Sledders at MR Cheetah

After spending a long time on Saturday parawaiting, I decided I was more than willing to hike for some flying.  I like hiking, so why not.  I had been looking into doing some sledders from Cheetah launch, and I finally tried it for the first time last night.  I decided that I certainly wasn't ready to top land at Cheetah, but a sledder and landing on the beach should be totally fine.

The main challenge was that the wind was very light, which requires more forward movement to bring the wing up.  And since cheetah is on top of a bluff, it means you kinda need to run towards the edge.  But there is enough time to abort if necessary, it's just an unnatural feeling.  The wind picked up a touch after the first flight, and that made the next two much easier.

View from the top

 

View from the bottom

The sun was setting as I climbed up the hill for the last time.

Parawaiting...

I spent a lot of Saturday waiting to fly at Mussel Rock, and it just never happened.  If I was smart, I would have hiked up the Green Monster and launched from there.  Instead I sat around in my lawn chair at Walker launch, and read Slash's autobiography.  But the weather/views were nice, and the book was interesting.

Not a bad spot to read a book for a few hours.

A bummer to hike out instead of flying, but that's the way it goes.

Mountain biking

Last Saturday, I drove down to Skeggs for some mountain biking.  But the parking lot(and all of the pullouts) were so crowded, I just ended up driving home.  Things are weird due to the pandemic.  Anyway I decided to wait until it got dark, and ride Sutro.  I had just gotten a second light.  The new light is a flood for the handlebars, and I already had a spot that mounts on my helmet.  It was a good little ride.  And the combo of spot and flood lights was awesome.  I turned off the flood light a few times to see what a difference it makes, and I wouldn't go night riding without it anymore.  The ride concluded when I saw a skunk on the trail.  After that I decided to head back down and call it a night.

Today(a Friday), I had the day off, so I drove down to Skeggs.  Even for a weekday the parking lot was starting to fill up around 10:15am.  I rode with a facemask under my chin that I could pull up when needed.   As always the trails along the ridge were the most trafficked, and once I was able to descend it got very comfortable.  I did two of my loops on Manzanita, and two of my loops on Olijion.  It felt really good, and I think I've finally gotten my mojo back after breaking my collarbone.

Lots of blue bells along the trail.

Oh and now all my favorite mountain biking spots are open again: China Camp, Tamarancho, Skeggs, and Mt. Sutro.  The trick is just figuring out how to avoid the crowds.

Night Riding and Covid-19

I haven't written any posts in a long time.  We are a few months into the Covid-19 pandemic, and have been self isolating.  Trips and vacations have been cancelled.  It's hard to get outside.  But being cooped up inside for so long has made weekly gnar even more important.

We have been self isolating for maybe 2 months now.  So no trips anywhere, no trips to Tahoe, parks all over the Bay Area are either closed or have severe restrictions.  We tried to do a hike on Mt. Sutro on a weekday a few weeks ago.  Mt. Sutro was so crowded and the trails were so narrow that it just felt traumatic.  Trail runners literally breathing on you.  After that I sort of internally dismissed Mt. Sutro as a place to go until this is over.  We did a hike on Lands End recently, and even though the trails are >10 feet wide, there were still a few people crowding us.  At one point we stopped on the side of the trail to admire the view, and a couple literally brushed past us and touched us as they walked by.  This was on a section of trail that was empty and 10 feet wide.  Some people are just inconsiderate and dumb.

But sometimes I'm the idiot.  A few days ago, I finally remembered night riding.  It's like I just totally forgot about it or something.  This is typically the wrong season for it since sunset is currently at 8pm, and it still takes 30 minutes to get dark after that.  I usually go night riding in the Winter, when it gets dark around 5pm.  Then I can get a nice ride on a weekday after work, and still come home for dinner at a reasonable time.

So last night I went for a ride on Mt. Sutro.  It felt so good to get some mountain biking in.  I didn't see ANY people, which was awesome.  I did see a raccoon from a distance, and I had a close encounter with a skunk.  It can be pretty creepy alone in the woods at night, shadows moving around, shiny eyes looking back at you, and the Eucalyptus trees creaking/cracking in the wind.  But man that was fun.

I haven't ridden the trails in a while, but I know the area well enough to see that some parts had been through a little santization.  Some bits were wider, a few tight trees were missing, some trail had been rerouted, and I think someone took a sledgehammer to some of the rocks.  Still a good time though, and it feels like I finally found a good pandemic activity for the outdoors.

That's not a camera flash, that's how bright my helmet light is.  It turns the night into day.

Lots of these signs up throughout the park.

Guerneville camping

Camped up in Guerneville in a campground that was pretty much in town.  As a campground it was cool that it was close to town, but there wasn't much privacy.  I'm glad I brought earplugs or the screaming children would have woken me up every morning.

We did a hike at Armstrong Redwoods, which is supposed to be almost as majestic as Muir Woods.  I enjoyed the hike, but I feel like Big Basin is really the place to go for Redwoods in the Bay Area.

We did a lot of fancy eating.  We only brought smores and ate out in winecountry for every meal.

Big Sur Camping

I drove down to meet the crew on Friday afternoon, we did a big hike up Manuel Peak.  And generally just camped and had a blast.

Camp dog!

McWay Falls

I used the binoculars to get a good view of a sea otter floating on it's back over here.  Also spent some time climbing on rocks.

Mountain biking

I got a little behind on some of these posts.  I've been doing some mountain biking lately.  China Camp to warm back up.  Skeggs because it's awesome.  And I rode UCSC for the first time recently.  UCSC was good fun.

Sunset above the fogline after riding Skeggs.