moon over mendocino
This weekend I went backpacking at the Mendocino National Forest. It’s a pretty easy and short hike, which was good because there were a bunch of kids who were going backpacking for the first time. They had mostly grown up together in church. It kind of reminded me of when I used to be a youth group leader, even though I had never gone backpacking with any of my youth kids.
The hike starts out on a gravel fire road. Joel, the youth leader, leads the way.
First challenge. Creek crossing. Victor shows the kids how it’s done.
Hiking through the woods.
Climbing the hillside up to the ridge.
I think my camera gear outweighed all my backpacking equipment. I brought my SLR, a tripod and 3 lenses.
Since I had my tripod I hiked along the creek for a bit to mess around with long exposure water shots.
But the main reason why I brought the tripod was for moon shots. This weekend was the perigee moon, also known as the Supermoon. I was actually kinda disappointed. I guess with the name Supermoon I was expecting it to be super huge– but according to the news it was only like 14% bigger.
We spent a lot of time just eating and chilling by the fire.
I spent a lot of time just lying in my hammock reading too. I guess that just shows my introverted personality.
The full group. For the most part it looks like youth on the left, old timers on the right.
Hiking down the ridge back toward civilization.
Things I’m thankful for:
- camera gear and kindles
- church youth groups
- the beauty of nature
