4th Of July Adventure!

Eight of us and gear loaded up in two trusty Hondas to head up to Big Basin State Park for a weekend backpacking adventure. Only one Honda made it to the top of Highway 9. Four of us spied a large group of more than 30 kids and a few adults starting down the skyline to the sea trail. We contemplated whether we would beat them to Big Basin or not as we headed back to rescue the other Honda, broken down just two turns shy of the summit, pulled off the main road on a private driveway. A private driveway that happened to belong to a very friendly and generous middle-eastern man in the most luxurious and extravagant Mercedes-Benz I have have ever seen. Part of me wanted to accept his offer for help just to have the chance to ride in his leather seated, exotic wood dash, V8 kompressor, big burgundy Benz! But alas we decided to limp the sick Honda back down the hill to Saratoga. Several hours later, after shuttling a replacement Honda from Palo Alto, we all made it to Big Basin. Soon after starting down the trail we passed the kids we saw earlier, already returning from Berry Creek Falls.


cool down after 11 miles


hotties with camp towels

Henry Coe State Park

Typical courting scenario of most species:
male shows off mad skills, female not impressed


Dave shows off mad skills with a watermelon eating speed record
disclaimer: no females were harmed (or impressed) in the filming of this event


Rodrigo and Annie in the narrows


Dave, Lemar and California poppies


Annie A.

My idea of a good trip

Backpacking in Portola Redwoods State Park

Sunrise In The Trinity Alps

Looking down on our campsite.


Lee got some nice pics of the sunrise...


...while Chris and I goofed around

Trinity Alps

View from our campsite.


Random pics


Dessert with Betty Crocker may or may not have been dictated by the fact that I refused to pack out a box of brownies and two eggs after packing them in x amount of miles!

Return to Black Mountain

I think Stephanie was secretly jealous of my trip to Black Mountain a couple weeks back so she organized her own trip and was nice enough to invite me. This time we managed to enjoy the sunset while hiking up to camp instead of while driving to the parking lot, mainly due to Daylight Saving Time. Alan covered most of the two mile uphill dirt trail to camp on his unicycle. Bryan still joined us after dark but since he'd been there before I didn't go searching for him this time. Alan tried to introduce us to some card game called Killer Bunnies, but I think we enjoyed reading the cards more than playing game. We strolled to the very top of the mountain and gazed out at the lights of the south bay before calling it a night under the stars.

Camping on Black Mountain

I was hoping to watch the evening's rather beautiful sunset as we hiked the two miles up to the campsite but we ended up watching it as we drove up Page Mill Road. The last bit of light faded as Amy and I hoisted our packs and started on the trail. Thankfully my brand new, unwrapped from the package in the parking lot, Tikka Plus headlamp (batteries included!) was up to the task.

As I scanned ahead for the trail and the reflection of any eyes peering back at us, I informed Amy what to do if we happened to run into a mountain lion (make lots of noise and fight back if attacked). Around the next bend I stopped Amy to point out a set of eyes a short distance off the trail ahead. Then a second set of eyes turned towards us as I barely made out the shape of their heads. Oh deer.

Further on we rounded another bend to see about 20 sets of deer eyes looking back at us from the hillside across a dark ravine. I figured the odds were against us for seeing any mountain lions with this many deer casually snoozing in the open. Oh well.

The campsite was hard to miss with the payphone beside the trail. Dropping our packs in the dark and with no rush to set up camp we quickly tore into our fresh deli sandwiches from JJ&F Market. Oh yeah.

Now that that was taken care of I figured we should maybe be concerned about Alice, Jared and Bryan finding us. None of them had ever been here and there were several junctions on the trail to the camp. We didn't have to go very far back before spotting their bobbing headlamps.

No campfires are allowed in the preserve so we fired up our stoves for some nice warm cups of hot chocolate to go with our E.L. Fudge cookies. Yummy treats, lights of the bay below us, the stars above, good company and good laughs. Amazing what a 20 minute drive and a two mile hike can give you.