Monday, May 18, 2015

Camping in Napa

Day 1 - Arrival
Eileen and I left SF around 3pm, got stuck in some Bay Area traffic, but made it to Bothe-Napa Valley State Park just in time to reserve the last walk-on camp site.  The next day we talked the guy in the visitor center, and he said they had to turn around 30 people after us that night.

We setup camp, then went out for dinner to Mustard's Grill.  Truly roughing it at a James Beard award winning restaurant.  By the time we got back to camp, Abby and Ben had arrived, and they were all setup with a fire.

Day 2 - Hiking and Wine Tasting
Started off the day with breakfast burritos.  Very tasty.

The campsite
Eileen reserved an afternoon wine tasting at Frog's Leap, so we went on a day hike near the camp ground.  It was a reasonable hike, and we finished just in time to head off for wine tasting.


Wine tasting at Frog's Leap.


The crew.
More wine tasting and sandwiches at Sequoia Grove
Sequoia Grove Winery
Back to camp for chilling and dinner.  Made the Parker family classic "Hamburger a la foil".

Day 3 - Departure and Mountain Biking
Blueberry Pancakes.  Very tasty.

Packed up camp.  Departed

Went to Calistoga.  Ben and I biked up Oak Hill Mine Trail for an out an back of about 8 miles total.  The ride out was pretty much almost all uphill.  The ride up was pretty technical, and I had to walk some of it.
Views from the trail.



View from the top.  Cool volcanic rock up there.
Once we turned around and started going downhill, the ride was really fun.  After just completing a steep downhill section, and coming up a slight hill, I decided to not down shift and just crank really hard to power up the tiny hill with my existing momentum.

I wasn't paying attention for just a moment, and my front wheel hit a loose rock, and the handlebars swerved right.  At this exact moment, I was standing up and cranking super hard with my left foot.  So I was off balance at the worst moment, and I went down hard on my left side.  It hurt a good bit, and eventually we continued down and got back into town.  I took the rest of the down hill a little slower.  I washed out my wounds, and Eileen bandaged me up.

There was traffic on the main route back to SF, so Waze took us on a beautiful route through wine country to get home.  Not so bad!