Monday, April 23, 2018

Mussel Rock Park and Shiloh Ranch wildflower hike

On Saturday, we took a stroll around Mussel Rock Park.  There were a few paragliders out, but the wind wasn't strong enough for any of them to really take off.  We did spot a red tipped blackbird, which was pretty cool.  The flowers were in bloom, and the weather was fantastic.




I found this keyhole that I never knew existed.  Tobin's Tunnel.

View looking back from the keyhole

Afterwards we had some beers in Precita Park.
On Sunday we went for a hike at Shiloh Ranch in Sonoma.  Supposedly the burned areas from the 2017 wildfires were supposed to be an extraordinary wildflower bloom.  We went to one of the trails that we heard about.  We saw a lot of wildflowers, but I wouldn't have called it that extraordinary.  The day before was better.  I brought my real camera, but I never even took it out of my bag.


Thursday, April 19, 2018

Last Tahoe trip of the season

Our ski lease goes through the end of the month, but I have other plans.  So it looks like I won't be up again this year.

Kirkwood closed the week before, but they are cool with ski touring this year.  So we skinned up Sentinel bowl, rode that one lap.  Skinned back up again, and came down under chair 6.   Then we skinned over to chair 2, and rode that one time.  It had snowed a few days before, and the snow needed time to consolidate.  Still good weather for touring even if the snow wasn't quite right.
 

Back at the house, one of the guys invited us to go on his boat the next day.  So instead of re-doing the mediocre conditions, we drove down to the delta and went on a boat ride.  It was too cold to do any water skiing, but always a good time to be on a boat.

Monday, April 9, 2018

Hike in Sunol Regional Wilderness

It rained in Tahoe, so I stayed in the Bay Area this weekend.  Given the recent rains, I thought that today would be a good time to hike in the East Bay hills while they are still green.

We hiked to "Little Yosemite" in the Sunol Regional Wilderness.  I'll admit that I the name was part of the reason that I picked this hike.  And in retrospect, I think the name is a bit of a reach.

We took the fireroad there, and took the singletrack to form a loop.  I would recommend skipping the fireroad, and just doing an out-and-back along the singletrack.


Sweet sweet singletrack


Wednesday, April 4, 2018

Tahoe Corn

On Saturday, we skied Steven's Peak.  We got a late start, since someone forgot their skins and we had to drive back to the house.  It ended up working in our favor.  There was a strong refreeze overnight, and it was overcast all morning.  We watched a pair ski down from mid-mountain, and it sounded really icey.  When we got to the top, the sun finally came out.  We had lunch while the snow softened up, and had some decent corn.  Then we did another run on a more NE facing line.

A random bee was buzzing me while I took this photo.  I'm not a flower!

I took this picture off Red Lake Peak from the shoulder of Stevens on Saturday, but we actually ended up skiing it the next day.

On Sunday, we skied Red Lake Peak.  We started from the Carson Pass snow park, and ended up at the Steven's Peak parking lot.  We did not take the most direct route.  We got some solid corn off the summit, and then we bootpacked back up to the north face.  The north face had an old avalanche crown. 

More panorama.

This wooden ladder was randomly deposited on the summit of Red Lake Peak.  It looks like it is excellent condition.