they're on the nest, they're kindof you know, shooting away ravens.

(12:54):
Things are looking okay, but wedon't have a confirmed pit yet,
like they have. They don't havea confirmation, so everybody's on pins and
needles or are they going to havebecause a chick gonna hatch? They have
three eggs, three eggs, soyou really hope right anyway, it's fast
any day now. You got tocheck that out their Instagram or you can,
like you said, you can searchbig Bear. Was it just big

(13:15):
bear dot com? Yeah, bigbear dot com and you can do you
can just google bald Eagle watch twentytwenty four big Bear and we'll put it
in our show notes too, butyou'll find it. And on Instagram just
look up Jackie in Shadow bald Eaglesand the handle will come up. Yeah,
there you go. So one thingwith all this weather that I know
you that we've been kind of liketrying to figure out on a week to

(13:37):
week basis, is what's good towrite about this week? Yeah, with
kind of the craziness of this rain, and you know, one thing that
kind of was timely and is alwaysgood to do in the wintertime typically is
going out to some great sand dunes. Uh huh. And guess what there's

(13:58):
a movie right now, Yeah,Dune too, June too. I can't
wait to see it. Yeah,So that was timely and very helpful because
it is a great time to go, I mean Death Valley. Unfortunately this
past weekend had a lot of wind. You can still go, but they
had to cancel their Dark Sky Festival. And we actually have an issue coming
up on Death Valley as a littleteas in the coming weeks. And there

(14:22):
is a sand dune there which kindof the death value. She already came
out. Oh yeah, what arewe talking about? We're gonna talk about
on the podcast. We are weare going to talk about the podcast.
But it was when we were atMesquite flat sand dunes there that I was
like, that'd make a great issuebecause Dune's coming out, and we have
fantastic content on some really cool sandscapesand dunes in California and a point beyond.

(14:45):
In fact, we have the placethat inspired Dune the novel. Yeah,
the place that inspired the original whichcame out in the sixties or seventies.
The novel popular. Yeah, theykind of, I guess there was.
There was a movie ad movie thatcame out a while ago, was
like thirty years ago, really Ididn't, I think so, no,
And it was like not like superwell received. And then of course someone

(15:07):
that came out in the last coupleof years, because you know, the
technology to show kind of like everythingthat Dune shows kind of wait had to,
I guess, wait for technology tocatch up to be able to make
that kind of a proper movie.But the location that inspired it all those
years ago is an organ it's OregonDune's National Recreation Area. And we visited

(15:28):
that spot a few years ago forsome weekend Sirpa stories with our friend Ellen,
and that was really really just immenseand beautiful right on the coast and
just kind of a breathtaking sand dunelandscape. Oh, it's totally stunning.
It's like forty two miles of sandand forests and rivers and like it's just

(15:50):
surreal. And you did a greatYou did some droning there because you we
were allowed to drone. Yeah,so you were like your own dnivellin my
own way say that Brad Day directingDune Dune Dune the weekend sharper version.
No, but it's beautiful there.It was really cool and if you have

(16:11):
a chance to go, it's wellworth checking out. I mean, Oregon
is always a great road trip orshort flight, and yeah, it's it's
really cool. But what else,what other ones do you like? What
are their sand dunes in California?Right? Well, I mean you mentioned
the one in Death Valley is Imean that's always a great spot. I

(16:32):
mean that God that that's so beautifuljust going to those sand dunes. We
went to another place though, that'salso on the coast that a lot of
people don't necessarily know about. Icertainly did it before we went up.
It's outside the town of Eureka,just way up in northern California called molel
sand Dunes, and you can dosome pretty cool hiking out there and just

(16:55):
kind of exploring these wild sand dunes. It's part of the Humboldt Bay National
Wild Wildlife Refuge. It's like twohundred and sixty acres of forest and dunes
and marsh and you can only reallyreach it by hiking hiking around it,
you know, so it's just kindof wild and remote. So if you
ever find yourself up in the Eurekaarea, highly recommend checking out the Malel

(17:18):
Dunes, particularly the north part that'swhere we visited a few years ago.
It's really expansive and just a greathike, especially for like nature and birding
and all that good stuff, andnobody was really there. Nobody was there
not you know, it's not hugelypopular, which is which is great,
and it's not. What I thoughtwas so interesting about it and intriguing was

