Cabrito

Yosemite! Our 10 year anniversary!

2009-09-12T09:38:00.000-07:00

Can you believe it? I grew up in SF and had never been to Yosemite. (I also have never been on BART)

We started our vacation up in Cobb with some Highland Springs lounging

Then we headed up to Yosemite to the killer little house we rented.

When we first got to Glacier Point and saw the valley in all it's glory it literally took my breath away. I was not prepared for it.

The first day at Glacier Point with Winnie it was real smoky from the fire. Not a good day for pictures.

Day two was much nicer but still a little smoky

The obligatory tourist shot (the nice guy who took it assured us that he had Half Dome in the background)

Mariposa Grove - our first hike

We did a nice little 6.5 mile hike in the grove. Most folks take the tram for a guided sitting tour. We prefer to hike it.

Then we did a 7 mile hike in the valley floor. It was pretty tame but we did get to touch both sides of the valley walls. it was still pretty hazy from all the smoke.

I was so afraid of Bears that I went out and got some bear spray. (never needed it) The closest we got was four different piles of bear scat and a bear trap.

Because dogs are not allowed on any trails that are not paved we had to leave poor Winnie at home in the mornings and do our really big hikes without her. The real nice thing was that we had a killer river right near our house that we could jump into and Winnie could swim all she wanted.

a family portrait in shadow

We had our 10 year anniversary dinner at the Ahwahnee Hotel - The food was pretty expensive for what it was but the setting was beautiful and the hotel is really cool.
No pics of it since we were there at night but here is a shot from Glacier Point

Winnie did get some good walks in despite not being allowed on any trails and we did get a little down time on the deck.

After four days of fun we had to head home -

I would say this was a successful Yosemite trip. Now we have all sorts of ideas to come back and hike Half Dome and explore some more. You can not even begin to see this place in only four days.

Despite all the tourists Yosemite is not to be missed!
(hint - if you click on the pictures they get real big)

Camping with the Goody's at Stonyford

2009-08-15T11:48:00.001-07:00

We took a three day weekend and started out in Cobb to check on the house and pick up some of our camping gear.
Then we took the back country roads form Cobb to Stonyford

When we got there (on time for a change) Charlie and Mary Ann were getting breakfast ready!

Charlies first time out with the Dutch Oven and it was a success!

We spent most of the day hanging at the river.

We got to try out our new tent (from K-Mart) and it was okay but the real fun part is the doggy door in the tent.

After a killer dinner of Gumbo made my Charlie and Mary Ann again in the Dutch oven and then some fire side chatting we hit the sack dreaming of our hike to "big rock" further down the river the next day.

This way to Big Rock

Bob showing us how it's done. (click on the picture to see Bob in all his glory)

Lot's of time spent at Big Rock just floating around in the inner-tubes

During the hike back poor Winslow the dog was so tired I had to carry her over some rough sections and help her over obstacles. Poor old girl's hips were giving out on her.

She did have a great time hanging out with her boyfriend Amigo

On the ride out we stopped and waved goodbye to the campsite.

What a great time! I can't wait to get back to this special spot.

Death Valley '09

2009-04-29T06:48:00.000-07:00

A week in Death Valley

We had been planing this trip for more than a year and we still had not finished planning the second half of the trip. Didn't matter though because we just went with life on life's terms and took what we were given.

Unfortunately the trip started out with me getting a ticket in Ridgecrest just outside of Death Valley. I mistakenly turned onto a Naval Air Weapons Base and guess what? My license was expired. This meant that they had to call the cops and now I have to appear in Criminal Court 400 miles from SF even though my renewal was pending with the DMV. I have since renewed my license, but that is a whole other story.

First stop was Saline Valley

Before we got to the Saline Springs (where we were going to meet Evan and Lauren) we did a little exploring and found some cool Native American left overs

Later that day we met our new friends Evan and Lauren and Scout

They were wonderful travel companions.

I met Evan on the Expedition Portal web Forum. We did some loose phone planning and decided to meet at Saline Springs to camp for a night. Saline was cool but kind of crowded. We didn't take any pics to mention. There were a bunch of wild Buros there that would walk right up to you for a handout. The springs were nice but we had to wait until the later evening to get a tub to our selves. We also met up with another Expo Forum couple and shared out camp site.

After Saline we took the famous 4x4 Lippencott Rd. to the Race Track.

