Weekly Pano: Calaveras Big Trees!

On our way up to Bear Valley, we stopped by Calaveras Big Trees SP.  A highly recommended stop to anyone passing through this area.  There are several easy hikes in the area highlighting these mighty behemoths of the forest.

Check out the Big Trees Association for any events in the area...

Big Trees!!!  See Kimbo?  

These pics don't really do it justice... so you gotta just go in person.

Kimbo in the Pioneer Cabin Tree... cut in competition to Yosemite's Wawona Tree... 

On the Discovery Tree Stump... 

Vid from Ostrander.

Ostrander! Thrice!

The crew!  What a beautiful day...

Howard...  triangle man.  

First, starting off with two amazing pics from our trip of us goofing around.  There's some pics that I didn't take here as well.  For all the pics (for those of you that came on this trip... go here.)  Also check out Johnny's and B-nard's blogs for some quality pics & posts.  

Drove up with in the Dad's crew + Paul.  With an early start, we made it to Tunnel View in no time.  My third tunnel view of the season...

Martz filing toenails, with Kevin at the helm of his trusty Suby racing up a windy snow covered road... kids don't try this at home.  

oooh....

I decided to use a sled for this trip, mainly as an experiment to see how far I'll be able to take Kai next year... actually worked quite well.  After a slow start, we made it to the hut around 4 pm.  Just in time for the fog to completely white out the slopes below horse ridge as Pace, Kevin, and I went out for a lap.

Soon, we were pretty cozy.  With some wine, beers, and a delicious dinner in our belly, we played liar's dice as our main form of post-dinner entertainment.

The next morning, my usual, Kai-crying-alarm didn't go off, but I woke up early anyway and decided to get some turns in before the day started.  After two laps, I came back in for brekky then we decided to do a group tour up to the eastern edge of Horse Ridge.  

In the Stylee-category, there were two clear contenders.   Gulotta with his Pit Vipers that matched his hat, jacket, and boots...

Or B-nard... I think Gulotta took the cake.  

We cruised out to Horse Ridge where the group split up into folks that wanted to tour out to Buena Vista Peak, and those that wanted to do some laps in Chilli Bowl.  Both great options, but having never been to Buena Vista Peak, I decided to keep on going.  Here is Pace booting up the last section of Buena Vista Peak.  The visibility was pretty horrendous, and Kevin & B-nard had decided to turn around by this point.  

Then it miraculously cleared up for 2 min.  Pace at the top of Buena Vista peak...

30 seconds after this pic was taken we were surrounded by fog.  And had to make braille turns all the way back to the hut.

Where shananigans ensued.  

The view from the base...

Definitely should've brought my helmet for this...

Took some night shots... but sadly didn't have my wide-angle converter lens fully on, so there's some darks spots on the upper left and lower right.  Aargh.  But as you can see, the nights were beautiful.  And cold.  Check out Orion & the Milky Way.

The next morning, I got up on top of Horse Ridge to watch the sunrise, and to see my compatriots file out of the hut and glide across the frozen lake. Zen...

After doing a lap on down a semi-sketchy slope, which sluffed on me, Pace and I decided to hit the Central Chute.  Here's Pace booting up another sugary slope on his way to laying down some pretty turns. 

The main slope after day 1 (my two tracks from the morning...)

And after day 2.  Awesome.  

Our ski out was pretty quick.  It was pretty fun trying to make figure 8 turns on the sled.  Definitely learned that I can't make sharp turns and I need help going down steep slopes.  

Another fun trip out to Ostrander.  My third time out there... all very different and all very fun.  I heart hut trips... these trips always are the highlights of my season.  Very grateful for being able to share this with such a fun crew.

Weekly Pano: Ostrander!

Ostrander lake from Horse Ridge on my solo morning mission... felt one step closer to enlightenment.

Paul with Yosemite behind...

Pace Ralli-ing up to the top of the ridge with the crew behind.  

