Fourth of July Trip Canceled 😞
We made a decision to cancel our travel plans for the Fourth of July weekend. We were going to drive up to northern California and spend 4 days hiking in the Trinity mountains near Mt. Shasta. Now we'll stay home instead. I've even given up Friday as a PTO day. I'll work on Friday instead. 😢
We made this decision on Sunday, when we were home and resting up after our long day-and-a-half trip to the Sierras. It wasn't because we were too tired to take another trip so soon, though I was really tired on Sunday. I rolled into that Sierras trip less than 24 hours after coming home from a business trip and I was feeling ragged on Sunday. No, the reason was weather. Weather.
No, it's not that the weather's going to be cold or shitty (or both). Summer weather is predictably warm and sunny in Northern California. The problem is the opposite- it's going to be too warm and sunny. Look at those temps on the four days we'd be out hiking (Thu-Sun), with highs running well over 100° F! (For those outside the US, 108° F is about 42° C.)
Yeah, those temperature figures are for Yreka, the town where we'd be staying in a hotel. Weather up in the mountains at ~7,000' elevation where we'd be hiking would generally be cooler by 10-12° F. But still, temps in the mid to high 90s are not ideal for hiking. Especially not for physically demanding hikes climbing mountains.
It's a bummer canceling these plans. Even though I do find make plenty of opportunities to travel and do things I enjoy, I'm always looking for more opportunities. The challenge, of course, is balancing fun times with needing to work for a living. In that sense a holiday weekend is such an easy opportunity with free time away from work I feel like I'm squandering it, like I'm failing to step up and take what's mine. Thus Hawk and I did not come to this decision easily. We debated it and came to the decision reluctantly. But as we've asked ourselves since Sunday (it's now Tuesday) if we made the right call, our confidence has grown as the weather forecast has gotten even more extreme. 🥵
Are we being wusses? That's a question we've asked ourselves several times as part of our debate. We didn't used to cancel plans because of hot weather. But now we've done it at least twice in recent years. (The other time I'm thinking of is when we canceled a trip to Eastern Washington because the heat was so high roads were melting.) Sadly, increasingly extreme hot weather is becoming increasingly more common with climate change. Yeah, we didn't used to cancel trips over weather. But worse weather is a new normal now.
What'll we do instead? We'll stay home. It's going to be hot here, too. Our local forecast has highs in the mid to high 90s. But instead of climbing mountains in those temperatures we'll hang out by the pool all day. Except Friday, when I'm working. 😢
We made this decision on Sunday, when we were home and resting up after our long day-and-a-half trip to the Sierras. It wasn't because we were too tired to take another trip so soon, though I was really tired on Sunday. I rolled into that Sierras trip less than 24 hours after coming home from a business trip and I was feeling ragged on Sunday. No, the reason was weather. Weather.
No, it's not that the weather's going to be cold or shitty (or both). Summer weather is predictably warm and sunny in Northern California. The problem is the opposite- it's going to be too warm and sunny. Look at those temps on the four days we'd be out hiking (Thu-Sun), with highs running well over 100° F! (For those outside the US, 108° F is about 42° C.)
Yeah, those temperature figures are for Yreka, the town where we'd be staying in a hotel. Weather up in the mountains at ~7,000' elevation where we'd be hiking would generally be cooler by 10-12° F. But still, temps in the mid to high 90s are not ideal for hiking. Especially not for physically demanding hikes climbing mountains.
It's a bummer canceling these plans. Even though I do find make plenty of opportunities to travel and do things I enjoy, I'm always looking for more opportunities. The challenge, of course, is balancing fun times with needing to work for a living. In that sense a holiday weekend is such an easy opportunity with free time away from work I feel like I'm squandering it, like I'm failing to step up and take what's mine. Thus Hawk and I did not come to this decision easily. We debated it and came to the decision reluctantly. But as we've asked ourselves since Sunday (it's now Tuesday) if we made the right call, our confidence has grown as the weather forecast has gotten even more extreme. 🥵
Are we being wusses? That's a question we've asked ourselves several times as part of our debate. We didn't used to cancel plans because of hot weather. But now we've done it at least twice in recent years. (The other time I'm thinking of is when we canceled a trip to Eastern Washington because the heat was so high roads were melting.) Sadly, increasingly extreme hot weather is becoming increasingly more common with climate change. Yeah, we didn't used to cancel trips over weather. But worse weather is a new normal now.
What'll we do instead? We'll stay home. It's going to be hot here, too. Our local forecast has highs in the mid to high 90s. But instead of climbing mountains in those temperatures we'll hang out by the pool all day. Except Friday, when I'm working. 😢