We did take some pictures of flowers

We camped at the Lippencott Mine camping area

Breakfast from a can? Yum, and it's organic

Checked out the mysterious moving rocks on the Race Track

Hiked up to Ubehebe Peak with the dogs. Winnie had to wear her booties because she is a frail city dog.

We followed Evan out to Ubehebe crater on the famous Race Track Valley Rd. known for it's washboard that can rattle the fillings out of your teeth. (it was in great shape)

The Crater

Evan, Lauren, and Scout went home and we continued on with our trip through DV. We missed hanging out with them.

We tripped through Scotty's Castle (the tour is a must do if you are there)

Random roadside flowers

We ended up driving through Titus Canyon

Checked out Badwater
We hiked over 25 miles during the week. Some of the hikes we did were Ubehebe Peak, Mosaic Canyon, Golden Canyon, Hole in the Wall, and some dunes. Winslow got to go on over 10 of those miles with us. It was a little challenging becuase dogs are not allowed on any trails and you can't leave them in the car for obvios reasons. The hikes we took without her we did in the early morning so she was okay in the car for a few hours before the sun came up.
Here is Katherine in Mosaic Canyon at the 25ft falls
Hole in the Wall (we ended up camping there our last night)

Artists Drive

Devils Golf Course

Dunes at Stovepipe Wells

Golden Canyon & Red Cathedral
Begging Coyote
Me and Winnie on our Hole in the Wall hike
Butte Valley

We drove out to Butte Vally in search of these old Geologist cabins that are maintained by park visitors. You can camp in them but it is first come availability. All three were full so we decided to try and go over Mengal pass and camp at the famous Barker Ranch. That is where Charles Manson was caught in a shoot out back in the 1960's. Unfortunately we did not make it over the pass. I got the Land Cruiser stuck on some rocks twice and decided to give it up after damaging my fender. Katherine said the dent gives my truck some off0road credibility. I'm going with it.
Here I am about to get stuck again.
We decided to go back to Hole in the Wall to do some back country camping for our last night. It was really peaceful and we did not see any other humans.
The next day on the way out of DV we stopped to help some nice ladies change a tire just outside of Panamint Springs. Actually I was the idiot that did not help them change it back in Stovepipe Wells and thought they might make it to Panamint on a leaking tire. They didn't make it, but at least I did change it for them.
Later that day we ended up in Mammoth Lakes up on hwy 395 and there was a ton of snow. We had just spent a week in the desert and felt totally out of place.

You can check out all the pics at this here link - Click here for the pics

Thanks for looking.

Crosscut / Sawmill Enduro 2009

2009-04-08T16:20:00.001-07:00

Sawmill Enduro 2009
This is the second year that I volunteered my Amateur radio services along with several other Hams to provide the emergency communications for two races over the April 4+5 weekend.

The race is put on by the North Bay Motorcycle Club. It's actually two races. Saturday was the 50 mile Cross Cut Family Enduro.
The second one on Sunday was the 80 mile Sawmill Enduro. It's the first race of the season for these guys and there were about 300 riders in each race.
They hold the races at Cow Mountain in Northern California.

From what I hear Cow Mountain is a pretty rowdy place when open to the public and the two times I have been there I was impressed with both the beauty and the horrible stewardship by the users. There is litter everywhere.

We camped at the Red Mountain Campground and had it all to our selves since the whole area is closed to the public.

The campground would be really nice if it were properly taken care of by the locals who visit. It's really sad. But we cleaned it up a little and made it our home for a few days

Saturday was the Crosscut Family Enduro for everyone. Our checkpoint as always was hidden from the riders.
The riders come around the corner and stop to get their times recorded

The fun part about the Family race is all the kids on tiny bikes with their dads

There are also a bunch of female riders usually marked with a pink tail on their backs

My check point had the only injury report for the day with one person who crashed at the beginning of the race and hurt his knee and wrist.
He rode for about 30 miles with his wrist wrapped in Electrical tape. He finally stopped 12 miles short of the finish at my check point because he could not go on. I had to call in the medics to evaluate and transport him back to the medic tent way back at the starting line. I
felt bad for him because he had given it such a valiant try.

The next race on Sunday was for the more serious riders.
I had to wake up nice and early to get out to the check point.

Heading down to the secret check point

I just happened to be with Rob (in the blue) who I worked the check point with at last years race - Rob is a really cool dude who takes pride in running a tight and fair check point.