Arriving at the top of the ridge

Skins off boys!

The only one shot with my Sony NEX-5... sadly doesn't take as good of panos as my 60$ canon.  Looking back towards the sea of fog.  If you look real, real close you should be able to see my silhouette on the rock in the middle.  

Pt. Reyes 200k Brevet (Jan 26, 2013)

Went up to the mtns the last few weekends, so I decided to stay in town for one.  

A nice relaxing weekend in the bay! Starting off with a 5:30 am wake up call on Sat, not by Kai, but by the Devil Makes Three (my alarm) playing on my phone... to get to the start of the Pt. Reyes 200 km brevet put on by the SF Randonneurs on time.  We got to check out the new bay bridge lights on our way in... 

The day started off a bit hazy, but it cleared up quickly enough.  

Out by the lighthouse in Pt. Reyes.  Beautiful day!

Me, Sigman & Omar at the first checkpoint

The second checkpoint at the Olema General Store.  Was pretty tempted to get some oysters...

Sigman snapped a few pics too...

Sigman & Kai. 

Later that night I went on a full moon hike up Claremont Canyon with Kimbo and got some nice shots of the bay at night... 

Skate Skiing to Glacier Point!

Partially inspired by Leor, the ultrarunning machine... and partially inspired by the fact that I obtained a pair of skate skis this summer at a REI garage sale.  A few weeks back,  I finally got me a pair of boots that *sorta* fit from ebay, so I've been itching to get out to Glacier Point on skate skis.

So this past weekend, I got B-ral to hop in the Schmienna with the Kuwabara's and we cruised on up to Badger Pass in Yosemite to skate ski.

There are many good reasons to skate ski... a) It hadn't snowed in a while; b) Yosemite is awesome; c) it's cheap, if not free; d) it's a great work out; e) it's pretty fun (going 10 mph on your skate skiing set up feels like going 70 mph on a DH ski set up).

B-ral with punkin at Tunnel View.

There are plenty of trails from Badger Pass to x-country ski, but the groomed trail follows the summer road out to Glacier Point.  There's even a race every year going out to Badger Pass and back... 

my outfit for the skate... decided last second to wear tights... should've gone with shorts.  We passed 30+ folks... most of whom were wearing full down clothing... 

At Washburn Pt.  We got a pretty late start, but managed to pass most of the folks heading out, and got to enjoy both Washburn Pt. and Glacier Pt by ourselves for a good 30 min.  Quite a highlight considering the view and how crowded it can get in the summer time.  

B-ral with the Glacier Pt. Hut behind him.  You can rent the hut for 120$ per person (self-guided) or 350 $ per person (guided).  The cost does include three meals a day, wine, etc. Here's the weekend sherpa link. 

And the labeled view...

Can you see the landmarks here?

B-ral taking another pano on his iphone... the site of the old "firefall"

Back at the parking lot.  B-ral is fast.  Skate skiing is hard.  I was pooped.  

Thanx to B-ral, who watched Kai, Kimbo and I got to go ice skating together for an hour or so.... going from ski skating to ice skating... very similar muscles... Check out the alpenglow on Half Dome in the background.  

Taking advantage of the ice skating rink that sounds like it will be shut down next year... 

Soon, we made it to the Bug where Kai made lots of friends, we had a sublime dinner, and slept... 

The next morning, Kai woke up pretty early (he never sleeps well the first night)... so Kimbo and I grabbed some coffee, got in the spa, had brekky, and B-ral and Kim jumped back in the spa.  

...soon we were back in Oakland.  A quick 2.5 hr drive (including a strawberry stop), unload the car,  hopped on the Uni and got in an hour ride in the Oakland hills on my way to Lucinda's to watch the 49ers choke in the 4th quarter...

Below is the strava track... although it says there are "no achievements on this nordic ski"... it was still quite an achievement for me.  Skiing 20+ miles on my first time skate skiing, skiing topless for three and a half hours, and I also achieved a painful blister on my right foot...