March came in like a lamb..

...so it will probably go out like a lion. In the meantime we are basking in this warm, early spring weather and taking fun pictures. 

I've been spending some 'quality' time ;) with Peggie; taking a great hike up at the Spatter Cones Trail & checking out the lambs her ewes have been dotting the ranch lands with. 

First the hike... Papa & I have done the Spatter Cones a couple times already and Peggie had expressed interest in doing the trek, too. So, since March 1st was an incredibly sunny warm day, she & I took off for Old Station and the trail. 

When I'd last been there, a year ago in January, it was pretty easy going. This time, however, Peggie & I found a few spots rather treacherous since there were still quite a number of snowy, icy places along the way. I liked to keep her walking behind me since, at one point, she was able to catch me when I fell in one particularly slippery spot :D

The views, as usual, were beautiful. 

Here we are at the top where we had terrific views of Lassen to the south. You can see a part of the frozen, snowy trail snaking along to the right between Peggie & the mountain..

..and then, to the east of the big spatter cone, the view with West Prospect Peak (in skyline above & to right of Peggie) :

Here are a couple more images of the area at the top we explored. There's this picture at one of the several deep lava tubes. The next is of Peggie on the far side of it (or a different tube..I can't remember now!):

This one is looking north towards Old Station & the Hat Creek Rim (with Hwy 44 coming down the rim -off center to the right- just above the base of the tree line & the bare, burned off portion)...

Since we'd come up on the South side of the Spatter Cones loop trail, going down on the North was even more exciting since, of course, the sun doesn't hit that side much. Some spots could have made for an excellent high-speed Luge track. And might have even been fun if it weren't for the fact we had no sled & everything around us was jagged, sharp volcanic rock!

Finally reaching the smoother, non-wintery parts of the trail we stopped for 'A Kodak Moment' at my favorite rock bench (which Peggie says she's going to re-create in her yard)...

It was a GREAT afternoon. Took a bit longer than the normal 1½ hours due to all the ice & snow but we neither cared nor noticed that over 2 hours had gone by since we'd parked the car. And even though I've been on that trail 3 times now there were new caves & crevices to see that I'd missed before. It's always nice to have an extra pair of eyes out there with you!

I drove Peggie back home to her ranch & finally got to see some of the new lambs she's been telling me the ewes have been dropping for several weeks. We stopped at the barns & bummer lamb pen where we got more way-cool pictures. Doncha just love that little black-sheep-of-the-family baby?

I couldn't pick just one of the 3 shots Peggie got with me & her babies, the little guys are just all soo precious and these pictures make me feel like I'm there again...

So until I decide which of them to delete you get to see all three :D

The little spotted lamb nuzzling my arm belongs to Cooper (Peggie's grandson).
He named him 'Chipmunk' :D

To end this journal entry all I can say (very sincerely!) is.... WISH YOU WERE HERE, kids! You'd love it.

Oh wait... as of this writing Eli DID get to be here with the babies & the warm weather this weekend. I'll get some more pictures of our time spent with him & his guest (Brittney) plus a few more earlier photos of another gorgeous afternoon trip Peggie & I took down the road to Rising River where she has literally DOZENS & DOZENS more lambs...