Tag: Camping

Carpe Diem, Spring in CA

Adventures in the Past Few Months

Our calendar has been packed the past few months with short adventures and weekend trips, all flavored with a strong dose of short notice spontaneity and disorganization. With the project shutdown and layoff I felt the need to take advantage of every single day between the announcement of the project shutdown and the end of my notice period when I would be officially unemployed. It was such a whirlwind of last minute plans we even packed for trips that never happened!

Tahoe Northstar

Our adventures began with a last-minute trip to Tahoe Northstar. We booked our stay at 10 PM the night before leaving  yet still managed to travel in style. I rented a Tesla Model Y to try out self-driving during the long (for us) trip up to the mountains. The car added some fun for me, though I’m not sure the kids noticed much difference. Continue reading “Carpe Diem, Spring in CA”

Camping, Winter to Spring 2021

As of last January, we had 4 camping trips booked. Our goal was to get out and use the new VAN and enjoy some travel despite the pandemic. Looking back I think we did well to anticipate and beat at least part of the reservation rush since in November I was able to easily find spots for all our trips through May which was the end of the 6 month window allowed for bookings. For later bookings we are limited to the few days that come available at each morning at 8 AM, 6 months out.

Our 2021 camping season didn’t start well. The first trip in late January to Calpine Fire Lookout was canceled due to state COVID restrictions. We’re thankful the Forest Service protected us by canceling our solo stay in a one room fire lookout station in the middle of nowhere with no other camping facilities within a few miles. The fire lookout is open for use now, alas dozens of subsequent attempts to find an available reservation have failed, until today, so we’re now reschedule for a two night stay the week of Thanksgiving.

 

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Sailing Trip, San Francisco Bay, CA

         *  .                      *
     .      *    .      *   .
 .            .       .    *       .
                  .   *    .        .
  .       *  .  .   .   .       .
              .    .   *     .
    *    .    .   * .       .    *
             .    .  . * .
      .   *   . .  .  *   .
               .   .   .
 .    *     .    . . *   .     *  .
         .     . .  .   .     .

“Stab it! Stab it! Did you get it? Stab it!” *

“Ahh… I’m trying”

“Alright! Nice! Now pull it back and cleat it.”

This was the end of the scene that played out in Ayala Cove on Angel Island this Labor Day as we were hooking up to the mooring balls to spend the night on our sailboat for the first time outside of a marina. I was driving trying to get the boat into position and Megan was hanging off the bow, attempting to use our boat hook to feed the line through the loop on top of the floating mooring ball.

Just before the actual mooring, we had docked at the day use slips in order to flake out the ropes and go over the sequence of tasks needed to moor the boat. The state park service expects all boaters to connect to bow and stern balls and after a failed attempt at bow first, we made a mid operation change in order to tie off the stern first which ended up being a better sequence.

Since the motion of the boat is restricted once attached at one end, it makes sense to back up to one ball while keeping the bow pointed toward the second forward ball. Then, once the stern line is passed through, you can simply motor forward and pick up the bow connection. The currents from Raccoon Straight tend to swirl through the cove which makes this difficult for many, but we had planned ahead and arrived at slack tide when the currents would be minimal.

We managed to get both lines attached on the second try and shut off the engine. Megan did a great job with our boat hook to feed the lines and I managed to keep the boat pointed in the right direction. This was the culmination of about 6 months of solid effort to get here. Continue reading “Sailing Trip, San Francisco Bay, CA”

Big Oak Flat backpacking, Yosemite NP, California

Before even moving to California my cousin Matt and his wife Jan had recommend a backpacking trip in the Trinity Alps which they had been on when living in the Bay Area. Finally after almost 2 years living in California and only a single trip to the mountains, Megan and I arranged for a 4 day weekend with the plan to head up North and visit the Trinity Alps and the lakes Matt and Jan had liked so much. Two weeks before the trip however, I realized this place is 5+ hours away, which given our typical pace would take us at least 6. We also both admitted that although the lakes look nice, we’ve seen alpine lakes many times before in Colorado.

Also before moving to California, I had decided that, for some reason, I wanted to visit Yosemite only in the winter, reserving a summer time trip for sometime in the future since I didn’t like the idea of the huge crowds. Two winters have come and gone though and we still hadn’t made the trip, and I didn’t have a real reason for avoiding the summer anyway. So 3 days before leaving we checked a guide book out from the library, decided on a trail based solely on permit availability and hiking distance, and then spoke with the backcountry office the next morning to get formally registered.

 

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Point Reyes, Bodega Bay, CA

4/9/2016 – 4/10/2016

Saturday morning we woke up bright and early to make the drive up to San Francisco. Megan had a CME conference to attend beginning at 8 am. She was scheduled to spend the morning learning about the lungs and kidneys, while I planned to explore a bit and drink coffee.

When finished with the training, we met up for lunch at Sushirito, a local chain serving up ‘sushi burritos’. This place had been recommended to me and was good, but not deserving of more than two sentences on a blog or something.

 

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The Lost Coast, King Range, CA

Three weeks into starting my new job and I was ready for some time off. Megan had just arrived the previous week, and after a few days of unpacking she too was long overdue for some RnR. Luckily, the company gave me the full week off for Thanksgiving, so we headed North five hours to the Lost Coast for a backpacking trip.

 

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Robber’s Roost, Hanksville, UT

Canyons!

After our inaugural canyoneering trip to Moab in November we decided we needed more. Detailed scouring of the Interwebs showed the desert surrounding Hanksville, Utah to have a plethora of great canyons, and, most importantly for us, readily available GPS coordinates to walk us straight to the first rap, ensuring our novice abilities weren’t tested in some inescapable drainage we thought was correct.

 

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Moab

11/6/2014 – 11/9/2014

Our 4 day Moab trip was conceived only a few weeks before leaving. The four of us had gone to the climbing gym Sunday morning and then grabbed a cup of coffee and sat out by Clear Creek in Golden when I suggested it might be fun to squeeze in a weekend trip before winter really arrived. Thankfully the time off worked for all involved and we met up at Dan’s around 2:30pm for the 6 hr drive to Moab.

Dan’s Outback was stuffed full. We were car camping so packing light wasn’t really on my mind but on top of all the climbing and riding gear combining the cars at Dan’s was a challenge.

 

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