(17:40):
that old town Eureka isn't very farfrom there, and yet you like show
up and you're in these dunes andit feels like you're on you know,
your way out there somewhere, andthen you've got the beautiful ocean scenery.
Our writer in one of our writersin Los Angeles recently went to Kelso Do
in the Majave National Preserve, andI've always wanted to cover that because it

(18:04):
seems really beautiful, intriguing, looksstunning the landscape there, and she did.
We have a story on it.It was like a three mile out
and back, you know, goingup the dunes just looked incredible. And
that's in Mahave National Preserve. See, now's the time to be going as
well, because you don't want todo these like in summer or even spring

(18:29):
it starts to just get really hotand you are out there when you're in
the Kelso Dunes and it's one what'sinteresting about those dunes is they're one of
only like seven known quote booming dunefields in North America. Boom they boom,
so that there's this deep rumbling thatyou you might get as you climb
the dunes if you like displaced somesand. It's like a little mini avalanche.

(18:53):
Oh that's cool. Yeah, Soif you're hearing that, it's not
an earthquake or Timothy la May comingin on whatever. I haven't seen the
movie yet, so I can't Ithink so. I mean, I think
this is really quite the movie.You really sound like you're in touch with
what's going on with that. Idon't know what he's coming in on,
but I don't think it's a parachute. But no, that the Kelso Dunes

(19:18):
looks really cool. Yeah, itjust looks quite remote and just yeah this
so this hike that we recommend atKelso Dunes is three miles so very very
doable. And how is the timeto go in the next few weeks go
check that out? Yeah? Whatabout Monterey? What do you think of
the dunes there for the ford OrDunes? Yeah, yeah, ford Or

(19:41):
Dunes are really cool. That youknow, that is such kind of an
under the radar. I would saystate Park just north of the town of
Monterey. You go through the Ithink the call the state the state college
campus to get to it, andthen you if you go at sunset,
I mean, you don't have tohike very far, maybe like a quarter

(20:03):
of a mile or less, andyou just can get some tremendous ocean views
at sunset. It's very popular forgod, what are those guys on that
uh, paragliders? Yes, yes, that guy, that one guy was
paragliding had his family down below.I know what you were talking about.

(20:26):
Inside. Well, when he kepton, he kept on like like doing
flybys, not drive bys, butflybys. He kept on like kind of
doing the same circular route on hisparagliders, going back and around and around.
And each time he was coming by, he was like saying hello to
his wife and his kid and shoutingthat he loved them, I love I
love you. It was very endearing, very endearing. It was like a

(20:52):
broken record. But that guy reallyloves his family. I know. It
was very Actually, it was verysweet and he was having a great time.
Frankly, I was really thrilled tosee him there because I got some
great photos. I know he did. Add to that. That was cool.
Yeah, no, that was cool. So check out Fort or Dune's
State Park down in Monterey if youever find yourself down there. That was

(21:15):
really cool. Lots of We're gotlots of good stuff. I mean,
let's be honest. California's got everything. I mean, it's got the mountains,
it's got the sand dunes, he'sgot the coastline. I always tell
you this. I you know,I grew up in Canada. I moved
to California. I think it's suchan incredible state. I know, you
know, like every state has itsissues and it can be expensive, but
man, if you like the outdoors, this has it all. I love

(21:37):
it at all. Yeah, it'sa good place to have a weekend,
Shirpa, I know. And youknow who else wells? It is Janicelim,
the founder of Where's Janis? Andwhy don't we just get into our
conversation with her now? We're herewith Janis limb Adventure, an outdoor travel
blogger and creator of the website Where'sJanis. It's a blog filled with all

(21:57):
kinds of ideas on trial and adventure, both within California and internationally. And
you have all these other great tipstoo, for gear and you know ideas
forgod camping. Welcome Janis. It'ssuch a pleasure to have you. Thank
you so much. I am soexcited to be on this podcast, to
be on your amazing platform, andyour platform is fantastic too. Where's Janis?

