Mt Whitney Zone
My wife, a Wildlife Biologist here in SoCal, and I took a great hike today at the Santa Rosa Plateau. We like to go to as far away from the people as we can, so we hike as far in as we can. Mostly rolling hills, lots of flowers, and awesome scenery. Today was pretty neat as we ran into some fresh Mountain Lion Tracks. We took a couple of pics, measured, took a waypoint for her work and I thought you may want to see them.

As a note, we have only seen one Mountain Lion in over 11 years of hiking the Plateau......and that was one day when we were in our car leaving the Plateau. It was along the side of the main road and we pulled over. It stopped, sat down and just watched us.





TICKS! After the hike, I pulled a tick out of my leg. It was way up my leg. My wife pulled one out a couple of weeks ago, and we pulled one out of our dog last week....so I guess, it's officially Tick Season.

Jeff Spindler and I just got back from a survey hike of Section G of the PCT between Walker Pass and Chimney Creek and he was constantly knocking ticks off himself and had one in his arm after the hike, I checked myself good and couldn't find any. pays to have someone hike in front of you! whistle
Posted By: Bee Re: Hiking - Mountain Lions, Ticks and more! - 04/26/10 05:58 AM
Regarding Ticks, mosquitoes, Poison Oak,and sunburn: It pays to wear long pants and long sleeves!It amazed me while on an all female bp trip, how many chemicals were needed to replace the simple act of wearing clothes (sunscreen, bug juice, etc) When countered with "It is too hot to cover up", I explain that over and over it has been proven that keeping the sun off of your skin and creating an air space with loose clothing keeps you cooler than exposing the skin to elements.

That's exactly why I normally hike with long sleeves, pants and gloves.

Good sun and bug protection.
You'd think that I would KNOW that as a survivor of melanoma! I had the hat on that covers my ears and neck as well as sunscreen, but my wife said, where's your long sleeve shirt? Ooooops. You' would think that with all the bug spray I purchase for fishing in the Sierra's, I would actually remember to spray my legs.
As a Field Biologist, my wife always wears long pants (or her legs would get ripped up) as well as long sleeve shirts, a Sahara type hat, sunscreen and gaiters above her boots. Not only for the sun and bugs, but for those "pesky" rattlers. Which by the way, she has seen four of so far this year.
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