During the summer I've made a couple of nice hikes in and around the Santa Barbara area. The going gets pretty tough just outside of the city. There are a couple of good hiking trails behind the Santa Barbara Mission, and accross the first mountain range there is a big forest called "los padres national forest", which makes for some good hiking too.
In this picture on the left you can see a mountain called cathedral peak, and this is where we are going. You can also see the backs of my collegues and hiking buddies Tom and Leukena
The place is swarming with reptiles, bathing on the dry rocks in the sun. This is a particulary nice one, with a shiny blue tail.
The top of cathedral peak is pretty hard to reach. At the first try, we had to give up after climbing for 3 hours in the burning sun. At the second try we came better prepared, with more time to rest and more water to drink. It took us six hours back and forth, but the view is worth it.
In the foggy distance you can see the ocean and downtown Santa Barbara.
My shiny new digital camera is pretty sophisticated and allows me to make pictures like this, which I'm very pleased with:
This is a picture of my new neighbourhood on Hillview Drive. As you can see the hills are not far away
Also on this picture the hills are not far away. I pass this crossing every day on my way to work
