Normally I wouldn't write about a day hike, but this one was pretty exciting. We originally planned on taking a certain loop, but we parked at the wrong starting point. We ended up just picking a loop on the map that looked fun. So we really didn't know exactly how long it was going to take or what the elevation gain/loss was going to be like.
I forgot to start Strava until about 30 minutes into the hike. It was a loop, which ended up being ~8 miles total.
Stopped here for a view of the ocean and to snack on some stinky cheese and crackers
Eileen and I were walking down the trail, and lying right in the middle of the path is a bloody deer leg. What the hell. No sign of the rest of the deer. To me it looked REALLY fresh. It was blood red where it was torn off, and there weren't even any flies or bugs on it yet. I have never come across something like this in the woods. We were kinda freaked out, and we ended up leaving the scene without spending much time to investigate.
"Bad news: There is a mountain lion nearby. Good news: He isn't hungry."
So we continue on for a few miles in order to finish the hike. At this point it's getting dark earlier than expected, because of the recent daylight savings time change. So we are out in the woods, it's getting really dark, we have no headlamps, and there is a mountain lion on the prowl. But to our relief we turned a bend, and the car came back into sight. Woohoo!
I drove up to Sonoma today to ride Annadel again. It was super fun. The first part of the ride is mostly firetrail, and it isn't really that interesting. But when it hits Marsh Trail it becomes some pretty fun single track. I really enjoyed Marsh Trail, Ridge Trail, and North/South Burma Trail.
Total distance: 18.9 miles
Throughout the ride, I kept my phone in the elastic side pocket of my camelback. Near the end of the ride, I touched the pocket, and it was empty! Shit. It must have fallen out sometime during the ride, but I hadn't used it in a couple miles. So I turned around, and started up the hill that I had just come down. Suddenly a random group of three bikers appeared from the way I just came. As a shot in the dark, I asked if any of them had spotted a cell phone in the trail. The guy in front replies "Yeah, I have it in my pack. It's the blue motorola one, right?" Hell Yes! After a high five, and thanking them profusely, I was on my way again. Plus I only ended up backtracking about 30 yards.
The intended figure 8 loop
The actual loop.
Some people claim that we don't have a proper Fall in California.
I went climbing at Castle Rock yesterday. This was my first time climbing outside in a long time. We went to the underworld section of Castle Rock. I think we did ~8 routes. I lead belayed for the first time, which was pretty interesting.
Climbing outside is so different than climbing in a gym. None of the holds are as straightforward or as clean.
Anyway this is a pretty cool zone with a lot of different areas. I'm looking forward to go back for more.
On Saturday, I rode the main mountain biking loop at Camp Tamarancho. It's also known as "Boy Scout Camp", because the land is owned and maintained by the local Boy Scout Council. Let me just say that, those Boy Scouts aren't playing around. That was a serious trail with a lot of varied terrain. I think it may have been a 9 mile loop, but it could have been a bit longer due to parking far from the start. Afterwards we ate had some beer and brats in lovely Fairfax.
Back in SF, I somehow managed to stay awake until midnight and rode the SF Midnight Mystery Ride for the first time. It would have been wise to use an app to plot both of these rides, but I forgot. The mystery ride started at 10th and Folsom, and wound through the city for about 1.5 hours. Eventually it ended at the Bernal Heights Mini-Park Slides, which is a place that I've read about but never visited.
I did the loop today at China Camp on my mountain bike. What a rush! I think I've been taking the wrong trail when I've been there before. At the beginning there is a fork where you can climb up using either a firetrail or by using a single track trail. I've always done the climb on the firetrail, and it gets pretty steep and rocky. I end up pushing my bike, which is kinda lame. The single track trail has a lot more switchbacks, which made the climb a lot more fun.
I have been out of action for the past 5 weeks due to travels and injury. A few weeks ago, I injured a tendon in my inner elbow during a friendly arm wrestling competition. Afterwards it hurt to do anything that required grip strength for a long time. I did a little research on my injury, and it is obvious now that arm wrestling is really dangerous.
Anyway I ended up resting and taking a long break from a lot of my normal activities. The good news is that everything feels fine now. I'm back!
Update 9/14:
I went back to China Camp again this morning, and I did two laps of the loop. I saw a couple deer on the trail. One of them didn't even spook as I rode up to her and had a one sided chat. I assume people have been feeding her.
I tracked this ride on Strava. Some cool stats and graphs are here.
Josh invited me on an overnight camping trip to the famed Blue Streak. I wasn't able to make it to his previous trips, and I wasn't going to miss the last one of the Summer. In the past, Josh had told me some stories about camping and cliff jumping here.
We left SF at 8am on a Saturday, drove to the Stanislaus National Forest, and started hiking. It's only maybe a 2-3 miles hike down into the canyon. We camped out right by the river, jumped off the cliffs, and swam the rest of the day. The water was still surprisingly brisk.
The next day we went looking for another spot that we had heard about called Candy Rock. We found a spot, but from what I can find on the internet, that spot wasn't actually Candy Rock. Anyway we had a blast at the unnamed spot.
When we got back to camp, it was getting near time to leave. As a group we had brought a large quantity of water, but we drink almost all of it on Saturday. Note to self, next time bring iodine tablets from apartment. I think we probably had about 2 liters of water between 8 people for all of Sunday. We all ended up fairly dehydrated after the hike out. When we got back to the cars, we took off for the first place that had any kind of hydration. The first thing we found was an Apple Cider stand, which turned out to be amazing!
Holy fucking shit. This was my first burn. I did my research beforehand, so I thought I knew what to expect, but I was blown away. The reality is that there is no medium that can fully capture the experience of burning man.
I have decided to not write an in-depth post on the experience. I just wouldn't be able to capture all the emotions that I felt about it.