(22:21):
Can you share some of your storyon how that evolved? And So
I'm actually originally from Singapore, soif you know anything about the landscape there
is just urban. I've never reallygrown up with anything outdoors. So when
I started looking on social media,there's all this like travel inspiration. A

(22:41):
lot of it is coming from California. For some reason, the algorithm just
matched us together and I started tohave the dreams of traveling in California.
So I've always wanted to do outdoorsand stuff. And then finally the chance
came for me to do a studyabroad thing for four months in la and
then that's when I was like,Okay, I need to make full use

(23:03):
of this. I got to learncamping and hiking and join all the school
trips, the college trip so thatI can get to know what's outside.
So that's when I had my firstcamping trip that was in Catalina Island and
then over spring break, I gathereda few other exchange students who wanted to
also explore outdoors. So we didsomething with a bunch of people who didn't

(23:26):
know each other. That was veryinteresting because we had a few nights of
hiking and camping. But we wereall beginners, so everybody was just making
mistakes together and thankfully we were fine. And so then at the end of
my exchange, my family was goingto come and visit and I was going
to take them on a one nightcamping trip. So I put down a

(23:48):
list of things to bring for ourroad trip, and then I was thinking,
Okay, I should just start ablog, since I've learned so much
over this past few months and Iwant this to live on, like with
my picture and my memories and stories. So I wrote this for them initially,
and then when I came back toSingapore, I had like so much

(24:10):
I missed, so I just blockedout everything, and even when I was
back in Asia, I would tryto seek out all these other opportunities like
Japan, Vietnam, Taiwan, andthen I'll just blog all about it.
And so that's how I continued iteven though I was working in Singapore and

(24:30):
just hunkering down during COVID. Yeah, and finally, now fast forward to
us being here in California for thenext few years. My husband is now
here for his postgrad and I amtaking a career break and focusing on just

(24:52):
enjoying what I came here for,to enjoy the outdoors, to get deeper
into more activities, backpacking, andto explore places at a slower pace,
more like a to explore at aslower pace, like a local who doesn't
have to rush through these big landmarks, so I can explore smaller hidden gems

(25:15):
in various neighborhoods, similar to youguys finding things to do on the weekends,
just being active. That's great.I just wanted to I guess I
just wanted to reach those who arealso learning about the outdoors true blogs and
social media because I don't have agroup of outdoor friends to learn things from.
I don't know all the cool hacks, so there's no hacks. It's

(25:38):
just getting out there. So it'sjust things to learn over time. And
I guess I'm just wanting to putall these things I learned, tailor it
to my preferences and comfort level asa city dweller. So called that's great.
Well, I mean it sounds it'sa very inspiring story coming from Singapore
and just kind of getting after itin the outdoors, like is it were

(26:00):
was there any I mean it soundslike you were pretty determined, like I
want to I want to explore Californiaand this whole outdoor outdoor scene. Was
it like right out right out ofthe gate. Were you hooked or were
you like, Oh, I don'tthis isn't exactly what I thought. Oh,
so I knew there was a lotthat I wanted to see. I

(26:22):
just didn't know how to get there. Like some of the places are a
bit off the beaten track. Peopledon't always share the exact locations because they
don't want to destroy the natural landscapethere with over tourism. So I get
it. So, but it wasn'ttoo difficult to see how beautiful it was,
like when I went to use manyfor the first time, Like anybody

(26:42):
who goes in and knows this iswhat California is like, this sets the
like the frame of reference for everythingelse you're gonna see or maybe it might
be the best, who knows.Yeah, So that's how I kind of
knew that, Yes, this iswhat I came here for. M Oh,
what's wonderful feeling to go into theNational Parking men. It's a remarkable

(27:04):
national park, but to just getthat sense of like, oh my,
it's like that, Ah, that'ssuper cool. And so you've continued doing
that. You have a great storyin today's issue. We can Shirpat on
Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruzand tipe pooling there. It's the first
story you've done for us. It'sgreat. The photos are beautiful. Do

(27:26):
you want to talk a bit aboutthat experience of type pooling there and the
king tides and just generally over winterit seems like it's a great spot to
tipepool. Yeah. So I firstthought of going tide pooling because I saw
these news about king tides and like, I only saw pictures and videos of
the waves like overflowing the I don'tknow the barricades and all that, but

(27:51):
I didn't know that it also camewith very extreme negative flow tides. So
then that's when I learned that,oh, type pooling is a thing,
the king tides. So I wentdown to Santa Cruz. So Natural Bridges
is one of the excellent like oneof the great places to go tight pooling,
just because it has a couple ofrock structures on the side of the

(28:14):
cliffs and also the natural arch bridgething. Some people go through the arch
at low tide to look for somesea stars, but most people stay on
the side of the rocks and thereare a ton of pools. They are
a bit dark if you don't lookclosely, so it helps if you bring
a torch light, so just shinethrough. You'll start to see all these
little clusters of anemone muscles, littlecrabs, small shrooms start to appear,

(28:41):
and I think, if you're lucky, you can get to see some seastars,
maybe even some octopus stuff like that. So I didn't get to see
it because I was there for sucha short time. The sun came down
really quick, and I was justusing my flashlight to just see everything I
could see and hit back safe becauseit can be a bit slippery, so
I just wanted to make sure Iwas there and back in one piece.