After the setup we waited for the riders to arrive

Riders heading out from our check point

The 80 mile race had a rest stop where you could get gas

Man, that is a lot of gas

There were a few injuries on Sunday, one was a broken collar bone and I think there was another minor injury that I can't remember.
The big drama for Sunday was that three or four un-registered riders appeared on the course and would not stop at any of the check points.
This was really dangerous because if they were to ride a trail that intersected with the course somebody could have got hurt bad. In the end at least three of them had been apprehended by the authorities and one of them even blew their motor and had to be towed out. It was pretty
lame but it did add some excitement.

When the race was over we headed back to break down the camp and head back to Clearlake and then home.

It was a great experience with the Ham radios and working with the other Amateur Radio operators. I learned a lot from the experienced Hams.
They have been doing this type of thing for years and are really good at it.

I also got to test out some of our camping gear for our Death Valley trip next week.
-m

Death Valley - Started planning

2009-03-01T08:31:00.000-08:00

We started our planning of the trip to Death Valley in April. Now we just need to figure out how to go hiking with the dog and not get busted.

Today is my Birthday

2009-02-24T21:31:00.000-08:00

Nothing special, I went to work.

I did get a surprise call from my long lost friend Katie. Her and Tommy sang me happy birthday. It was great to catch up. Its been way too long.

I bugged Katherine to let me open my presents this morning before I went to work and was really happy with my gifts. Katherine is great!

The big thing today is that I got my Federal Tax Return check! Oh Yeah!
-m

Monterey

2009-02-23T21:20:00.000-08:00

Tomato Red is back in action and pretty much ready for Death Valley after a rather expensive repair and shakedown run

I went to pick up the Land Cruiser from Mudrak's in Sonoma last Friday. Cecil the champ helped me out with a ride. What a guy. He spent as much time talking with Mr. Mudrak about his knife collection as I did talking about the Cruiser.

Here was the culprit of the nasty whine coming from under the poor old truck for the past few years. Hint: it's supposed to be totally smooth.

Saturday morning we split to Monterey with our bikes on the back of the Cruiser. We cheated the rain and got in a nice two hour ride from Pacific Grove to Seaside and back along the killer bike path.

K's mom took us out to a killer dinner at Red House Cafe in PG for my birthday. Thanks Mary Lu!

On Sunday we took a nice hike in the Huckleberry Nature Preserve.

We took HWY One back home at a nice leisurely pace.

The Cruiser ran great with no issues and no more whine!

Sorry no pics, but since it was raining on and off we never took the camera out. We also forgot it on our bike ride.

-m

Valentines 09 Usual place with unusual results

2009-02-18T20:56:00.000-08:00

We started out by taking a four day weekend! Yay! We were supposed to drop the Cruiser off at Mudraks in Sonoma for a T-case rebuild, but the weather forecast for Cobb was 100% chance of snow so we opted to take the limping Cruiser to Cobb and drop it off at Mudraks on Monday on the way home. We did have to drop the Saab at the Adams Family house in Napa Thanks Mig and Susan!. On the way to Susan and Miguel's we encountered some serious hail:

Continuing on to Cobb was uneventful with no snow over Mt. St. Helena. We started to wonder if we would really need the truck for the 4x4 capabilities. That is until we got to Cobb . The snow level started just as we entered Cobb, and we new we were in for some fun.

The Trees were all covered in snow.

The deck had a nice layer of the white stuff. Luckily the driveway was navigable.

Now on to Boggs for a hike.

The Drive up (five minutes from the house) was easy –

Where does the trail start?

Good thing we have the Human GPS to show us the way

Me and Winnie sure don’t know where we are going

Katherine took some cool pictures

She likes the contrasty pics

Saturday was Valentines day! I surprised Katherine with a special card by the bed for her to discover – I think she liked it.

We went to Middletown for a romantical dinner at the Boars Breath Inn. The food was most excellent and we made it home with no problems during the stormy night.

Saturday night snowed all night long. I woke up at 3am and it was really blowing every which way. I new we would be covered in the morning. Usually the snow melts off the driveway by mid day but this time it didn’t and we had to shovel the whole thing just to be able to drive down.

We headed back to Boggs for a snow/Rain hike and drive.

We started our hike from the campground. Nobody camping in this weather.

Here are a few Land Cruiser beauty shots –

Can you tell that I have a love affair with my truck?

On the way out we came across some locals building an anatomically correct Snow Woman-

Unfortuntaly all the snow turned to rain on Sunday and Monday but we had a fantastic time.

Go here for a slide show http://s383.photobucket.com/albums/oo275/elcabritos/cobbmtfeb09/?albumview=slideshow

Peace Out!