September greetings to the Wide World of Apogee!   Your humble co-directors are just back in the office after a fantastic scouting trip out west and we wanted to put up some shots from the road to give you a little taste of next summer’s brand-spankin’-new California Mountains and Coast trip.   It’s going to be a great one — kayaking the Channel Islands, hiking Big Sur, backpacking in Yosemite and exploring San Francisco.   (I know, I know — another super-tough business trip to Big Sur… Someone has to do it!)

Advance apologies for the pictures, our leaders are much better with the Iphone pictures than yours truly.

Here’s Kevin waving from Potato Head on the spectacular, Mediterranean Santa Cruz island in the offshore archipelago that comprises Channel Islands National Park.

The fog can be thiiiick up at Big Sur — and it starts and stops very suddenly, as this picture shows.   It was perfectly clear (and about twenty degrees warmer) at about 600 feet and then … pea-soup.

We considered a dip into Elizabeth Lake up at 9,000 feet above Yosemite National Park’s Tuolomne Meadows.   And then we saw the snow (white stuff camoflaged at the bottom of the rock slide…) on the far side of the lake and reconsidered.

And even little Apo and Gee got in on the action this time around and found that a picnic of mushed avocadoes with a view of the Golden Gate is (almost) as much fun as playing Drop the Rattle with Mom.

More to follow in the coming weeks — drop us a line and let us know what you’ve been up to since the summer!