(29:06):
Yeah, that's very smart, that'svery smart, I know, I was
telling Brad. I feel like instories lately, due to the storms,
I have to caveat almost everything becauseyou know, sometimes people you're a casual
outdoor enthusiast, and you might notyou know, always have that awareness or
I do see stuff where I doscratch my head at like I can't believe
this person did this, you know, But you know I'm the same way.

(29:29):
I think it's smart. But Ithink that I didn't know very much
about the king tides either as suchan ideal time for tide pooling. So
I appreciate that you sent that informationand had such a great story. I
love that area, Santa Cruz isbeautiful. I don't get out there nearly
enough as I would like to.Yeah, And also I think because like

(29:49):
a lot of the people who blogabout stuff always say like this is easy,
this is just moderate, But tome, it's not easy at all.
And also because I had a surgeryon my so it was not all
that easy. You have to bea little more careful right now, understandable.
Well, what are some of yourfavorite hikes in California that you've done,

(30:11):
right? So I mentioned yosemitee havinga lasting impact on me. So
the hike that we did when wewere on that big trip was to hike
up to Upper Falls. So ittakes about six to eight hours depending on
how many breaks you take. It'snot very long in terms of distance,
but you're climbing straight up like aton of switchbacks. It's almost like a

(30:34):
stair Master workout. But the payoffis really great because you just have to
keep climbing and then you'll see moreand more of the valley, and then
finally you'll be able to see thefalls, and then you'll hike on top
of the falls and you'll see theentire valley and also a bit more of

(30:55):
the high Sierras. So that's reallynice. And we went there in March,
so there was like late winter andwe still had snow on the peaks
and it was beautiful and people werejust lying on the rocks and sleeping and
taking a net and I thought,this is so amazing. This is California.

(31:17):
One of my favorite hikes. Yeah, that's a big one. That's
a big I did that hike yearsago, and I remember when you do
get to the top, it canbe kind of like vertigo inducing, right,
like you like over the edge,like you'd see some people really get
close hard where you there's a verysmall and thin railing. Yeah, like

(31:40):
hold on to it, but youlean towards the side of the rock and
you go down, but I didn'ttry it too much. That's a good
time of year to do that hikethough, if you can, because it
can get you know, hot,and that's it. That's a hard hike.
It is. The elevation gain isis I don't know what it is,
but it's steep. And I rememberdoing that hike and there was a
guy who started You know, there'salways a person who's like, oh yeah,

(32:02):
they start off and that's like they'retwo minutes in on hike and they
think it's all just going to bethis easy and great, and then about
maybe a mile or two up,I just saw him sacked out on the
side of the trail, like justlike, this is no story. He
was not quite as prepared as hethought he was. And I was like,
it's an I don't remember what timeof year it was, but I

(32:22):
thought it was a little going toget warm, and I'm like, it's
good to go probably in the coolerseasons like Marph. Plus the waterfall is
magnificent. Yeah, but I thinkone thing to know is that when there's
still snow, it can get abit slippery. So if you have micro
spikes that will be much better.Yeah, that's a good idea. Yeah.

(32:44):
Yeah, it looks like on youryour blog Where's Janis you've done,
you have a recommendation of some backpackingtrips that are in California. And that's
really cool. That's those are somegreat, some great trips. What are
some of the some of the favoriteones that you've you've done in California,
some of your favorite backpacking trips.Right, So this is actually my so

(33:05):
called bucket list, but I've donesmaller variations of it past. Catalina Island
was one of them. So youhike from Two Harbors to Little Harbor and
you get the camp there, butit's about a three hour hike in,
so it's not too difficult and it'sactually a gorgeous campsite. And if you

(33:27):
are a beginner you don't have toomuch gear, like you don't know how
to cook, like you don't havethe gear for cooking, you can actually
rent or buy equipment from the visitorcenter or the visitor stall of one of
those, and they can also dogear halls for you. Oh that's nice.
Yeah, I think they kind ofcater to people who are casual campers.

