Anyone getting their blog on?....Anyone? Anyone?... Bueller?

So, I have heard from some of our gang, mainly Tom. Check out his "Junk Room". Got a nod from Paul on Facebook.Where's Wayne?
Well I had my annual Birthday Hike; 10 of us Hiked Mt Diablo's Mitchell Canyon trail on Saturday, Feb 7. It had been raining for 3-4 days straight before. I had put in a weather requisition for a clear day - good thing, because we got it!
The trail head at the bottom was muddy but we soon climbed out of it as we went up. Jeff and I kept a pretty aggressive pace as did a 76 year old guy named Jack Silva who also comes to my Cardio Kick box class (what a stud) and we made it to deer flats at about 3.6 mile point which was the turn around point in 1:20:00.
On the decent, by a stream, I noticed a fallen branch in the brush off the trail that was covered in lady bugs. On closer inspection we realized there were several thousand of them clustered together for warmth in this sunny patch, forming a carpet like appearance over the grass and leaves. Very cool! I'll post the pictures.
We all had a good lunch at Ed's Mudville Grill in Clayton afterward. Good time had by all. A great case of guilt had by those 8 others who thought it would rain or be too muddy and didn't show! Whhaaaaa!