Hiking in California!

Friday afternoon, my "lists" was done, and so was school.  Tony turns to me, and says, "Wanna go for a hike at the Dam in Oroville?"
Now you have to know me, I am not a spur of the moment person.  I like to plan, have snacks for my kids, figure out what is needed and time preparations.  I smiled and said, "Let's do it!"
We did!
We all grabbed a bottle of water and jumped in the van, and drove to Oroville (40 minutes away)
We drove up first to see the water level to the dam, see we had been in a bit of a drought last year, but the rains we had this winter have filled it up:
Look at this from last year:

You can see how low it was, the boys are walking down to the edge,
Now look at how it was just yesterday:

One more from last year:

notice the shore line across the lake, then feast your eyes on how full it was yesterday:

The kids were loving just being out and about! One of them is a bit of a joker, you can try and guess which one?

Due to all the water, the power that be, open the spillway to the dam, and that is what we wanted to see.  We had gone up between services in Oroville a few Sundays prior, but Annabo and I had sandals on, so we didn't hike down to the shore, and the boys wanted to explore more.
We tried to go to the top of the spill way, but it was closed, so we went on a trail that was straight down and crazy!

 It was an intriguing hike, pass cows. Now, get ready to laugh, cause there was a huge herd of cows we had to walk through.  They are so HUGE, and well, they scared me, I wasn't sure if cows attacked people, especially people that were walking through by their babies.  The twins were a bit scared too, okay they were really scared.  I wanted Tony to call our friend in Oroville and ask if cows were dangerous, he refused and said we will walk through.  We did and the cows stared:

 

Then the cows showed their true colors!

They ran! We were emboldened! They were still big, but we felt rather brave and the nervous giggles from the girls and I were a relief!  We went for a while longer straight down, and Tony says, this is gonna be a bear to get back up! OH my, perhaps we should go back? We discussed it and since we were walking away from the spill way it was getting hotter and hotter. We decided to go back up and then go to the water.  Oh my, going back up! I am so glad that I have lost weight and have been walking, or I could never have made it! It was fun, hot and hard.  But we did it!

 

This is almost back to the top, I was breathing hard, but felt alive!!

WE headed to the water! IN the van! ha ha

Oh yep, another hike! Straight down also, and hey this was okay, cause we would be going down rocks, instead of a nice trail! I am insane! There is huge power lines and poles and this bird's nest with babies was in view.  Our friends say it is a bald Eagle nest! That excites me so much:

The spray from the spill way was tangible now and the sound was growing louder!

Here is why we were hiking down! I have to tell you it is beyond remarkable!

I will add some more pics tomorrow! But now, I am exhausted!