(33:51):
Just want to try this experience.Yeah, so it's a very good
first time camping location and it alsocounts as backpacking in a way because you're
hiking into a site to sleep andthen coming back out for sure. And
another place would be in Point Rears. So they have a couple of hike

(34:12):
in beach side camps. Oh yeah, I love Point Raise. Yeah.
So those are also not too challenging. Like the one that I went to
was about one and a half start, I think just about forty five to
forty five minutes to one hour hikein and you're camping almost next to the
beach. So is that coast campby Camp? Yeah, that's a great

(34:32):
one. It's about forty five minuteshiking right, Yeah, yeah, so
I really took good one. Andyou can well watch down at the beach
at that beach is it Santa MariaBeach? You can well watch down there
in the season. So about now, I don't know if you want to
be camping now. Beautiful right now? I think the weather like this maybe
not speaking because I meant to askyou. You mentioned that you were camping

(34:57):
in Half Moon Bay recently, andI thought you had Yep, you said
like I had checked the forecast forthe rain, but not the wind.
So do you want to talk alittle bit about that. Yeah, I
think I have become too accustomed tothe predictable weather in California. Yeah,
so I just checked, like,oh, okay, it's winter, it
will be rainy. It's just gonnabe a little bit of rain. It

(35:19):
should be fine, and you know, like on the coast, it's fine.
I think the wind should be fine. A little bit of wind we
can handle, you know. Butwhen we went there, it started raining
in the evening. So we pickedup our our little tarp after we had
dinner, and then we started tojust like stay in our tent watch a

(35:39):
few shows. And then the tenstarted shaking and it was making us very
unsettled. And then we checked theweather forecast. It was like, okay,
it's gonna continue raining like this,but what is up with this shaking.
So we realized that the wind wasstarting to pick up and it's gonna
stay. It's gonna pick up allthe way until morning. So it was

(36:04):
a bit too dark and too windyfor us to pack up at that point,
so we decided to just stay.And when we woke up, the
tent was kind of like collapsing onour faces. It was bending, but
it wasn't broken, so it wasthe fabric was like falling on our faces
and all that. And then wedecided that we need to learn how to
read the wind forecast and understand howstrong a certain speed feels. So yeah,

(36:30):
in terms of wind camping, Ithink it's important to know how to
guy out your tent, so usingthose extra lines to stick them into the
ground, to give your tent extrasupport so that your poles don't get banned,
you don't damage your tent, andalso to check the wind direction so
the wind doesn't always come from thesea, which is what I thought.

(36:52):
So this time it came from inlandand we didn't have any guidelines on that
side, so it was very unstablethere. Yeah, and also there's this
thing called the Bellefort wind scale.It's my first time learning about it since
this weekend, but there's levels ofwind speed and I think with the recent

(37:13):
storm it probably went to nine andabove, which is in the category of
gale and strong gale, and youknow, so I learned that, and
it also has implications of how thatwind feels like for example, if it's
level five, Like you know,twigs will start falling off, and at
different levels above that, trees willstart up rooting. So you know how

(37:35):
that feels like Rather than just seeingthat number of like how many miles per
our wind, it is when you'rereally experiencing it, it's quite different.
Yeah, experience like that I had. I was camping once in Tahoe and
it was an extremely windy night andit just felt like whistling constantly all night
long. Yeah. No, thewind can really throw a monkey ranch into

(37:58):
your your tent camping, Yeah forsure. What is what about on your
kind of your bucket list? Whereare some places that you would love to
go check out? Right? Sofor this summer, I have Lake Aloha
on my mind. So that isin the Tahoe Desolation wilderness. Okay,
can I just interpret you for that'sthe place I went where the wind just
about scared me. It was notit was in that area. Don't be

(38:22):
afraid. It was you're you're you'renot afraid anyway. But that's a good
one. Yeah, So I thinkit should be a bit better. We'll
check the forecast. Definitely, thatwill be in summer, so it should
be fine. Beautiful. Yeah,so we're gonna do like a three day
to night thing and maybe for thefirst night will camp at one of the

(38:46):
lakes before that. I think it'sLake Tamarek mhm. Yeah. And another
one that I really want to dobut I haven't gotten a chance to book
it yet just because the permits aretricky is Cathedral Lake at Yosemite. It's
of the backcountry sides. Yeah,so that's another bucket list. Yeah.
You know, somebody back countries reallybeautiful back I haven't done Cathedral like,

(39:08):
but I've done some other some otherhikes back there, and it's amazing the
number of beautiful trails you get justright up past the valley, Like so
many people focus on the valley,but by Tioga Pass like that, that
is such an amazing destination for backpackingfor just like a trailhead to just get

(39:30):
out there because you're so high uphere at the crest of the Sierra and
you can access trails going in alldirections. Yeah. And uh yeah,
I think they had a pretty brutalyear last year though I think the snow
was they didn't clear it till afterthe fourth of July. Yeah, Yeah,
it was a very small window whenyou could do it, and you
can do it, so hopefully thisyear's better. Oh that sounds great any

(39:52):
other ones? Yeah, so Ithink I haven't been to the Highway three
ninety five side. Yeah, DeathValley, Lone Pine, all those I
want to do probably in Fall.I heard that the June Lake Loop is
really nice for fall foliage, andalso there's a ton of backpacking trips you

(40:15):
can go on there as well.I think I have Big Pine Lake on
my mind, so hoping to dothat as well, but it can be
a bit strenuous, I heard.Yeah, so that with Death Valley right
now, I'm not sure if you'veseen, but there's this lake mainly where

(40:38):
Badwater Basin is and yes, supposedlygood to go at this time of the
year before summer comes and drives itup. Yeah, we were there.
We were recently there actually in DeathValley, and we saw that, like
we were not. We weren't expectingit, and it was Yeah, it's
wild. It was from the stormsfrom the twenty twenty three went her that

(41:00):
that created that and it's still it'sstill there, it'll still be there.
Yeah, yeah, so who knowsit could be there for quite a while,
or maybe it'll dry up over thesummer, but it's definitely worth checking
out. Just go before go beforesummer. Yeah, we're waiting to fall
and hope it's still area. Butit's magnificent because it mirror you know,

(41:22):
the mountain I think it's is itthe Panement Mountain range? Yeah, it
reflects on it right now. Yeah, really cool. It's really fabulous.
And there's a peak called Telescope Peak, which is very popular to hike.
It's I've not done that one.It is really hard and challenging and right
now I don't think it's open becauseit's covered in snow, but it's also
right in the background, so it'svery picturesque and it's really it's really fun.

(41:45):
And I actually now read the plaqueswhich tell you all about like you
know what's going on in this basinand you geek out. Now just ignore
those information, just ignore them.And now I'm like, uh oh,
now I read them, like that'svery interesting. So we just bypassed them,

(42:05):
like oh, that's fine, Likewhat am I seeing? You do
have birds too? Now you're likea yellow breasted warbler. Wow, it's
fascinating. Yeah, that's my favoriteNational Park is Death I mean, you
know, seventies per second in California, but it's something about Death Valley.
And I meant to ask you.You mentioned for your Tahoe trip. That

(42:27):
sounds fantastic. Are you going todo the d tour to do the peaked?
It's is it Tallic? Mount TallicPeak? I think if you're lamping
at one of the spots some peopleand you can actually even do it as
part of your day trip. Youcan dtour and do a hike up to
Talent. Is it Mount Tallic?Is that the name of it? I
believe so. Yeah, I've neverthought it, but I will consider it.

(42:49):
Thank you. Yeah, it's ait's a great view. It's really
beautiful. Yeah, desselation is reallycool. Now that that three ninety five
the Eastern Sierra by Loan Pine andall that. You know, everybody wants
to do. Matt Whitney, isthat on your bucket list as well?
I think for next year? Nextyear it's summer, like, okay,
it's too full now I need togive myself some space. Yeah, definitely.

(43:10):
Yeah. I'm getting get on thepermit for that too, the at
least the camping permit. I meanpeople do knock it out in one day,
but it's a big, big day. Wow, you're feeling ambitious.
You can give myself more time.It sounds like you have a very busy
summer. Yeah, so I thinkwhat I learned about the permits is that

(43:32):
you have to plan everything at thestart of the year because that's when all
the slots open up, and ifyou decide in March or something, it
might be too late. So yeah, I'm planning ahead for next year for
you. That's really smart. Iwanted to You had mentioned a little bit
earlier in our conversation about having hadwas it knee surgery a L A c

(43:55):
L and that you know, you'renow kind of getting back into you hiking.
You weren't able to go outdoors fora while, or you know,
go out hiking and doing all thethings that you know bring you a lot
of joy. Obviously, I wonderand you said you're now kind of getting
back into it. Can you talka bit about that experience, just in

(44:15):
terms of you know, people whoare you know, maybe have have had
a recent surgery or have you know, like a problem me or hip or
whatever, and they have take sometime off just like any any advice on
that and like getting back into theoutdoors or just you're feeling on the joy
of being able to get back intoit. Yeah. I think at the

(44:37):
start, when I couldn't really walk, I was on crutches for six weeks,
I felt like a part of myidentity was falling off. But what
really motivated me was to know thatI could get back out there again if
I am diligion with my physiotherapy andstrengthening exercises. So I would say if

(45:02):
you're having any knee problems, it'sbest to work with a physiotherapist because that
way they will be able to tellyou specific exercises to work on so that
you don't feel like like, ohno, am I causing more damage to
my knee when I'm doing this hikeor like this specific downhill section, And
it helps to inspire more confidence inyour future adventures. And also hiking posts

(45:29):
will help you with relieving some ofthat treasure on the knees. And I
think it's it's all right to goslower than everybody, yeah, even on
the downhill, like everybody just runsdown. But if you need to take
care of your knees, it's totallyfine to go in a controlled motion and

(45:51):
just to maintain longevity of your adventures. It's start a race. Yeah,
it's not a race. And justlike the best outcome is that you're safe
after everything, and as long asyou enjoy it. You enjoy being outdoors,
even if it's just for a shorttime like one hour, one and
a half hours, thirty minutes even, Yeah, just being out there and

(46:14):
getting used to that motion again,it's all good. Fact. How does
it feel now? Oh? Iactually just kind of graduated from my physiotherapy.
I went yesterday and they said,oh, yeah, your legs are
kind of almost balanced. We're happyto let you continue strengthening on your own.
Oh, congratulations, that's been good. It's exciting because summer's coming soon.

(46:35):
Yes, and you've got lots ofplan that's great. Congratulations, And
I think that's really important what yousaid about committing to like what what you
know you're recommended to do, right, Like, sometimes that can be frustrating
for people and they feel like,oh, I just want it to be
better, and it's like it's hardto go through. And I know Brad
had an experience that you know,he had to go through a lot of

(46:57):
rehabilitation too, And and I thoughtwhat you said is very interesting. It
is hard because you said, youknow, it feels a bit about your
identity is challenging me. You're like, I love to be outdoors and adventure
and you know, it's good tohave that mindset or okay, I can
do that though, and it's it'san important mindset to have. So congratulations

(47:17):
on all that. And it kindof helps that the machine sometimes have hiking
like video playing for yourself being outthere, so you go a bit faster.
And yeah, the small things dohelp. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
So what about some local adventures.Do you have anything upcoming or plan

(47:38):
that you're going to be off toin the next few weeks. Any local
spots that you want to check out? Yeah, actually for tomorrow which is
the King Tidy and planning to goto Half Munby. They have a few
type pulling spots at Fitzgerald. Ihaven't I haven't checked that out yet,

(47:59):
so hit down and maybe do ahike before that. So so because low
tide will be close to sunset,so I have a bit more of the
afternoon to go hiking, and thenprobably I would like to try us like
a small backpacking trip either in Bixeror in the sun wilderness. Yeah,

(48:20):
that will be maybe in a monthor two, just warming up for somewhere.
Yeah, yeah, all right,yeah, yeah, that's that's great.
Well, make sure you takes alot of photos and uh, maybe
we're going to get some weekend tripof stories from that here. Your type
pulling story was really great. Yeah, and I really enjoyed your site Where's
Janice. We'll put that in ourshow notes as well. But yeah,

(48:43):
it's a real pleasure to speak withyou and to meet you at least over
Zoom. Hopefully we'll be able togo on a hike together in the future.
Oh for sure, that would begreat. Yeah, beautiful site.
Yeah, and Instagram too, You'reWhere's Janus on Instagram and the blog Where's
Janus, So check it out.And thank you so much for joining us
on the podcast today. Thank
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